Photos (Top to Bottom): Surat Sukha put Adelaide's Mathew Leckie out of the game with a tackle; Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick with a happy fan; Adelaide badly missed their injured captain Travis Dodd; Melbourne's Roddy Vargas fought hard in defence for the home side; Simon Hill was one of the match commentators on Fox Sports [PlessPix]
Melbourne Victory 2-1 Adelaide United
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Melbourne Victory ended Adelaide United’s unbeaten run of 12 matches in the A-League when they beat their fierce rivals 2-1 before 16,269 fans at Etihad Stadium tonight.
As well as ending Adelaide’s A-League record, Melbourne set one of their own. This was their 10th consecutive victory over Adelaide United, a team in the same league. Melbourne have not been beaten by Adelaide since December 2007. And, Adelaide’s last victory at Etihad Stadium was in 2006.
Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat might wear red boots, but he’s certainly not ‘Goody Goody Two Shoes’. It was his blatant foul on Mathew Leckie less than a minute into the match that led to Adelaide’s goal. His blatant body-check on the Adelaide speedster should have earned him a yellow card, but Mr Williams kept the card in his pocket.
But, justice was done when Paul Reid floated his free-kick over from wide on the left and Iain Fyfe outjumped Surat Sukha and nodded the ball past Michael Petkovic and into the net.
Melbourne’s first chance fell to Robbie Kruse in the 13th minute, but his curling shot was turned wide for a corner by the diving Eugene Galekovic.
Adelaide went close in the 18th minute when Adam Hughes headed wide from a corner.
Muscat had body-checked Leckie just before that, and again he escaped unscathed. Ironically, the Melbourne captain finally did receive a yellow card in the 33rd minute, but it was for dissent.
Adelaide suffered a huge blow when a reckless challenge by Sukha put Leckie out of the game in the 21st minute. Sukha got nowhere near the ball but hacked Leckie down and the Adelaide player damaged his left knee. That knee was already strapped and had caused Leckie to miss last week’s game. He was taken to hospital for an examination and I just hope this does not affect Leckie’s chances of moving to the Bundesliga next year.
Melbourne drew level in the 22nd minute when Kruse cut in from the left and beat Galekovic at his near post with a low drive from 25 metres.
Melbourne squandered a good chance in the 35th minute when Adrian Leijer fed Sukha down the inside-left channel. But, instead of shooting, the Thailand international chose to square the ball to Ricardinho, who was too slow and had the ball taken off his foot by a defender before he could shoot.
In the 38th minute, Tom Pondeljak’s tame shot from a good opening was easily dealt with by Galekovic.
Seconds later, Petkovic produced a great tip over the bar from Fabian Barbieri’s angled shot from the right. He had been put clear when Marcos Flores showed superb control in bringing down Roddy Vargas’s poor clearing header.
Mate Dugandzic replaced Ricardinho at the interval after the Brazilian injured his knee.
Kruse should have done better than shoot wide in the 59th minute after a good pass from Hernandez.
Melbourne took the lead in the 68th minute after an excellent move out of defence. Pondeljak gained possession and broke free on the right before squaring the ball across the penalty area for Hernandez to stroke home from the edge of the box.
It was all Melbourne in the second half and they should have increased their lead several times.
In the 83rd minute, Kruse’s cut-back from the left found the unmarked Hernandez, who prodded his shot wide.
Seconds later, Pondeljak went on a devastating run through the Adelaide defence but finished with a weak shot.
Pondeljak’s brilliant run in the 86th minute, during which he beat several defenders, deserved a goal, but the ball came back into play off the far left-hand post with Galekovic well beaten. The ball came back to Pondeljak, but his second shot was tame and directed straight at a grateful Adelaide keeper.
Adelaide were not down and out, however, and Petkovic produced a marvellous save when he turned substitute Inseob Shin’s fierce shot against his left-hand post.
The game had 5 minutes of stoppage time, but Adelaide were unable to salvage a point and save their record.
It was the home side who, instead, set a new Australian record of their own.
