Melbourne City have announced themselves as A-League title contenders after claiming a stunning 2-1 Melbourne derby win.
First-half goals from Stefan Mauk and Paulo Retre proved the difference, with John van ‘t Schip’s men withstanding a ferocious second-half effort from champions Melbourne Victory.
Inspired by Besart Berisha, who netted their reply on the cusp of halftime, Victory ran out of ways to miss the chance to equalise.
Kevin Muscat’s men had shots saved acrobatically by City keeper Thomas Sorensen, cleared off the line, rebound off the woodwork and more in a frenzied finish.
At one stage, Berisha rounded the keeper and ran out of room to tap into an empty net or back across goal to the waiting and unmarked Archie Thompson.
While their effort didn’t deserve it, the result condemned Victory to their worst-ever A-League losing streak.
By contrast, City continue their golden run, rising to second on the A-League table with their fourth-straight success.
On a sweltering Melbourne night, the 23,572 at AAMI Park witnessed a classic derby.
First City surged ahead.
Having left experienced pair Robi Koren and Aaron Hughes out of the starting 11, coach John van ‘t Schip was rewarded by his young guns after 20 minutes.
Ben Garuccio left Kosta Barbarouses and Rashid Mahazi on the floor as he turned on the ball and then crossed for Mauk, whose powerful diving header wrong-footed Danny Vukovic in the Victory goal.
Ten minutes later Retre produced his first A-League goal, against his former employers, to double the lead.
Retre timed his run into the box perfectly to sidefoot into an empty net.
The rout looked on, with Victory struggling to contain their upstart neighbours.
But Berisha gave them a foothold into the match, beating the offside trap to volley home Fahid Ben Khalfallah’s cross.
Victory had arrested City’s momentum and in the second half stole it for themselves.
Sorensen, who was heroic for City then produced a sparkling save, pushing Barbarouses’ header onto the post.
The veteran Danish gloveman denied Berisha twice more from one-on-one chances.
While resisting the Victory tide, City missed their own chances to make the game safe.
Twice Harry Novillo struck wide, while Erik Paartalu found the near post from a tight angle.
Not even substitute Archie Thompson could find a way through, with one effort saved by the inside of Sorensen’s legs.
Victory continued to press on in injury time and Thompson made a trademark run in behind the line before turning and chipping his shot into the arms of Sorensen.
City duly held on for a famous win, celebrating wildly on the final whistle.
Muscat said he left AAMI Park wondering how they didn’t get anything out of the game.
“The second half was as one-sided a game as I’ve seen in the derby,” he said.
“I’m just so disappointed for the group in their third game in eight days.”
Van ‘t Schip said City had put together more complete performances but hailed his players tremendous character.
“That gives me a lot of joy looking forward because that’s something that in the past that often went the other way.”
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TheVolley
Guest
BTW this is not a discussion about what people say about a team's wins/losses. If you want to go down this path, feel free to indulge yourself. I won't be baited to be entangled in your convoluted reasoning.
TheVolley
Guest
Don't waste your time Ian. A serial twister will always be a twister.
Batou
Guest
Growing the game isn't his job
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
Very good post fadida.
Fadida
Guest
Getting back to Ange's point, it's an Australian "thing" to talk around the game, look for crisis etc but never actually talk about the games that have actually taken place. Amongst all of the doom mongering there is undoubtedly much better football on display than ever before. The Melbourne derby was glorious. Yes there are flat games, BUT, if you take 10 games from any of the big leagues of the world you'll get 1-2 crackers 4 ok games and 4 tedious eye gouging ones. The A-League is no different. But what we find (on the roar at least) is that there'll be a few posts discussing the game, 1-2 on the tactical side, systems etc and then the talk is all about crowds, tv ratings ie anything but the game. Unbelievablly enjoyable games are reduced to "there were 3k less than the same game last year, 8k less in tv ratings". This happens without exception. It's as though a crowd turned up but a game didn't take place! The talk is rarely about the football. Do I hear Aston Villa fans saying "crowds are down by 25%"? No, they are saying "God the football is crap". Ange wasn't claiming the league to be perfect but over the last few years the standard has risen dramatically. He picks players from the league, other clubs are scouting players from the league. Coached are improving tactically. But all we here is talk around the game, focussing on negatives. A brilliant game gets 30-50 posts, half about the actual game. A controversy or negative spin gets150+ Do people actually even watch games? Can most writers on the Roar analyse a game? Football writers, or general sports writers writing around the game, not capable of writing about in game events? I think this was Ange's point, too little credit for the football. Soerenson's reaction after the game showed what he thought of the football. This is no semi-pro retirement comp
FIUL
Guest
"So no MV fan is demoralised when MV loses." After the Perth match, of course, every fan should have been demoralised. Utter rubbish played by the team. After the WSW & MelbCity losses, I certainly have no complaints. Can't ask for anything more from the team than what I saw against WSW & MelbCity. If MVFC play every match like we played against WSW & 2nd half of the Derby & we keep losing, so be it. The lads can't do any more than give 100% & play the quality of football I think is fantastic. If we still lose then it means our best is simply not good enough this season.
Punter
Guest
Those were the tough old days, those grounds were pretty cut up too & some of the defence & midfielders in those days, where there once was legs are not there anymore. Charlie George, never met him, but what a character, saw him once in a park in London, many years ago, but after his playing career.
