Goals from Zinedine Machach and Bruno Fornaroli have fired Melbourne Victory to a 2-0 ‘Original Rivalry’ win over Adelaide United and ensured they will end the year atop the A-League Men table.
Able to vault Wellington and move into sole possession of first place by securing three points at AAMI Park on Saturday night, a series of sharp saves from Reds keeper Joe Gauci and some wayward finishing had the hosts on track for a disappointing draw heading into the final 20 minutes.
But a driving run from Nishan Velupillay in the 73rd minute, in which he rounded both Javi Lopez and Ryan Tunnicliffe before cutting the ball back, set Machach up to finish first time and fire Victory ahead.
A headed effort from Damien Da Silva almost made it 2-0 immediately after Machach’s opener but Fornaroli, playing in his final game before he departs to represent Australia at the Asian Cup, eventually sealed the result in the 90th minute.
The Uruguayan-born Socceroo leaves for Qatar with 13 goals in just ten ALM games.
Victory had been pushing to find the breakthrough in the exchanges before Machach’s opener, taking control of the game as Jake Brimmer, Fornaroli, and Connor Chapman all fired goalward.
It followed an opening stanza in which Roderick Miranda and Daniel Arzani had come agonisingly close to opening the scoring and Fornaroli a goal disallowed for offside.
Adelaide began to show greater urgency as they pushed for a leveller but were hampered all game by an inability to turn promising field position into clear chances.
Instead, the majority of the South Australian’s shots throughout the evening were of the long-range, speculative variety.
Luka Jovanovic broke in transition in the 18th minute to produce one of their few penalty area attempts, but his shot was struck straight at Paul Izzo.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Great crowd last night so yes, Mariners back on track with 6-7k normally and then double that for a derby and this game which has become a highlight of the season.
Garry
Roar Rookie
I’m guessing people turned on cricket automatically and this was the fill in programming
Garry
Roar Rookie
CCM also drawing crowds
Garry
Roar Rookie
Look at it another way..huge crowd at CCM and 14k for a Phoenix game is rare..I think the crowds for this last round are brilliant..let’s hope for similar tonight!
Redcap
Roar Guru
Not sure about those figures. AUSTRALIA V PAKISTAN D5 S3 There wasn't a day five (D5) of the test match against Pakistan - the game finished on day four (Friday).
NoMates
Roar Rookie
LIVE: BIG BASH: THUNDER V SIXERS FOX CRICKET 144,000 SEVEN’S CRICKET: SECOND TEST – AUSTRALIA V PAKISTAN D5 S3 Seven Network 132,000 PEPPA PIG-AM ABC Kids/ABC TV Plus 69,000 FOOTBALL: ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE 10 Bold 58,000
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
Agreed, I was just having a friendly shot at Bruno for his turf rolls
Waz
Roar Rookie
The good news for the A League is Sydney, Adelaide and now Victory are pulling what can be considered healthy crowds. That’s hopeful. WSW & City have something wrong in that they can’t pull a decent crowd until SFC/Vuck turn up. Nix are probably underachieving too but without a derby to help them out. Jets, Glory it’s just down to ownership issues. Roar will be next season (hopefully) after they announced this season as “rebuilding” most fans seem to be saying fine, see you next year when you’ve finished then. MacArthur and WU are beyond help. A lot depends on P+ viewing figures, but crowds are at least starting to return, at least with some clubs
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
yes, 20,000 would be great.
NoMates
Roar Rookie
Adelaide is pretty crap without Goodwin. For one of the bigger clubs they have been piss-poor.
Football Fan
Roar Rookie
I don't know about that Chris. I know Victory are trying to rebuild off the field after last season's disaster but surely they can't be happy with 15k against AUFC. It wasn't hot or cold or raining. it was perfect for football. A match like that should have attracted 20k minimum in a city of 5 million. Geez, even Adelaide with a population of 1.3m would have attracted close to 15k for this match at this time of the year. The same applies to Sydney FC by the way who attracted just over 14k against the top team. The one positive in both matches was that the atmosphere was excellent.
Brendan
Roar Pro
He’s Mr Hot ‘n’ Cold. “Technically” still the most successful Australian ACL coach too. He was brilliant at WSW.
Brendan
Roar Pro
A move by Alou Kuol would be interesting. From the smallest club (CCM) >>> To the biggest (Victory). … But he’d get benched pretty quickly amongst Melbourne’s expensive talent. Needs more goals!
Brendan
Roar Pro
Arzani will step-up. He looked hungry to score, but the coach currently has him out wide, supporting, & setting-up goals.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
That should read Mandana not Macach
Grem
Roar Rookie
Popovic is a good coach again! Isn’t it funny how coaches can rise and fall so quickly.
Harry Brill
Roar Rookie
I said it at the start of the season: MVFC would be hard to defend against. Fornaroli's form aside, the plethora of attacking players Popovic has is phenomenal. As Brimmer regains fitness, they'll be even better with Teague, Brimmer and Machach filling the engine room - there's simply no better midfield combinations than that in the League (City come close with I'm going to go out on a limb here - Bruno's playing career is nearing its end. Who will MVFC sign to play nine? If I were Popovic, I would be banging on the door of Archie Goodwin or Alou Kuol. If both players fail to cement their starting places at the Jets and Mariners, a role in the Victory would be pretty enticing.
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
Even without FornaROLY for 6 weeks
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Adelaide the oldies have restabilished themselves and it doesnt bode well for them. Jovanovic with this starting line up seems their only threat now. With Jovanovic and Yull they did contain VIctory early. Fornaroli after embarassing himself early with a deflection falling his way right in front of goal, also scored a great header both being offside. The mystery is after Buovaline has been great for Adelaide and provided a good attacking threat, plus excellent header from set pieces is then left out for Lopez who spent the whole game grabbing Velipulay to contain him. Taking Yull off for concussion was interesting was it the hit to the head from Arzani early in the first half. It gave them the extra sub but Yull is their highest workrate player. Jovanovic why he went off was a mystery as well. I would have taken off Lopez at half time and he got beaten for the first goal. Irakunda the impression is his team resents him now and is reluctant to pass to him. Melbourne Victory have a lot of attack on the bench to step in without Fornaroli there, they might have issues finishing but they get more speed and dribbling threat. Adelaide they need Macach and Toure back not Lopez, and work out which one of Tunncliffe and Isais starts with Yull. Jets and United, Jets after two games where they hardly defended started defending well even with 10 men. Why that is maybe Stanton could tell us why these mysteries happen , maybe Corica is involved somehow. Western United who scored an offside equaliser against Sydney and look desperate against Roar finishing off games well. Now against 10 men they struggled for energy. Jets in attack before they went to 10 men , they didnt actuall offer much apart from Buhagiar speed he also scored an excellent. Clayton Taylor has been looking ordinary last three games after putting Wellington to the sword.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
good crowd for Victory match.