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140225
Melbourne Edge Wellington In Dour Duel
by Jeremy Ruane
Melbourne Victory climbed to an overnight third placing in the Isuzu Ute A-League on February 14, but their 1-0 victory at AAMI Park over an insipid Wellington Phoenix will never live long in the memory.
Frankly, this was a terrible watch, best summed up by the fact that there were two attempts on goal in the first forty-five minutes, both of which were fired narrowly over the crossbar by former Wellington favourite Reno Piscopo, in the 16th and 24th minutes.
The remainder of the half? Melbourne weren't great - far from it, but they were world-beaters in comparison to Wellington, who did absolutely nothing to dispel the notion that they're a guaranteed cure for insomnia!
They were dreadful! Playing to not lose - anti-football at its finest! No creativity. No ideas. No inspiration. No initiative. No entertainment value - why would fans want to pay hard-earned money to watch this garbage? Little wonder the club struggles to attract break-even crowd figures at their home games.
Not to put too fine a point on it, this team is fast becoming an embarrassment to NZ football. It's showcasing everything that the game in this country isn't about. Those leading the "Chiefy Out" cries are doing so with good reason - they care about the game in their homeland, and the performances Wellington are producing are not representative of it. Not even close!
Melbourne sensed that the game was theirs for the taking, and came out all guns blazing in the second half, Jordi Valadon and Zinedine Machach drawing saves from Alby Kelly-Heald within three minutes of the resumption of play.
Nine minutes later, they opened the scoring via a super counter-attacking goal. Adama Traore tackled Costa Barbarouses on the edge of Melbourne's penalty area and immediately played it to Machach, who unleashed half-time substitute Clarismario Santos down the right. His cross was absolutely inch-perfect for Nikos Vergos to head home - 1-0 Melbourne.
And nearly 2-0 five minutes later, Kelly-Heald denying Machach with his legs after Santos had invited him to let fly from fifteen yards. Wellington responded in kind seven minutes later, their first attack of note seeing Tim Payne produce a superb cross which Barbarouses guided goalwards, only for Mitch Langarak to block with his legs and deny the former Melbourne Victory striker an equaliser against his old club.
Nine minutes from time, Wellington's only other shot of the contest saw substitute Luke Brooke-Smith weave infield past three before unleashing a piledriver which was deflected to safety.
Melbourne had four great chances to double their lead in stoppage time, and should have scored at least one of them. Santos blazed over after being gifted possession by a poor clearance, while from the resulting goal-kick, Bruno Fornaroli spurned the chance to make it 2-0 when squandering an opening he usually converts blindfolded.
Kelly-Heald flew to his right to keep out a Fornaroli header from a Kasey Bos cross, while Machach fired narrowly past the post from twenty-five yards soon after, the final act of note in this utterly forgettable contest, one Melbourne deserved to win because they were the team which offered more attacking threat over the ninety minutes, three points being their reward.
Melbourne: Langarak; Rawlins (booked, 65), Hamill, Miranda, Traore (Bos, 74); Valadon, Machach, Teague; Velupillay (Santos, 46), Vergos (booked, 58 (Fornaroli, 74), Piscopo (Arzani, 66)
Wellington: A. Kelly-Heald; Payne, Hughes, Wootton, Sutton (booked, 89); Piper (Brooke-Smith, 77), Sheridan (booked, 75), Retre (Rufer, 68), L. Kelly-Heald (Walker, 68), Ishige (Nagasawa, 68); Barbarouses
Referee: Adam Bavcar
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