Melbourne Victory
2
Match Complete
Newcastle Jets
1
| T. Antonis |  | 88' | ||
| J. Troisi |  | 84' | ||
| C. Valeri | | 80' | ||
| 78' | | K. Sheppard | ||
| 53' | | D. Georgievski | ||
| T. Antonis | | 48' |
| 11 | Shots | 18 | ||
| 3 | On Target | 4 | ||
| 6 | Fouls | 6 | ||
| 5 | Corners | 7 | ||
| 3 | Offsides | 4 | ||
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 | ||
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
The whirlwind of summer fixtures in the A-League continues, as Round 13 finds a teetering Melbourne Victory host Newcastle Jets at AAMI Park on Saturday evening at 7:50pm (AEST). Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match.
Victory are backing up after losing to Adelaide on Wednesday night, while the Jets have had six days to recover from their most recent loss to Melbourne City last Sunday.
The difference in breaks could play a big part in this game. Victory are smarting after their loss to Adelaide, and have been severely down on form since Keisuke Honda’s hamstring ping.
Their four games without Honda have seen two draws, a loss and an extremely fortunate win against the Wanderers who had twice as many shots on target.
After eight successive wins before then, their recent poor form has enabled Perth to pull six points clear in top spot.
Honda cannot return soon enough for Victory, who will also be without centrebacks Niedermeier and Nick Ansell.
Newcastle’s recent form has also been poor: they haven’t won in three and also haven’t beaten the Victory in five matches, including a 1-0 loss in Round 3 and last season’s grand final.
Indeed their ladder position is diabolical for a grand-finalist, sitting seven points outside the top six and even further behind the peloton on form.
Playmaker Ronny Vargas is suspended for this one, and Brazilian import Jair has failed to make an impact in his debut season.
With the experienced Ben Kantarovski also missing, Newcastle will find it difficult to find any ascendency in the midfield and supply to the back-again striker Roy O’Donovan could be severely disrupted.
The real wildcard for this game will be Victory’s squad depth and legs. Kevin Muscat has handed debuts to youth players Josh Hope and Elvis Kamsoba in recent weeks, and with Raul Baena returning from injury he has some depth to draw on.
But it will be the weariness in the legs of experienced playmakers James Troisi, Kosta Barbarouses and Ola Toivonen that will prove the difference.
Muscat could gamble on resting one of these three players – but Toivonen’s recent goals are keeping Victory afloat, and leaving him could backfire badly.
If one thing is certain about this game, it’s that Victory will be desperate for a win to re-ignite their Premiership run.
Prediction
Victory are ripe for an upset here. They’ll be tired and shell-shocked after Adelaide; and Newcastle has a talented squad that – unlike a team like the Wanderers – has the ability to find goals and cause a shock.
But Kevin Muscat will be seething about implications his Victory are a one-player team, and will wring every last ounce of effort out of his squad to get a result and re-assert their right to the flag.
