Melbourne finished off Round 19 of the A-League with a come-from-behind draw away at Perth Glory. Down 2-0 at half time, young midfielder Kristian Sarkies stepped up and claimed his first two goals for the club, including one from a free kick. It was a surprising fightback from a team that was for all intensive purposes, the reserves, in a dead rubber. It’s pleasing to know that the change in attitude towards working hard for the full 90 minutes has spread through every member of the squad, that’s what a winning culture does.

Despite drawing, Melbourne managed to increase their lead on top of the A-League yet again, this time to 17 points, after results in the other three matches conspired to make things even tighter in the chase for finals places. Now there are two weeks to go, and Adelaide getting rolled at home by Queensland, while Sydney suffered the ultimate humiliation going down at home to New Zealand, means spots 2-5 on the table are still interchangeable. Central Coast will be home to New Zealand, and the Mariners are one of the few sides who prior to the last month had difficulty against the Knights – but their finals chances are by no means over.

The table reads:
Melbourne 45, Sydney 28, Adelaide 27, Newcastle 26, Queensland 25, Central Coast 23, Perth 19, New Zealand 15.

During the week Sydney elected not to challenge the FFA’s penalty of a 3 point deduction (and fine) for mismanagement of the salary cap. However, today’s loss against New Zealand was a far more embarrassing denial of three points than any off-field penalty.

The story of Melbourne’s weekend was with its fans. Members of the Victory Supporters Forum coming together for a series of friendly matches. It was an interesting opportunity to put names to faces. You can hear my audio summary of the day by downloading this file.

Next week, Melbourne play their final home game of the regular season, against the Queensland Roar. At this early stage it’s hard to say exactly what approach Melbourne will take, Queensland’s desperation will be obvious.

Until next time, enjoy your football.

One of the best full rounds of the A-League season came to a finish tonight, and despite Sydney’s best efforts to kill the buzz and draw 0-0 they fell over the line 2-0 in Newcastle. Melbourne really weren’t the story of the round, in fact their match probably ranked fourth in terms of importance to the finals race.

The round started on Thursday with a 0-0 draw between Adelaide and Perth in the west. The match will be remembered for Perth’s unpopular captain Jamie Harnwell getting into a fistfight with Kiwi midfielder and team-mate Adrian Webster. The match was over but the club and league or whoever imposed bans and fines and whatnot. The moral of the story is Perth have been a rabble since the league started and now all they need is a kung-fu attack on a spectator to complete the set of things a club does when the chips are down.

On Friday night New Zealand dealt what will surely prove a knockout punch to Queensland’s finals chances, winning 3-1. Coming back from the humiliating result to win their remaining 3 games is unlikely for the Roar. A few weeks ago I said New Zealand were the worst team in professional sport, it seems the Roar have proved me wrong. It looks like the boys who started the “sack Frank” (Farina) website from his days as boss of the national team will survive the dot com crash after all.

On new years eve Melbourne needed just half an hour to cruise 2-0 up over Central Coast, and despite a regular season record crowd of over 15,000 at Gosford, the Mariners could only get a single back in the second half. The game did descend into a bit of a farce with Archie Thompson and Adrian Leijer getting themselves booked on purpose in order to clear their suspension points, and do the time before the finals start in three weeks. This sort of thing can get clubs into trouble, I remember Redondo and Raul were investigated by UEFA after they deliberately got booked in order to avoid carrying a suspension into the old 2nd group phase of the Champions League. At this stage it looks like nothing will come of Thompson and Leijer’s intentional bookings, they weren’t for fouls on players, just time wasting, so hopefully the situation will be forgotten by the end of the week.

The results leave Melbourne a mile clear on top on 44 points, Sydney on 31, Adelaide 27 and Central Coast clinging to fourth spot with 23. Newcastle have 23, Queensland not mathematically out of it on 22, Perth 18 and New Zealand 12. Take note that the current table is subject to a 3 point deduction hanging over Sydney, an appeal against the penalty for salary cap infringements likely to be heard and resolved by Friday.

