Now, let’s make it very clear right off the top; Friday evening’s 3-1 win over Wellington Phoenix does not even come close to saving Melbourne Victory’s season. Despite the win, Tony Popovic’s side still sits bottom of the A-League Men, two points back of the next worst side and given the investment and expectations attached to this squad, both for this season and more broadly, nothing can be said to be going well when they occupy that slot on the table. No official crowd was given, but a quick scan of the sparsely populated stands also spoke to the significant impact that sanctions, abject performances, and other assorted maladies have had on the club’s fanbase.
Image Credit: Melbourne Victoru
But in times such as these, when you haven’t won a game in nearly two months, the goals have dried up, defensive calamities are seeping in, and you’re increasingly being used as a punchline by the rest of the league, you take what you can get. And absolutely you take the three points if you’ve secured them against a side looking to jump into the league’s top two, and so in a manner that few would declare to have been unearned.
Indeed, negative as the preamble may have been, Friday evening was a good win and Victory seemed to find a manner of playing that brought them joy against one of the A-Leagues’ better teams. They’ve snapped a six-game winless run and are now just four points outside the top six. They scored more than a single goal for just the third time this season and Bruno Fornaroli began to flash some of the signs that his resume would suggest he can. Tomi Juric got a goal!
Even if it all comes crashing down next week against the Newcastle Jets, at least there’s a bit of oxygen back in the room now. When circumstances both on and off the pitch have been bringing the walls closer and closer in, any sense of respite is welcome. And then there’s also the chance that it doesn’t collapse in on itself next week, and that with newfound momentum and a couple of new signings, some kind of run can be engineered up the table in the weeks ahead. After all, Victory and third-placed Western Sydney Wanderers have both played 14 games this season and the latter has only secured one more triumph. This league, in which half of its teams play finals football, is super tight.
“Wins always help but it’s still only one game,” coach Tony Popovic said postgame. “I never got too down in this room when we lost and I won’t get too high now that we’ve won one game.
“But, there are things to build on and a lot more to improve. But it’s a good step in the right direction.”
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So what can be taken from the win? Certainly, Victory to this point has had enough opportunities to extract wisdom from their defeats so it’s a refreshing change of pace to break down an *ahem* victory.
Importantly, perhaps most indicative of why it looked so comfortable, the game was largely played on their defensive terms – the Phoenix having more of the ball but, for the most part, not looking like they were capable of doing much with it. While there were still shaky moments at times, these appeared more down to individual errors and brain fades than any structural issues.
Floating in the air, almost slowing down time in the way that only a ball on a perfect arc can, there was almost an air of tranquillity surrounding Oskar Zawada’s goal, one boosted by the similar floating nature of Josh Walls’ ball in and the lack of genuine challenge his header, but it was a rare moment of class in an otherwise blunt first half performance from the Kiwis, who produced just 0.18 expected goals (xG) in the first 45 minutes compared to Victory’s 0.80 as well as fewer shots and shots on target.
When Bruno Fornaroli finished off a move in transition to bring them back level just past the half-hour mark, the hosts had shrugged off a slow start and were playing with a level of confidence: a bevy of chances being created only to fail to beat Oli Sail or find the target. On another evening, this would have sparked a downward spiral in which Victory continued to beat their increasingly bloody head against a brick wall before falling to some basic skill error or moment of brilliance up the other end.
This time around, however, Jake Brimmer was on hand to deliver yet another sublime set-piece finish in the 54th minute and then, with the Phoenix throwing numbers forward (which did create a series of good chances deep into injury time) Juric was present to take advantage of a catastrophic mixup between Sail and Finn Surman to gather a loose ball and fire into an empty net.
Victory was able to stay in the game, take advantage of playing against a ‘Nix side that wanted the ball and ended up with 60% possession, and find a way to win.
“Taking the moments was the difference today,” said Popovic. “They had one cross and a quality goal, a quality header. And that’s the way it’s been so far. But we took our moment today.
“It was a great move; Jakey’s ball and we had three players in the box and the ball fell to Bruno but Joshy [Brillante] could have scored as well. Today we created good moments, very good moments and the game could have been finished a lot earlier, which makes it more nervous for us.
“But overall I’m just happy for the players, happy for the club, happy for the fans that are now finally coming back in and now they can go home and celebrate a Victory. It’s been a tough period for everyone but nobody’s lost belief in this football club.”
For the ‘Nix, this defeat will leave a bitter taste. It has to. They came to this venue earlier in the season and forced a draw with prohibitive title favourites Melbourne City. Now a few months on, they’ve thrown away what was a promising start and fallen to a defeat against a team that sat rooted to the bottom of the table and has played in a manner that to describe as blunt would be an insult to hammers – a week on from throwing away a lead to draw 2-2 with a Perth Glory side making one of the longest treks in Australian football.
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They’ve played too well this season to dismiss them out of hand, but for the first time in a long time, it’s notable that this is a Phoenix side that carries not insignificant expectations to perform against the competition’s nominal big boys. The curse of actually playing well is that, if you do it long enough, people expect you to do it all the time.
“We started off the game quite well, I thought we were controlling the game with the ball,” Wellington coach Ufuk Talay told reporters. “We scored a fantastic goal and got ourselves up and then just one moment in transition where we allowed them to break and let them come back into the game.
“Then after that, to be honest, I thought we were second best at most times.
“I don’t know if the boys were a little bit timid tonight – all the expectation of where we’re sitting currently on the table, what’s expected of the group to move forward.”
And for Victory? Well, Olympique Lyonnais defender Damien Da Silva is on the way per the French club — and Victory have had some good history with French defenders — and new loan signing Bruce Kamau should be ready for the trip to face the Jets in nine days. Rai Marchan will also be a chance to return from concussion given that break between games and Chris Ikonomidis’ suspension will be up.
Reputation can only go so far in football, just look at this very side and the lineups it was running out earlier in the year, but it could still be a whole lot worse.
“Arguably maybe for the first time this year, we played the same team [against the Phoenix], so we didn’t have to change anyone and you could see that that continuity helped the group,” he said. “We played well for 55 minutes last week, and extended those minutes with the same XI, so they’ll grow in confidence and we’ve got players coming in, which always helps. We need depth and quality in our squad. I’m sure that that will grow as we continue now.
“Things are happening [on the transfer front] at the moment, which will probably continue tonight and tomorrow. You never know how these things land, when you think it’s happening it doesn’t. And when you think that one’s gone, it reappears. We won’t have to wait long.
“Tuesday it will be clear if we’ve got one, two, or no players. Whatever it will be, it will be known very soon.”
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Header Image Credit: Melbourne Victory
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