It’s been a long time coming.
63 minutes into Monday night’s match against a lowly, ten-man Wellington side, Victory fans had their heads in their hands as the Phoenix brought the score back to only a goal the difference. Surely we couldn’t let this one slip after such a promising first half.
Yet after the events of the past season and this campaign’s opening rounds, we knew anything was possible.
We need not worry however, as soon after, the most dominant and brutal 20 minutes the Victory have shown since their championship-winning year was just around the corner.
At 71 minutes, favourite son Marco Rojas would pounce on a loose ball to make it 3-1.
The best goal of the night came next, as a brilliant lofted pass by James Troisi would be controlled perfectly by Besart Berisha, who passed to Rojas for his second.
Then that man Rojas would again be involved, timing his run perfectly despite Wellington’s claims of offside, and delivering to Berisha for his hat-trick.
But wait there’s more – Rojas would feed a simple pass to the young Mitch Austin, who took his chance to stay in the team for another week, putting the icing on the cake to seal a massive 6-1 drubbing.
Not since the days of Melbourne Victory’s premiership year, where you would go to every home game expecting to win, have we seen such a dynamic performance. There were positives everywhere.
Rojas was best on ground, showing why he is such an important player with his versatility to play up front, in the middle or a wing.
Ollie Bozanic would again play that centre attacking midfield role well, showing energy and setting up attacking plays.
The whole side played their role and that is what it takes to win football matches.
Coach Kevin Muscat’s best move has been relegating Fahid Ben Khalfallah to the bench. He was clearly one of the worst players on the ground in the side’s round two loss to Melbourne City, and it seems when he is off the ground the Victory looks and plays better.
The 2014-15 Johnny Warren medalist has looked lazy and unmotivated and should be sold in the January transfer window.
However, it’s important we don’t get too carried away.
We only played bottom-placed Wellington on Monday night, and despite the emphatic nature of the performance, at times we made as many errors as them. A lot of Victory goals were scored from Wellington defensive errors, and the great run only came when they were a man down.
Still, you can only play who’s there and the hard-fought win in Adelaide the previous week shows Melbourne Victory is back on the right track.
The best assessment will come this week against the undefeated Sydney FC, who haven’t even conceded a goal yet. Let’s hope last night’s win gives the Victory some confidence.
We are behind City at the moment, having been clearly outplayed in recent meetings. Yet, going off Monday night’s performance, it seems Muscat has fired up the troops and put Melbourne Victory back in the premiership window.
There’s pressure for spots too, as captain Carl Valeri and Troisi are still to come back to the starting 11 from injury.
Melbourne Victory’s form over the last season or so, and the reasons behind why the team lost confidence, can be debated for ages.
Those answers have been well documented, but only one thing is certain now about Melbourne Victory – they have finally decided to flick that switch.
And it’s a good time to do so, ahead of the big blue.