City are a terrible advertisement for Etihad
The form book is usually thrown out of the window when the Melbourne derby is played at the shared AAMI Park, but it’s a different story at Etihad, where Friday night’s semi-final takes place – and where City have proven to be quite terrible. The team from the northern suburbs (that’s the red half of Melbourne’s geopolitical divide) are as bad at Victory’s home-away-from-home as they are on the road – and this is not a team that has taken to intercity travel (except, interestingly, to play Sydney FC).
In their seven visits to the Docklands stadium, City have won just once. That was Ange Postecoglou’s first outing at the helm of Victory. The home side produced flashes of hypnotic football that night, but looked very much like a team still getting their head around his patterns of play.
The darkest hour comes before the dawn, and Victory are since unbeaten in derbies at the venue. But it has only been under the tutelage of Kevin Muscat, who has refined and adapted the teachings of his predecessor, that Victory have been able to humiliate City there.
Muscat destroys City
Kevin Muscat’s reign of terror over Melbourne City really began with a single tackle. It hospitalised a speedy and creative young player called Adrian Zahra and cemented the former Socceroo’s villainous reputation.
The suspension which followed meant it was the last tackle he would ever make in the A-League. He was, however, still eligible to play in the Asian Champions League. The psychologist who got the punchy Barry Hall back on track at the Sydney Swans told me at the time that Muscat shouldn’t be allowed to play until someone had assessed if he was a danger to others.
Yet for City, it’s off the pitch that Muscat has blossomed into their chief tormentor. Sure, Muscat hasn’t won every game against his not-so-noisy neighbours. But take City to Etihad Stadium, the site of that attack on Zahra, and Muscat’s Victory destroy them. A 5-2 desecration at the start of the season; a 3-0 decimation when the sides meet there again in February.
City beat Muscat’s side by an even bigger margin last season, but only just got over the line in the other derby this season. Another big loss this week at Etihad, and it’s they who might need to talk with someone.
Goals galore for Victory
Gun for hire Besart Berisha has proved to be worth every cent Victory paid to get him there. He finished the home-and-away season equal second on the goal scorers’ table, and delivered more than enough goals for his team to lift the Premiers’ Plate. This is far from a one-man show, however. Each of Victory’s attacking quintet have contributed. The ageing Archie Thomson even made it to double figures, despite limited game time. For goals-per-minute, he’s been nearly twice as efficient as Berisha this season.
By comparison, City’s leading light is midfielder Aaron Mooy, with seven goals. Striker David Williams and EPL import Robert Koren can count their tally on one hand, and still have a couple of fingers left over. Defensive midfielder Erik Paartalu has scored as many. Yet around 20 players have found the net for City all up, a number significantly higher than Victory’s tally of goal scorers.
Mooy bien
Mooy is the gaffer tape holding together this City outfit. He is the only player in the league to complete over 1,000 passes, and no one at any club comes close to his tally of 90 chances created in front of goal. Next on that list are Gui Finkler and Fahid Ben Khalfallah, with 58 and 43 respectively.
But while Mooy has eight assists to his name (meaning he has been involved in almost half of his team’s goals), the Victory duo top the league with nine each. Archie Thompson, meanwhile, has four assists from 17 chances created. There’s a pattern in there, and it looks ugly for City.
Mooy is also one of just two City players to score a goal from outside the box (excluding the long-departed David Villa). And in both cases, it is just a single goal. Since mid-October. That’s one every 13 matches. Victory have eight for the season. If there’s one crucial phrase every City fan needs to know, it’s this: get it in the bloody mixer!
Not pretty, City (but miracles can yet happen)
Melbourne City are one win away from a debut A-League grand final. They are two wins away from the championship. Some might have expected that kind of miracle when Manchester City took over the club last January, but not after the regular season they delivered.
They’ve been an improvement on recent years, but if not for some creative book keeping in the west, the team still would have finished in the bottom half of the table. And this is a squad that had Villa on their books for a third of the season, plus Koren, Damien Duff (ex-Chelsea) and former Socceroo hero Josh Kennedy. Victory’s lower profile international signings – starting with Ben Khalfallah – have had a much bigger impact.
There have been promising moments for City – Koren’s arrival; the crowds that Villa pulled (it was like being at a real match); Mooy making a name for himself. Overall though, it’s been hard to get overly excited by the way they have performed.
Should they conquer their Etihad jitters, it would be hard to think of a grand finalist in the short history of the competition who was less deserving of being there. Yet if they were to end up playing the grand final in Sydney, that’s the one team they’ve actually been able to regularly beat away from home. Miracles can happen. Still.