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Melbourne Victory (3-4-3): Petkovic - Leijer, Muscat, Vargas - Pondeljak, Celeski, Brebner, Sukha (Broxham 69) - Ricardinho (Dugandzic 46), Hernandez, Kruse (Angulo 84) [Substitute not used: Mattei]
Booked: Muscat 33, Broxham 84
Goals: Kruse 22, Hernandez 68
Adelaide United (4-2-3-1): Galekovic - Watson (Shin 79), Fyfe, Cornthwaite, Cassio - Reid, Hughes - Leckie [(Barbieri 21) Ramsay 55], Flores, Pantelis - Van Dijk [Substitute not used: Birighitti]
Booked: Barbieri 36, Reid 75, Hughes 91, Pantelis 93
Goals: Fyfe 2
Att: 16,269
Ref: B Williams
18 comments:
Leckie was always going to be a target going into the game with an injury. Like Trimmers said these tackles happen in every league. Leckie was just too quick for him.
Not quick enough it would seem!
The type of body checks Muscat made and the tackle by Sukha are spoiling the game. It's a real problem all over the world, including in the EPL, where there have been some horrific injuries. The cynicism of such tackles, including the early one on Robbie Kruse in this game and the later one by Reid on Kruse in the second half are just ruining the spirit of fair play, which FIFA are always waffling on about and doing nothing to promote it apart from meaningless slogans and cliches.
Go Watch La Liga if you wanna see little girls play. Victory's quick counter attacking play was good to watch last night.
Muscat is my fav player in the A-league aswell.
Muscat body checks were not even anything bad and he got a free against him and Adelaide scored.
I don't see the big issue?
Anonymous 12.37, have you ever watched La Liga? Most of those sides, if not all, would easily beat Victory and Adelaide, and they also have a bit of brutality, too, which is not nice in such a beautiful game in which skills rather than cheating should be the priority.
Anonymous 12.51pm, so you don't think Muscat's body checks were anything bad. First, they were against the laws of the game. Second, they were against the spirit of fair play that FIFA and FFA promote, and third, if he'd been given a yellow card for the first one, he probably wouldn't have committed the second. It is just so symptomatic of the game today that a player can deliberately foul an opponent and get away with it and yet get a yellow card for saying something.
Cheating ? I watch La Liga and It's the worst for Cheating, DIVES EVERYWHERE EVERY GAME.
GET REAL
Players Dive and get away with it and get penaltys. That ruins the game more than a few rough tackles.
I know which one I would go to a game to see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWiKRLUwn8I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtUjLTdNoFk
So now we have various grades of cheating, do we? One grade is more acceptable than another. How pathetic. Cheating is cheating, be it blatantly stopping an opponent with a body check or be it diving in the box in an attempt to win a penalty. All I'm saying is it's against then spirit of the game and it diminishes the game as a spectacle. Hard and fair is okay and no-one would argue with that, but deliberately fouling is not on.
Fouling is not cheating because you get punished for it. Muscat gave away a foul and they scored from it, isn't that punishment?
Anonymous 1.57pm, deliberate fouling is still cheating because you're seeking to gain an unfair advantage by your actions. What you are saying is akin to saying that bank robbery is not a crime because you get punished for it.
Muscat got what he deserved. He had a free-kick given against him, and Adelaide scored. That's a double whammy. He was unlucky in that regard. Many times, he would have given away the free-kick and there would have been no further consequences and the cheating would have paid off.
He was lucky it wasn't a triple whammy - free-kick, yellow card, and goal. I bet he then wouldn't have committed the second body check.
Anonymous 2.36pm, or Idiot as you sign off as, you don't have to punish yourself by calling yourself such names. I'm only interested in a reasoned debate. Nothing personal. Strictly business.
People who think Muscat Body Checks were bad are idiots in my book.
Sorry to offend anyone.
oh my god tassie people have no idea about football
Muscat's vision and range of passing are outstanding. Yet few seem to notice these qualities outside TV commentators who have been former high level players.
Decentric
who is decentric? he seems educated?
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