Ian
Guest
So what did everyone say about Brisbane? That was the 2011-2012 season - we won the championship and 2nd in the Premiership by 2 points. Actually I think Victory are playing well in some of the last 4 games. But who cares - MV lost all 4 games. It's great. Yeah if only every team could play their best football for a whole 90 mins every game of the year - just to see who the best is. So no MV fan is demoralised when MV loses. Garbage. But if MV don't win I guess it's only because they haven't played their best football. Of course. Not because they were outplayed by the opponent. Where have I heard this before.....oh yeah.......every game of every season.
FIUL
Guest
Yup. I don't understand jb's logic. Every ex-Aleague player who is picked for the National Team is evidence that ALeague is creating a legitimate development pathway for players to the National Team. If the majority of National Team were players who have never played ALeague, then we need to worry about why players are bypassing the ALeague. The path to the national team is varied & includesL A) amateur youth (Aust) ---> semi-professional NPL -----> ALeague -----> National Team B) amateur youth (Aust) ---> semi-professional NPL -----> foreign leagues -----> National Team C) amateur youth (Aust) ---> foreign leagues -----> National Team D) amateur youth (Aust) ---> foreign leagues -----> ALeague ----> National Team There may even be E) amateur youth (foreign) ---> foreign leagues -----> ALeague ----> National Team For me, success is having the ALeague feature on the resume of every National Team player. We're not there yet, but we're closer today than we were at WC2010.
Punter
Guest
Yes JB, I'm with Fadida & RBB here. If Ange has 24 better performing players elsewhere in the world why should it matter where he chooses his team & how does that show how he really rates the A-League. I watched the Derby & that was a quality game & even though the WSW & PG was not as high, I saw some fairly decent football on show. I'm not saying the FFA are doing a great job, their marketing is very poor, but you can clearly see a step up in standard from the first few years of the A-League till now, the A-League is evolving, for that the FFA needs to given credit. Money is still the main issue.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Apparently they don't count anymore Fadida, they are playing overseas otherwise JB's argument goes out the window.
Fadida
Guest
We've been here before jb. Ryan Franjic Spiranovic Oar Behich Milligan Sainsbury Taggart Juric Leckie Rogic Mooy Jedinak McKay and many more were either selected while playing in the A-League, or started in the league. Experct Nicholas, Borrello etc to follow This shows the strength
j binnie
Guest
Waz - Today's result-the biggest "steal" since Ned Kelly robbed the bank at Euroa. jb ps Did you see Dimi's posiion when he received that ball,cut in,and scored a real gem, out wide on the right flank. N'uff said??jb.
FIUL
Guest
When other clubs are guilty of those type of statements, no one would ask "how a team can play that well and still keep losing", because they wouldn't be playing well. When Roar lost 5 in a row - coincidentally in the year after they won the Double and the 5 losses were at the same time of the season as MVFC's current 4 losses - no one said "Roar are playing well and losing". MVFC is certainly NOT playing well so I wouldn't expect the coach, players or fans to be surprised we are not winning. Maybe, we don't deserve to lose 4 in a row - but, that's football.
TheVolley
Guest
I meant "Every team is guilty of these TYPES of statements including the club I support".
Mister Football
Roar Guru
It was played at AAMI Park, where it can be quite difficult to get above 25k, so I would have thought the attendance was around expectation. The Fox ratings were 76k, which apparently was above last year's rating for the same fixture (according to 442).
TheVolley
Guest
"We were rubbish for the 1st half last night. We were rubbish against Perth. We made childish errors against WSW. We created little against Nix." Every team is guilty of these statements including the club I support. "Maybe other clubs & other fans would get demoralised when their team loses, but MVFC are the team whose best football is miles ahead of any opponent." "The problem is we’ve not played one full 90 minutes of our best football." - they question is why? Psychology is a big part of sport. It affects every sportsmen/women. I comment your faith but every player is human.
j binnie
Guest
Fadida - Dangerous ground my friend AP's thoughts on our football could be measured by how many HAL players he selects for his run on Socceroo Teams.Get the point.? Cheers jb.
j binnie
Guest
Fuss- Great trip down memory lane for me. Smiled when I saw Charlie George scoring that great goal. Met Charlie last year and had a grand old natter about his stay in Australia (playing with St George in the NSL) and players he knew with whom I had had aquaintence when they guested with clubs,Bob Latchford,Alan Sunderland ,George Best and Willie Henderson.to name a few. Jimmy Hill actually played with Fulham with the man who is credited widely at unleashing the wage rise for pro's that we see today.Johnny Haynes was Jimmy's playing partner and was the first GBP100 per week player in top English football. A thing you should also appreciate is those shots you see,many were made with leather balls that had increased in weight when soaked with mud and water.Thanks a million for the tip. Cheers jb
j binnie
Guest
Fuss You know that is a question you should not ask me for if I started to document what I perceive as "miatakes" inour football it wouldn't be an hour it would be more like a day's typing. So you understand,I see "mistakes"being made when watching Barcelona,Real Madrid or Bayren, for in my humble opinion there has never been a player born who doesn't make a mistake,it is only that at our level "mistakes" are more prevalent. i was not being ultra critical about our refs, simply having a shot at those who criticise them unashamedly. Re the sideline critics and today's society,you won't get any argument here.Cheers jb