Arguably the two best teams in the A-League so far this season met in a top-of-the-table clash in Sydney’s West.
Kevin Muscat named achanged side due to the uncharacteristically nervous loss last week.
Popovic named an unchanged side, preserving his best players and formation for an enduring winning streat. The Wanderers set sights on beating their 10-match winning streak from their debut season.
Wanderers’ defensive performance was highly effective. Nikolai Topor-Stanley once again resolute and cool in defence keeping the elusive crazy man Besart Berisha and Greece lightning Costa Barbarouses very quiet. Nikolai surely deserves a call up for the Socceroos and is arguably the best central defender in the league at this moment.
Popovic has had to cope with a practically re-arranged team from last season, various injury problems and all but three of the starting XI that had never even met each other before this season’s training started. Despite this, the Wanderers managed to work so efficiently as a unit tonight, despite barely any familiarity between the players in terms of style and technique.
The Wanderers’ overall approach was more interesting than their tactics. This was a game they needed to win to show they are genuine contenders for the golden toilet seat and not just the debut show ponies of a couple of seasons back.
Even if their main title rival had a game in hand and therefore many might have expected them to take the game more to their opponents, it turned out to be not the right tactics from Muscat and not a good result for Melbourne Victory. They now travel to Perth to play on Wednesday and then back to Melbourne for a derby against Melbourne City on Saturday.
City have a very winnable game against the Jets tomorrow and could leapfrog Victory and Sydney FC into third place on the table, which would make for an even more interesting Melbourne Derby.
Giving Muscat more respect than he deserved, Popovic decided to play from deep, his first target probably to reach half-time at 0-0. Melbourne Victory have consistently made terrifyingly quick starts to big matches in Sydney. If Wanderers could reach half-time goalless, they could take advantage of the fact Melbourne Victory can tend to fade after half-time, and maybe win the game in the second period.
Once the approach was decided, the tactics were obvious. Wanderers have become accustomed to defending well under Popovic, himself a former Socceroos central defensive stopper. This was their fourth clean sheet this season.
It was logical for Wanderers to defend deep to nullify the pace of Besart and Barbarouses and to encourage Melbourne Victory to go wide and put in the crosses, which Topor-Stanley and Alberto have been handling this season with consummate ease.
That’s exactly what they did, with Wanderers in a deep, compact 4-4-1-1 formation and the full-backs tucking inside and then going wide when the space and opportunity arose.
It was the same tactic that made Sydney FC look very ineffective in the Derby and only a couple of disallowed goals from very marginal offside calls and the very late goal from Ninkovic took the points away from the Wanderers.
As a side that has consistently thrived breaking into space, especially at home, Victory were surprisingly ineffective in making any decent scoring opportunities at Parramatta.
The problem with going through the middle was that they lacked genuine incision from the central midfield trio – there was a lack of midfield runners breaking forward to join Besart, with Barbarouses’ sporadic efforts unconvincing.
The Wanderers’ attacking approach was very simple. Even though they had control of possession, they were attempting and setting up surprise counter-attacks, with support from the fast running wide players. Most of their efforts on target started from a move in their own half.
The first goal was a good example of how with pace and precision passing the Wanders were able to catch the Victory in some disarray. Castelen was able to get away from his marker and make a tellingly accurate pass from the right for Bridge running from deep to outpace his marker and bundle the ball over the line.
The second goal was crafted from the same source and almost identical well-worn path as the first and this time Castelen was allowed even more freedom from a tiring Finkler and was able to send in a stinging shot from the right, which Vukovic was unable to parry and instead helped it nestle into the back of the net.
Wanderers defended extremely effectively. Melbourne Victory are breaking goal-scoring records, yet barely had a clear chance here – the vast majority of their attempts were from long range. Their attacking play was generally quite poor.
Melbourne Victory were surprisingly short of ideas against a deep defence. It’s hardly a new concept for Popovic to focus on defence and sit back with possession and wait patiently for opportunities, so why didn’t Melbourne Victory have more of a cohesive strategy against this? Perhaps Muscat was simply surprised that Popovic played so deep in a game where Wanderers were expected more likely to take the initiative.
