Emerton and Kewell: The verdict

Over 40,000 supporters at Etihad Stadium witnessed an entertaining nil-all draw in the opening round of the Hyundai A-League between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC. This was supposed to be the Harry Kewell vs Brett Emerton show, marquee vs marquee, however it turned out to anything but that as both Socceroos stars failed to hit the ground running.

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As expected, Harry Kewell received a huge roar from the Melbourne Victory faithful the moment he stepped onto the field, and each time he touched the football he was well appreciated. On the other hand Sydney’s travelling supporters who tried to cheer their own marquee signing Brett Emerton were overshadowed by the large Victory numbers at Docklands. With both sets of supporters in full noise, the former Blackburn star was full of praise for both sets of supporters.

Brett Emerton. Credit: Kirsty Beck

“I’m very impressed with the supporters, the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic, very European like.”

Throughout the ninety minutes both players struggled to find their best form, especially Emerton who barely had a touch in the early goings. With the poor start to the game, Emerton had an opportunity to redeem himself after Fabio’s foul on Bridge earned the visitors a penalty but the slow start turned into a nightmare as Covic guessed to his left and parried Emerton’s spot kick away from danger. On his own performance Emerton was not too happy.

“I wasn’t at my best today, on an individual effort I am very disappointed, however the team played great”.

Kewell’s performance that evening was not anywhere near as bad as his Socceroos team-mate however he himself had opportunities to open the scoring most notably in the dying stages of the first half when his header seemed destined to be heading goal bound, only to be denied by a world-class save by Sydney keeper Liam Reddy. In the second half Kewell had a couple of efforts on goal but neither were a real threat to Reddy as one was nothing more than a straight forward save and the other an effort over the bar. His efforts did however impress his coach Mehmet Durakovic.

“We wanted to take him off but he didn’t want to come off. He had a good game today and will continue to improve with more matches under his belt”

On an individual level Kewell will be the happier of the marquee signings but in terms of team performance Sydney will be leaving Melbourne smiling knowing they kept Victory’s impressive attacking quartet of Rojas, Kewell, Thompson and Allsopp at bay for ninety minutes.