Condo's Round Five Wrap

Week 5 kicked off at Bluetounge stadium when Melbourne Victory took on Central Coast Mariners, a fixture that normally produces plenty of goals at a venue that has been a happy hunting ground for the Victory in the past.
Central Coast had been rocked during the week with 'Perezgate'
Victory controlled the majority of the game but was unable to fire a shot on target for the whole 90 mins, not a statistic that is going to win you (m)any games.
Rostyn Griffiths and Daniel McBreen took advantage of some terrible Victory defence at set pieces (not A-League standard Robbie Kruse) to slot home headers either side of the half to give the Mariners a comfortable 2-0 lead. Melbourne introduced their new 'International Marquee Player' Ricardinho, who squandered a brilliant chance to score on debut with Carlos Hernandez putting the ball on a platter for him, only for Mr 'International Marquee Player' to head over the bar (yes I'm jaded). Rodrigo Vargas has been a part of the rock Melbourne have built their two championships on but every now and then he puts in a shocker and Friday was that shocker.
Whilst Graham Arnold may have the football public divided on his man management skills, there is no doubt that he has the tactical nous that can keep the Mariners right up with the top sides over the season.

On Saturday afternoon North Queensland Fury made its second visit to Melbourne's AAMI Park (they've now played there the same amount of times as tenants Melbourne Victory) to take on Melbourne Heart.
On a typical rain swept Melbourne spring day a small crowd of fewer than 5,000 witnessed a very entertaining game. North Queensland have scored more away goals than any other A-League side so far this season and early on it looked like that trend was going to continue only to have Eugene Sseppuya miss a sitter in the first few minutes.
Erik Akoto was back at the scene of the crime after serving his two match suspension for putting Kevin Muscat on his arse. David Williams was brilliant, exciting and creative all day for North Queensland and surely a Socceroos jersey isn't too far away, as it might be for 22 year old attacker Nick Kalmar who headed home a delightful Rutger Worm cross to give the Heart the lead after 11 minutes.
Chris Payne started on the bench for the Fury whilst John Aloisi made his long awaited debut for the Heart from the bench.
Clint Bolton was great between the sticks again keeping out shots from Daal, Cernak and Payne. Cernak missed a sitter late in the game that could have seen the men in green walk away with a second consecutive point from AAMI Park. Due to the rain Fury coach Franz Straka's corduroy beige jacket was only on show for a few minutes, which was extremely disappointing for the legion of Straka Jacket fans.

Saturday Night saw last season’s wooden spooners Adelaide away to last season’s Champions Sydney FC. Sydney had won the last six games against Adelaide at the SFS. This time around though Adelaide are flying and as early as it may be Sydney FC's season might already be in mothballs. Liam Reddy was controversial in goal for the sky blues after having his red card rescinded for his part in 'Perezgate'. Scott Jamieson and Ian Fyfe both played against their former sides for the first time.
Adelaide got off to the best possible start with Sergio Van Dijk scoring inside ten minutes with a superb free kick from 25m out, with Nick Carle doing everything in his power to get out of the way of the ball so as to not ruin those fantastic locks he’s got going for him. Sydney looked a shadow of themselves and really struggle without Musialik on the park/ball. Another rising star Matthew Leckie well and truly put his hand up for future Socceroos selection with a sensational goal down the right wing. Leckie is quick, his passing is good, is a wonderful finisher and must be the heir apparent to Brett Emerton’s hold on the right side of the park for the Socceroos.
Van Dijk again scored after half time, with some delightful passing from Flores and Leckie. Stefan Keller scored in the 58th minute to breathe some life in the game but Rini Coolen’s Adelaide is a different side to last year’s version and they were able to hold on to a 3-1 win away from home. Those who were calling Vitislav Lavitca the best coach to grace our shores might need to get some of that nasal spray that stops you from going off to early.

Newcastle put a turbulent week behind them to host the undefeated Brisbane Roar at Energy Australia stadium on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon. Brisbane had previously lost only one match at Newcastle. The Roar were yet to concede a goal so far and rarely did that look like changing with Michael Theoklitos only really having to make one challenging save for the game.
As good as Brisbane were they could not find the winner. Ruban Zadkovich was giving his marching orders on 82 minutes after a second yellow.
Ange Postegoclou has the roar playing a very slick passing brand of football which is very entertaining to watch and technically the best of all the A League sides at the moment. They have a solid back four, the best keeper in the League plus the hard running and skilful Matt McKay commanding the middle of the park. If they can find a regular goal scorer then they might just run away with the competition this season on early form. Newcastle on the other hand is battling both on and off the park; they have a mix of too old and too young without the quality in between. On current form they look destined to prop up the table come season’s end.

The final game of Round Five was the match of the round which had Wellington Phoenix make the longest trip in international domestic football over to Perth Glory.
Both teams had been earmarked to fill top three positions at the end of the year, and this game didn't disappoint, especially for the round high 10,844 fans that attended (Most of those still chanting that ridiculous chant when the opposition goalkeeper takes a goal kick).
Perth was out for revenge after their 4-2 loss at the cake tin in last season’s finals series. Wellington was without Manny Muscat who was away on national duty. Perth hasn’t lost a game at home for nine matches.
Mile Sterjovski opened the scoring on five mins (he's only 31, I thought he was substantially older than that) with the only real 'International Marquee' player Robbie Fowler providing a fantastic through ball. Sterjovski was unlucky not to have a second after being incorrectly flagged for offside. Fowler scored himself after the break to give Perth a comfortable lead, only to have it pegged back by TheFootballSacks own Ben Sigmund (@siggy2010) scoring his second A-League goal on 73 mins creating an exciting finish.
Perth was able to hold on in a high quality game and hold their spot which is now equal top (with Adelaide) of the A League table.


Hero of the Week

Easy one for me this week; Sergio Van Dijk. Anyone that scores twice against Sydney FC is a monty for winner of the week every day of the year.

Villain of the week

Hard to pick this Round. Kruse and Carle were close for their total disregard for defending, but I’ve gone with Melbourne's weather.
It won’t be long before we hit summer and Franz Straka’s Beige Corduroy jacket will be gone for good, so damn you fickle Melbourne weather for taking the opportunity to see the jacket in its full glory one more time.