Muscat played surprisingly conservatively, a more solid formation than usual and using his full-backs deeper.
Once hot favourites to sit on the golden toilet seat, Melbourne Victory and Kevin Muscat need a flash of inspiration from one or more of their leaders and key players. I’m sure they’ll bounce back and figure in the finals, but they aren’t the sure bets anymore that they were at the start of A-League V11.0.
This season’s championship is more open than we’d originally thought and we’d expect Popovic’s boys to be once again in there fighting for the dinner plate and holy golden toilet seat. With 17 rounds to go things can still change, so Sydney FC, Brisbane Roar, Melbourne City and the others won’t be giving up the fight either.
The starting line-ups:
Western Sydney Wanderers: Redmayne (gk), Neville, Alberto, Topor-Stanley (c), Jamieson, Andreu, Dimas, Nichols, Castelen (Mebrahtu 84′), Vidosic (Sotirio 72′), Bridge (Santalab 74′)
Melbourne Victory: Vukovic (gk), Geria (Howard 87′), Broxham (c), Delpierre, Georgievski, Mahazi (Gallifuoco 77′), Bozanic, Barbarouses, Finkler, Ben Khalfallah (Pain 67′), Berisha
Scorers: Bridge 54′, Castelen 79′
Red cards: Nil
Yellow cards: Nichols 20′, Ben Khalfallah 43′, Andreu 56′, Geria 66′, Barbarouses 70′, Santalab 85′, Mebrahtu 86′, Sotirio 88′
Conditions: Western Sydney 19C, Overcast
Attendance: 17,073 Pirtek Stadium, Parramatta
Phil Ivey
Guest
And if that's the case Wellington should be left in. Agree 100 per cent.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Not just that but also good prep for ACL at the end of the season. MVFC are looking at a good 40 game season, That's seriously tough with ALeague restrictions.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
3 games in 7 days, a good test for the champions. If they come through it top of the table after 2 wins then they would certainly get that favourites tag back.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
Not sure about "incessant fouling", maybe some players fell over too easily, given what was at stake. Can't please everyone, other bloggers here felt that the referee "had it in for the Wanderers". Happens after every game now.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Our owners are looking to finalise plans for the stadium in the coming weeks. If Wellington are to be ditched. Next 3 teams need to be 2nd Brisbane, 3rd Sydney and 3rd Melbourne. Absolutely do not see the appeal in regional teams unless they're going to be the 13th and 14th teams and it's ok if they only get 7-8k a game.
Dean
Guest
Those two, like Castelan on Saturday just look like they're in a different league. Watching the Perth game on Saturday, they shouldn't get close to Victory, but Victory looked tired and the trip to Perth and short turn-around means the Victory will be very fragile. Saturday's matches from Cairns to Sydney to Perth, shows that football is well-supported across the country, but highlights why the A-League/FFA want to expand in the two big capitals rather than in expansion markets. It's good to go there every now and then, but they couldn't sustain a team (Cairns) or more teams (Perth). I get the feeling that if the FFA hadn't blown so much capital (political and cash) on the World Cup Bid, the stadium in West Sydney would be a certainty for Federal funding. I think it will get up anyway because pollies love to pork barrel the west of Sydney.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Common sense is also used by referee's, thats why plenty of referee's dont give free kicks when a player has clearly lost posession of the ball and then makes a meal of a challenge to try to win a free kick. Also funny you have no recollection of Castelen's penalty appeal which was more of a penalty than Berisha's swan dive
aladdin sane
Guest
lovely!
FIUL
Guest
"Berisha was never going to make it to the ball, if that was called a penalty (when he was never going to make it to the ball" Huh?! What's that got to do with anything? A direct free kick is awarded if a player holds an opponent. That's the LAW. No additional codicil that says "and he is going to make it to the ball". If this holding occurs in the penalty spot against the attacking player, it is a penalty.
