Red hot Big Blue ends in stalemate

Melbourne Victory’s attempt to climb up the A-League ladder has been momentarily halted as they were held to an entertaining 1-1 draw with rivals Sydney FC at AAMI Park on Saturday evening.

Like many occasions between these two foes, this match was a heated affair with no player from either side willing to give an inch in the pursuit of three points.

Both Sydney and the Victory were desperate to take the win in this game to consolidate their positions in the top six of the table, and it showed as they produced a 90 minute display of tense and engaging football.

Sydney opened the scoring against the run of play in the 48th minute with a Joel Chianese tap in only for James Troisi to return serve and level the scores on 63 minutes which would turn out to be the end of scoring for the evening.

It was a very cagey opening 45 with both sides lacking the cutting edge to cut the other open. Clear cut chances on goal in the half were at a premium with both sides forced to try their luck with speculative strikes from distance that ultimately came to no avail.

The home side in particular were guilty of giving away possession for too cheaply. Time and time again the Victory’s attacking rhythm was halted thanks to errant passing.

Despite arguably being second best in the first half, Sydney FC had their chances to take the lead. Alessandro Del Piero had no less than three cracks at a free kick in what would be considered very gettable positions for the Italian superstar.

Richard Garcia spurned a great opportunity to break the deadlock midway through the first half when he elected to header the ball into space rather than try his luck on goal when the latter appeared to be the better option.

The Victory’s best chance of the half fell to Kosta Barbarouses in the 31st minute with the Kiwi doing well to beat Sydney defenders until his shot failed to trouble Vedran Janjetovic in the FC goal as the ball flew across the face of goal.

The main talking point of the half took place in stoppage time as Victory defender Pablo Contreras took down Chianese as the attacker charged forward on goal. At first glance it appeared the Chilean had taken down Chianese in the box with a penalty and a red card to ensue.

Referee Jarred Gillet was right on the spot and called for a free kick and issued Contreras with a yellow, which replays showed to be the correct ruling.

That wasn’t the end of the drama from that incident with Sydney claiming a handball as the free kick collected the Victory wall. Player from both sides argued the toss as they made their way into the dressing rooms with some heated discussion taking place.

That incident appeared to light the fuse for the second half with niggle and chat prominent throughout the second 45.

True to form, Sasa Ognenovski was right in the middle of all of it, in particular a heated stoush between him and Contreras which saw the experienced defenders go toe to toe after Ognenovski denied the Victory marquee man a rare venture forward with a strong defensive tackle.

Despite the home side looking most likely to make the breakthrough, it was the Sydney who took the lead through Chianese. Abbas fired in a tame shot that didn’t look at all threatening, but Lawrence Thomas couldn’t hang onto it leaving Chianese the simplest of finishes.

As the Victory searched for that elusive equaliser, the noise generated by the home fans lifted which appeared to give the side a massive lift.

You got the feeling that as soon as Sydney got their goal, the Victory goal was never far off. That came true in the 63rd minute as James Troisi kept his chances of claiming the A-League Golden Boot with his 11th strike of the campaign.

Ali Abbas was caught in possession by Milligan who found Finkler to roll it to Troisi who beat Janjetovic to equal the scores.

Both sides tried hard to find a winner in the dying stages of the match with Sydney coming closest through Chianese, but it wasn’t to be with both sides being forced to share the spoils on this occasion.

With earlier results going their way the Victory had the chance to rise to second on the table with a win this evening, manager Kevin Muscat admitted after the match that this was an opportunity missed by his side.

“Am I content with a point? No. Not at all. I felt we were the better team tonight.

“We certainly had enough opportunities to create chances but we didn’t do that. It was a missed opportunity for us I thought tonight.”

Despite this minor setback, second place is still well in sight for Muscat.

“I’ve still got a belief, I have confidence we can get six points from our last two games. They are on the road but I believe we can do that. Whether that’s going to be enough now, that’s out of our hands.

“The aim for us is to get on the road and take six points from our last two games.  Everyone has different games to play, as we’ve seen tonight everyone is desperate for different reasons.”

However on the flip side Sydney boss Frank Farina saw the match a little differently.

“We would have liked to won the game. It’s not an ideal result for us or Melbourne, but you’d rather take the point than none at all. I was disappointed in the end we didn’t take the three points.

Asked about Sydney’s chances on making this year’s playoffs, Farina didn’t mince his words.

“We expect to make the finals. We have two home games now, we want to win those games. If we win both home games we make the finals. Sydney is not a club that doesn’t expect to make the finals. But again it’s very tight, it can change from week to week.”

In terms of finals series placing, this 1-1 result was the worst possible outcome for both sides. The Victory could have overtaken the Central Coast Mariners into second spot with a win tonight but now find themselves outsiders in claiming second position on the ladder that will see them have the week off in the first week of the finals.

Sydney could have secured a place in the playoffs tonight but now find themselves in a battle between four sides to claim the last to places in the top six.

Both Sydney and the Victory have it all to play for with two weeks to play in the regular season. The way things are shaping out these two sides could play each other in the finals series. If that is to happen and they conjure up a repeat of tonight’s performance, there won’t be too many complaints at all.



Melbourne Victory: 20. Lawrence THOMAS(GK), 2. Pablo CONTREAS, 3. Adama TRAORE, 5. Mark MILLIGAN(C), 7. Gui FINKLER, 9. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10. Archie THOMPSON, 14, James TROISI, 17. James JEGGO, 23. Adrian LEIJER, 24. Scott GALLWAY

Subs: 1. Nathan COE(GK), 11. Connor PAIN, 16. Rashid MAHAZI, 22. Jesse MAKAROUNAS, 25. Jason GERIA


Sydney FC: 20. Vedran JANJETOVIC 2. Seb RYALL, 5. Matt JURMAN, 6. Nikola PETKOVIC, 10. Alessandro DEL PIERO, 11. Richard GARCIA, 13. Sasa OGNENOVSKI, 16. Joel CHIANESE, 17. Terry ANTONIS, 22 Ali ABBAS, 28. Matt THOMPSON

Subs: 1, Ivan NECEVSKI(GK), 9. Corey GAMEIRO, 18. Peter TRIANTIS, 21. Milos DIMITRIJEVIC, 34, Aaron CALVER