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Victory began the game by immediately fashioning a chance as fluid and technically clean as has been crafted by any team this season.
It was not converted, but the statement was made as to the home team’s sharpness and snap. They won a couple of corners early, and were pinning back Brisbane, making aggressive pushes down each flank. It was a focused sort of urgency; the Victory, having lost the last two games, and with a daunting ACL campaign looming, needed to win this.
And then, six minutes in, the Roar worked their way forward, up the left. Fahid Ben Khalfallah neatly turned away from his marker on the sideline, and a hopeful, fading sort of cross was punched forward. It was limply cleared, the ball fell to Massimo Maccarone, and his shot-on-the-swivel flew inside Lawrence Thomas’s left upright. It was a sudden, piercing piece of finishing from the Italian, and it knocked the wind out of Victory’s promising early pressure.
Melbourne regathered, and came again, winning another corner. Confident, vertical passes were finding confident, vertical runners, with a sense of precision and timing that hasn’t been common at home for Melbourne this season. Furthermore, the Victory were pressing ravenously; such was their enthusiasm, Jason Geria was seen haring forward madly, ahead of his winger, to press the Brisbane defence.
He subsequently left a huge hole behind him on the Melbourne right flank, and the team were nearly caught out as the Roar simply chipped the ball into the void. Appetite to press is all well and good, but not at the cost of defensive integrity.
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Terry Antonis, who replaced the dropped James Troisi in midfield, was linking up well with Leroy George, who continues to look like the most dangerous man in dark blue by some distance. Matías Sánchez picked up an early booking, probably a little belatedly, having flown into a number of heavy, crashing challenges in the opening 20 minutes. Ivan Franjic was tackling with similar venom for Brisbane, and the match was simmering up to a boil.
Crosses, from both teams, were flying into the box and finding only defenders or fresh air; there was so much activity occurring on the wings, but it was not being met with off-the-ball inventiveness down the centre. Then, with the first incidence of coherent central play, Maccarone – dribbling into the interior from the right – played through Brett Holman, who was tracing a line back across Maccarone from the left. Holman then cut back inside and punched a curling left-footed shot into the net. 2-0 to Brisbane, and the Victory were stunned.
The goal had begun with Brisbane cleanly dispossessing a rampaging Rhys Williams charge into the attacking third, a manoeuvre that – not unlike the Geria incident earlier – left his defensive colleagues hopelessly exposed. The home team’s frenetic beginnings now appeared a vain attempt to conceal their softness in defence. Brisbane sneeringly exposed it twice in the opening half hour.
Besart Berisha, in contrast to his attacking colleagues, was not particularly effective or precise; his touch – admittedly under oppressive Jade North pressure more often than not – was heavy, and his feet muddled and sluggish. Level with each other on goals going into the evening, Berisha was being shown up by Maccarone down the other end. The Melbourne striker was being offered precious little support too; twice Kosta Barbarouses was seen shooting tamely, and only George had really tested Jamie Young.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Every Brisbane counter-attack looked threatening, with the Victory midfield offering about as much resistance as the toffee’d surface of a creme brulee; nothing a hot teaspoon couldn’t perforate, to get to that custard Victory defence. Half time arrived; perhaps the home team would stiffen over the break.
The Victory began the second half by nearly handing Maccarone a second goal, passing direct to him right in front of their own box. Only a desperate lunge from James Donachie saved the Italian from picking his spot and plundering again. Melbourne’s passing – so crisp in the opening stanza – was now skittish and wayward.
A number of times, Melbourne players lost their footing lurching to make or receive passes, or simply let the ball run under their studs. A truly remarkable sequence saw about four Melbourne players fail to shoot when it seemed harder to miss than score. The scene was excruciating to watch, the hesitancy, the mistiming, the awkwardness. James Troisi was brought on for Sanchez.
Troisi was just the kind of almost arrogant attacker that Melbourne needed, to kick away all this nervous energy and twitchy tentativeness with some virile shooting or dribbling. Victory’s possession suddenly seemed much more confident and penetrative, with Troisi heavily involved. Brisbane were greeting all of this, however, with just enough defensive urgency.
The match ticked on past the hour mark. Brisbane were surviving Melbourne’s surge, and were now working on killing the contest; their attack was muted, their energy now devoted to matters of defence and disruption. The flowing counter-attacks were now absent, replaced with lunging blocks and conceded corners. Kenny Athiu, 25 years old, tall and leggy and rarely used by Kevin Muscat this season, came on for Berisha.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
A wildcard move perhaps, but one that surely would have been better with Christian Theoharous somehow involved – Theoharous, for some reason other than injury, was left out of the squad entirely. Josh Hope, aged 20, replaced the Victory captain Carl Valeri, just his third appearance. Now with 15 minutes remaining, Muscat was pinning his hopes to these young, untested bolters. Brisbane were accepting the pressure, and Melbourne needed someone to burst through their resolve.
It was Troisi who powered the Victory back into the contest, on the 80th minute. From all of 30 metres out, Troisi smacked a supreme howitzer into the top corner, a shot struck so sweetly and with such relish, it smacked the gob. It barely spun as it flew through the air, and it clipped in off the frame, right in that lovely area where post meets bar. A more emphatic testament to his value could scarcely have been made by the benched star, and his team were now one goal from parity.
Melbourne were throwing waves of men forward, attacking, reloading, and attacking again. Jamie Young was required to put his considerable body on the line, punching while leaping into a maw of Melbourne attackers. Melbourne were frantic, Brisbane were ragged. The final whistle went, and 2-1 to Brisbane it ended, Melbourne’s fifth home loss this season, and their third defeat on the trot.
Simply put, the ease with which Brisbane cut through in the first half meant Melbourne spent the entirety of the second half fighting sweatily to clamber out of a hole they’d dug themselves. In their eagerness to press with intensity and begin the game with energy, they lost all sense of defensive structure.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
They also needed a worldie from Troisi to break through; Melbourne’s bluntness was clear, finishing with 15 shots taken in total, but just three on target – Brisbane had three on target too, from six shots. The Roar were clinical, and defended with grit as the game wound down. The Victory fans whistled and booed at the end of the game, and with Ulsan Hyundai in the AFC Champions League up next, things might get worse before they get better.