Melbourne Victory 2 – Newcastle Jets 0
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
MATCH REPORT. Melbourne Victory take the points in this one, with a 2-1 victory. It was a real arm wrestle throughout the 90minutes, both teams having chances, both teams having good spells of possession and both teams spending time on the back foot. In the end it was the extra class in the Victory squad that was the difference: Victory took their chances where Newcastle could not. Troisi and Antonis hitting inch-perfect shots to get past Italiano, while Jair fluffed Newcastle’s best chance when it really mattered. Possession was fairly split, and 3 on target shots to Victory to 4 reflect an even game that really could have gone either way. It was shape for shape with their tactics, both sides with a midfield diamond and two front men. Both sides invited the fullbacks to get involved, and Newcastle left back Georgievski had acres of prime Melbourne real estate throughout the game before he was hooked for tactical reasons when Newcastle threw on strikers. Victory’s fullbacks were less effective, timid at times, but it’s worth noting that Corey Brown popped up at the top of the box in space to play Troisi in for the second goal. It really felt like a pre-season intra club game at times, given our similar the game plans were, and the difference really was the small moments of quality that the first team (Victory) were able to produce. The first goal to Antonis – who wasn’t particularly effective tonight besides the goal and gifted that space to Georgievski – was created by brilliant approach play. Troisi hitting Athiu’s feet with a perfect angled ball, enabling his first-time flick to play in Antonis to strike with his left. Some may question keeper Italiano’s positioning, but it was a smart shot after some ingenious approach play. The second goal was all Troisi. An inch perfect shot into Italiano’s near top corner, belted in with too much pace for the Jets keeper to reach it. The Jets, on the other hand, will be disappointed to get nothing from this game after an excellent performance. But they couldn’t begrudge the Victory’s goals; especially after Jair had a superb chance that he fluffed with a moment of poor skill. Alone, unmarked in the box, he took a touch and then embarrassingly miss-hit the shot. And, ultimately, that was the difference tonight. Whether it’s money or networks or “brand value”, Victory has assembled an all-star A-League team whereas the Jets are relying on Petratos, O’Donovan and Vargas – who missed tonight – and have missed a trick on on Jair who hasn’t shown that he has the class needed to excel in this league. MAN OF THE MATCH was James Troisi. He indirectly set up the first goal and scored the second. Kenny Athiu was excellent, but Troisi was – literally – the difference tonight with two sublime moments of skill.
Nick Symonds
Guest
Elvis for Socceroos striker? You've got to like the name.
Nick Symonds
Guest
Pretty good atmosphere for that match. Just think what kind of a difference it'll make for the Wanderers when they get their new home.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
FULL TIME. Victory win this one 2-1. They were good for this win, but Newcastle never went away and worked extremely hard till the last minute. Troisi and Antonis the difference makers with the goals, and substitute Sheppard providing some anxious moments for Melbourne in between the two goals.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Last roll of the dice for Newcastle. They have the ball but need to get it forward quickly...... but just then Elvis is on hand to intercept.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
95' - Victory look to wind down the clock. Barbarouses is about to come ON for goal scorer Antonis.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
92' - SHOT WIDE from SHEPPARD! It was a tough chance, a first time hit on the near post from a not-great cutback from Thurgate. It was created by Petratos, who shaped to shoot at the edge of the box three times before deciding to go wide for Thurgate. Deng and Co did well to prevent Petratos from pulling the trigger.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
That's the 90 gone. There'll be FIVE EXTRA MINUTES
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
89' - The ensuring FREE KICK sees Thomas come out to collect imperiously in the box - a picture of confidence - and then look for Elvis to win a header with his pass. We just saw all sides of Thomas in the one play.
88'
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
88' - Antonis gets a YELLOW CARD. It's another very late studs-up effort which seems to happen all too often in the A-League.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
At the risk of gushing, Kenny has been superb tonight. This might be his best effort in the A-League yet. Teams who lack fire power should look at Kenny.... I'm looking at you Central Coast or Wanderers.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
It was the right call. He didn't really have any runners on the back post, so he took a flyer on the near post and buried it.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
That's a good goal by Troisi, worth a another look.
84'
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
84' - Troisi SCORES! It's a fantastic shot, on an impossible angle. He had a postage stamp to aim at there and he hit it! He goes high on the near post and beats Italiano's right hand by inches!! Fantastic skill! Victory now regain the lead 2-1
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
It's been a trilling game. Excitingly, Victory have Kenny and Elvis as their front two now, and Newcastle have moved to a back 3 with Hoffman as the left wingback and Thurgate wide on the right. Sheppard looks to be playing with O'Donovan through the middle.
80'
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Carl Valeri is shown a YELLOW CARD for a TERRIBLE tackle. He's late to the contest and jumps in on O'Donovan, studs up and takes his ankle. I wonder if there's some payback in that for the grandfinal! (or whether it's just Carl Valeri's aging legs late to a contest)
78'