So to next weekend, Melbourne travelling to Perth to face the undermanned and undermined Glory team. Perth can’t make the finals so there is literally nothing more than pride on the line for both teams, and with bottom of the table New Zealand just 6 points behind the Glory, and the two sides facing off in the final week of regular season, Perth will come to play. Melbourne’s Daniel Piorkowski is out for the rest of the A-League season, the Victory will replace him with another defender this week. Manager Ernie Merrick likes height at the back, and although Mark Byrnes is a more than capable replacement, it’s not impossible that the replacement man will get game time before the finals start. The going rumour is South Melbourne’s Tansel Baser will fill the void. Until next time, watch out for mutinous Kiwi midfielders, and enjoy your football.

So it’s christmas weekend and there’s no A-League, but that doesn’t mean no news.

For starters, I think the A-League is missing out on blockbuster opportunities by not having a round over the festive weekend. A Christmas day double-header would be a ratings winner, and to counter the low crowds, just play the matches at smaller venues such as Gosford or Perth. The lack of live sport on the Australian Christmas day and night is painful, there’s a great opportunity waiting for a professional code to take it.

The groups for the Asian Champions League were drawn this week, and while the Asian Cup draw gave the national side the easiest group, Sydney and Adelaide have not been so lucky. The loading of the Asian federation in favour of the middle-east shone through, with both the Butcher boys and the inbreds getting ‘groups of death’. While the Chinese teams may not be the strongest of opposition (Melbourne dismissing a full strength C-League side in a preseason tournament a few months ago) the Koreans Seongnam should tonk Adelaide, while Urawa Reds will surely be too good for the negative Sydney. While some Victory fans want blood, and Sydney and Adelaide humiliated (in order to show their unworthiness in the tournament ahead of Melbourne) the reality is Australian teams have to be competitive in order to show we belong in the Champions League, and not a lesser continental tournament such as the Confederation or President’s Cup. The reality is, if the strongest two Australian teams come the end of this season were in these groups, they’d be hideously unfair compared to the easy ride the middle-east and eurasian teams seem to be getting. Distance travelled for an away trip really wouldn’t be an issue for an Australian club if it meant avoiding a J-League or K-League team.

So, with no A-League game to report on, here are my rather conservative predictions for the remaining for rounds of the season, which will decide who plays finals. Adelaide’s fairly soft run home should see their revival continue, while Sydney’s ability to grind out results will earn the chance to defend their playoff crown. While it would be a far more entertaining finals series if both Newcastle and the Central Coast qualified, the derby between the two in Round 19 will potentially be the decider of who gets fourth spot. If the Mariners want the upper hand in this race, they’ll have to start with a win against Melbourne on New Years’ Eve, so until 2007, enjoy the festive football in other areas around the globe.

And without further ado, here are my predictions for the final four rounds of the A-Leauge season, and final ladder:

winner - loser
draw - draw

Round 18

Perth – Adelaide
New Zealand – Queensland
Central Coast – Melbourne
Newcastle – Sydney

Round 19

Adelaide – Queensland
Newcastle – Central Coast
Sydney – New Zealand
Perth – Melbourne

Round 20

Central Coast – New Zealand
Melbourne – Queensland
Adelaide – Sydney
Perth – Newcastle

Round 21

Newcastle – Melbourne
Queensland – Sydney
New Zealand – Perth
Central Coast - Adelaide

Melbourne 51
Adelaide 36
Sydney 33
Newcastle 31

Central Coast 28
Queensland 24
Perth 20
New Zealand 10

Melbourne tonight sealed top of the league with a 4-0 win over the New Zealand Knights, a performance that involved some disjointed football to begin with, but exploded with four goals in the thirteen minutes before half time. You can read a match report here, and see video highlights of the match here.