Kaks
Roar Guru
LOL your best bias comment yet
Kaks
Roar Guru
Berisha was never going to make it to the ball, if that was called a penalty (when he was never going to make it to the ball) and Castelen's wasnt a penalty even though he was taken out in the box while moving forward with the ball then we would all be talking about a poor refereeing performance, which it was anyway. Some of the fouls that were pulled up were so soft that I've seen them be waved play on at the Under 12's. Made the game slightly less enjoyable than what it was.
josh
Guest
The referee definitely had it in for WSW, so many genuine fouls let go explains the lop sided foul count.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
As expected City beat the Jets and move up to third ahead of Sydney and Victory. If Victory can't beat Perth, City will go into the Melb Derby as favourites and a good chance to get a derby win. Aren't Mooy and Fornaroli in great form.
Dean
Guest
The way the game panned out was obvious from the first 15 minutes, I'm surprised Muscat didn't make any changes earlier, as the second half was entirely predictable. MV were failing to get any penetration through the back 4, Berisha couldn't find any space and got little support from Khalfallah or Finkler (who looked tired from the start and only got slower in the second half), Barbarousses made some impact, but apart from some half chances, Victory didn't look like scoring. On the other hand, although WSW only made a few promising breaks in the first half, they looked very dangerous. Castelan made Georgevski look like it was his first game, Nicholls was dangerous and Bridge was finding himself ample space and had a shocking first half. But goals were always on the cards when WSW went forward. The second half was Muscat's real failing, he didn't do anything about any of the problems, in fact they only got worse as Finkler tired and the game opened up as it usually does in the second half of a big game. The goals eventually came, Berisha got frustrated and MV were beaten. WSW deserved winners, but MV could certainly turn things around by finals time. With City refusing to sell Mooy until after the season, they're going to be a big threat in the finals.
Post hoc
Guest
You are sooking, at least admit it. The referee was pretty biased against Wanderers, the other alternative viewpoint is for a hardman player their coach encourages his players to go down pretty easily. Wanderers were getting hacked as readily, they just dont go down they keep fighting. I guess that is western sydney spirit
Post_hoc
Guest
Oh, I love that comment, that is priceless, a victory supporter directing another teams fans to show some humility.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Good discussion this! I know it's been mentioned a million times this weekend but it's so good to be back focusing on the football. I know that's kinda hypocritical because I spent a lot of time over the past fortnight talking about off field matters and my club's active group was very vocal with the recent issues. But last night was not just a statement of WSW's title credentials but also of the strength of this league. Now that I've had the time to calm down a little (last night was intense!) I can look back at the game and say yes we probably did foul incessantly whenever in danger. As weird as it may sound I reckon that's a show of respect to MVFC. It was confirmation that they play at a tempo that we can't match and have movement that we can't keep up with. But when it comes to shear effort and attacking creativity I feel that we're the best in the league. We could probably improve a bit in working the ball out from the back and I just don't feel Sotirio and Santalab are up to it to provide us with depth off the bench. A lot has been said about the atmosphere last night. I watched some of the game back again today and if this isn't the best sporting product in Australia at the moment then I give up. What can we do to market this better? It is a phenomenal product! We have a few interesting weeks ahead. We have 3 games we should really be winning in our current form but it is a little unrealistic to win 10 in a row. I think Perth will trouble us this weekend but I fully expect wins on Christmas Eve and New Years Day at home.
Hulk
Guest
"3. if Wikipedia says he’s Greek he MUST be, right? " So his parents were born in Greece, he has a Greek name, he speaks Greek, he supported Greece in the last World Cup by tweeting a pic of himself in their NT shirt, his best friend is George colombaris for crying out loud, but yes you're right “He’s no more Greek than Guy Finkler” FFS. And are you sure he doesn't have dual citizenship w Greece? Can you comfrim this? I have met many "Greek-Australians" with dual citizenships..id hazard NZ have a few of them,
Hulk
Guest
"Popovic clearly had the tactical upper hand and beat Muscat at his own game." Yes and that was the incessant fouling...and the ref didn't have a handle on it. FYI It's not the refs job to "keep the game flowing as best he can". It's to keep himself from being overawed at the occasion and nip the persistent fouling on the bud. Besides your admission that he "kept the game flowing as best he could" implies that it *was* stop start..for said reason..and did in fact require his "intervention" to keep it flowing as you say.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
Very impressed with the Wanderers central defence, If he's still in this great form come March, Topor-Stanley should get a call from Ange to join the Socceroos training camp.