The most pleasing aspect of the match was the involvement of the crowd. Back at Olympic Park because of a Robbie Williams concert at Telstra Dome, the 15,000 odd fans made noise like the 50,000 that had been at the dome for the Sydney FC game last week. The fans entertained themselves during the second half as New Zealand went about damage limitation. The North, East, South and West sides of the ground doing the chanting equivalent of a Mexican wave. It was a magical moment for club football in this country, showing just how united and involved Melbourne’s fans were. It was intoxicating, and the sort of moment the club will recall fondly for years to come. However, it was also a moment that rose out of adversity last week. The main point of contention from the week was the treatment of Melbourne in the media, after a post-match incident from the Sydney FC game in which police had to use capsicum spray to disperse fans. Without having seen the incident, I can’t verify the claims of either side: bystanders to a so-called riot saying that they copped the spray and the bad attitude of police to boot despite having committed no wrongdoing, or similarly, smug police representatives claiming nobody was hurt in the incident. What I can comment on though was the treatment of this “riot” by certain sections of the media.

Before today’s game the main supporter groups at the Swan Street end of the ground (also known as the North End, who sit at the Coventry end when at Telstra Dome) linked arms and turned their backs to the field. Standing in complete silence, the entire Swan Street end was still silent even as the players walked out onto the field and exchanged handshakes. They had turned back around in time for kickoff. The protest was regarding the treatment of the Victory and football in the media during the week. Foxtel commentator Simon Hill mentioned the cause of the protest during the broadcast of the match. You can read the thread that inspired the protest here.

The centrepiece of the media controversy was this story aired last week after the Sydney FC game on National 9 News, featuring Sean Sowerby, portrayed as a simple witness to the police incident. What has raised the ire of the club and fans is that Sowerby is a radio producer for radio station 3AW. AW, a talkback station and ratings leader, is part of the Southern Cross broadcasting network, who are also the parents of SEN 1116, the network that broadcast Victory games. However, fans firmly believe that 3AW, with their heavy reliance on Australian Football for winter ratings, is anti-soccer, and Sowerby was a “plant” on the lookout for a negative spin to hurt Melbourne’s positive PR from the 50,000 crowd. How footage of the “riot” came to hand is still unknown. Some fans believe 3AW must cater to the majority of their audience and discredit soccer, because of soccer’s ties to ethnic groups in the past, and multiculturalism now (Melbourne Victory having united all of Melbourne’s ethnic groups under the harmonious tag of both Australians and Melbournians). Still, no documentation is evident to prove the conspiracy theory. Although it appears unethical to have presented Sowerby as a fan, the reality is that all the facts are not out in the open, and although some recourse (a Press Council challenge) is open the club, starting a war with two of the biggest broadcasting networks in the nation (Southern Cross and Channel 9) could be a lose-lose situation, regardless of who’s moral mountain is highest at the end. Darkening the conspiracy theory about Sowerby being a “plant” was a thread posted by “hamo” on the Melbourne Victory forum. Although it’s now been deleted, this post on the media manager’s board sums up an unsavoury incident he had with 3AW management.

Even if Sowerby was simply at the game as a fan and offered his comments with no strings attached, the Victory administration and fans are obviously unhappy about the negative TV story. While the protest today was visually impressive, a banner was erected calling 3AW, Channel 9 and newspaper the Herald Sun an ‘axis of evil’. It’s something I see as a bad move in terms of integrating Melbourne Victory and football deeper into the fabric of Australian society. Some fans have given up and said “this is war”, I disagree. Fans said exactly the same thing about the AFL and the code rivalry between Aussie Rules and Football (soccer). However a poll I started on the Melbourne Victory forum showed that from a representative sample, almost 30% of Victory members are also members of an AFL club. Even the spiritual (and I believe actual) leader of Collingwood’s cheer squad “Joffa” is somebody who has been won over by the Victory. The fans have to work their way into the good books of the media, rather than stoke the fire and create further hostility.

No flares were set off at tonight’s game, that is a great start. If people don’t go and stand outside Gate 7 to ‘welcome’ visiting fans after our next home game, it’ll be another step in the right direction. The fewer negative incidents fans create, the harder it will be for any institution to put a negative spin on the team’s achievements. Let’s be honest here, the toughest media battle the Victory will have hasn’t even started. Asian Champions League group stage games will take place in direct competition with AFL season during 2008…as far as I’m concerned this club has 15 months to win favour with every media institution so we aren’t relegated to 2nd banana when we’re playing in the continental championship.

Anyway, it’s the Christmas break in the A-League for now, and all the action will resume in about 2 weeks. Make sure you’re back on OleOle next weekend for my predictions as to how the remaining four rounds of the season will play out, and which teams will capture the vital positions in the final four, as well as any further news from the Victory.

50,333 is the magic number after last night’s match between Melbourne and Sydney, the slightly less magical number was the scoreline…0-0. You can read a full match report here.

With so much on the line for Sydney it’s no surprise that they settled for a draw. Melbourne had chances to win the game but as the night wore on it became clear that despite having the A-League’s three top scorers in Allsopp, Thompson and Fred, Sydney’s resolve at the back would hold out. It was a genuine injustice that the record crowd for an Australian domestic game failed to cheer for a goal, given the amount of noise they made for the various ups and downs during the game would only have been beaten by U2’s recent visit to Telstra Dome.

Sydney’s visiting fans “The Cove” went down the rather predictable path of taunting Melbourne about the Asian Champions League, but the reality is Sydney will struggle to get 50,000 total fans to all three of their group games (assuming they are midweek) this autumn. In a quick aside, Adelaide United could sell out Hindmarsh Stadium for all three group games and would be mathematically unable to get 50,000.

It was a championed statistic amongst football media and fans that the crowd was bigger than any Australian Rules game (AFL) at the Telstra Dome during the last two years, but as a dual-code fan I feel it’s important that Victory fans don’t get caught up in the wrangling. The Victory needs fans who also follow the AFL, so accepting dual-code fans will always be more productive than the “us vs them” approach, doomed to be baited by the “soccer is a game for sheilas wogs and poofters” attitude of diehard AFL fans.

So to next week and the New Zealand Knights, in what could well be the last ever A-League game at Olympic Park. One thing that does grind on me is the description of Olympic Park as the “spiritual home” of the Victory. How is a ground that shafted a Melbourne vs Sydney clash for a junior athletics tournament (meaning our 5-0 win last season was not shown live on Foxtel) be a spiritual home? The Knights are a bizarre proposition in terms of scheduling. In all honesty they don’t even merit a game against us in this country. I’m sure somewhere in the “Professional Sportspersons Act” legislation there would be something not allowing an institution as pathetic as New Zealand into a country like ours, we should just play them over there at North Harbour three times a season. Depending on Adelaide’s results this weekend and next Melbourne could be lifting the title after the game against the Knights, so it would be a minimum expectation that capacity, something in the vicinity of 18,500 fans, would fill the ground one last time.

There will be plenty of people both in Melbourne and elsewhere unable to get into Olympic Park next week, so listen to the game on SEN Radio, available over the internet, and you can also read the text commentary courtesy of yours truly on the Victory's official website. And if you want to get a look at the latest issues for the club's ever-growing fanbase, read the Victory forum. Kickoff is 7pm Melbourne time, Sunday December 17th.

I may not have seen it, but I do believe it! The Victory have scored their first goals at Hindmarsh Stadium, and recorded an impressive 3-1 win over Adelaide United. Although most of Melbourne got their pay tv back by mid afternoon, my coverage was still down and out at kickoff, and my only basis for analysis of the game has been the descriptions of SEN radio’s Michael Zappone and Paul Trimboli. You can read a match report here.

Whenever Melbourne look like they’ve reverted to the bad habits of last season, and the “slide” has started, they do something to break the trend, and that something is take goalscoring chances when they present. The finishing of last season’s villain Danny Allsopp is the reason Melbourne fans are seeing more goals hit the net, Allsopp is now a hero, up to 9 goals for the season, triple his tally of 3 from 2005/6. Just when it looked like the Victory were going to succumb to 15 solid minutes of second half Adelaide pressure and go 2-1 down, a quick transition of play saw them 2-1 up (from the boot of Allsopp) against the run of play.

Tonight’s win was sweetened for Melbourne by the pathetic run Adelaide are on at the moment, a three game losing streak and a guarantee of ultra-veteran Romario starting their next two games. John Kosmina was tactically hamstrung tonight; the dismissal of Robert Bajic meant Travis Dodd was the sacrificial lamb, when a non-guest star of Romario’s age would have been the obvious man to sub off for the new goalkeeper. If Adelaide takes football like tonight’s foul-heavy and card riddled rubbish into Asia, the only reason Melbourne won’t be in the Champions League in 2008 will be the fact Australian clubs have been relegated to the Confederations or President’s Cup.

The win means Melbourne go into next Friday’s fixture against Sydney FC with top spot very nearly wrapped up. Although they’d need results to go their way to seal top of the table next week, it is a formality that the remaining rounds will see Melbourne take the minor premiership. I said it last weekend, and I’ll stress it again, if you’re not a member, pre-book a ticket! It’s being rumoured that 37,000 of the 52,000 odd seats inside Telstra Dome are already spoken for.

There is some big news breaking at the lower levels of Victorian football, with the state federation announcing the V-League would be launched in 2008. A restructure of the current Vodafone Cup league in which stadium requirements, board and admin requirements, salary cap, and league size will all be overhauled. While this proposal will have no effect on the Victory in the near future, its long term effects in terms of attracting the best 2nd tier professionals and best youth prospects to the state could be profound. Here’s hoping the bickering about the “ethnicity” of the 12 clubs ultimately chosen to play in the league doesn’t alienate potential fans, only attracted to the game by the transparency of the A-League and Victory.

So, for everyone not in Melbourne next Friday, get on the internet and go to SEN radio for the match call from Zapper and Trimmers, and read live text commentary courtesy of yours truly on the Victory website. Kickoff 8pm Melbourne time.

And you can always read what the most passionate fans have to speak about on the Victory Forum.

Melbourne has suffered their second loss of the season tonight, going down 1-0 to Newcastle Jets at Telstra Dome. Melbourne’s inability to use possession, and win the ball off Newcastle late in the game proved decisive. We created the bulk of the chances, but didn’t create sustained periods of pressure, the absence of captain Kevin Muscat from midfield telling. Still, it’s not all doom and gloom, as Melbourne’s lead at the top of the A-League was only reduced by one point, to 11. And fanatics of the code would have left the ground still smiling at the fact a crowd of 27,753 was in attendance, flying in the face of AFL commentator Bryan Taylor who declared this week on sports television show The Back Page that Melbourne’s off-field bubble had burst, and crowds would continue to decrease. The next two weeks will go a long way to Melbourne sealing top of the table, and also who the side will play in the 1st vs 2nd grand final qualifier. Next week it’s off to third placed Adelaide, who appear to be carrying veteran World Cup winner Romario, rather than having had their side enhanced by his arrival. Then the week after back at the Dome for Sydney, who moved into second place this weekend. As of right now, history has trumped form in terms of who the Victory fans would rather square off against in the finals, most opting for Sydney.

The Newcastle result has put the major topic of debate for the week on the backburner, the calamity that has been eligibility for the 2007 Asian Champions League. The AFC ruled during the week that 2007’s contestants would be 2005/6 premier Sydney and minor premier Adelaide, rather than the winners of 2006/7 because of the nonsensical rule that all teams had to be declared by December. This despite the fact there would be the best part of a month between the end of the A-League finals series (never mind home and away) and the start of the Champions League group stage. Melbourne has been told that if they finish top of the ladder and/or win this year’s grand final, they’ll compete in the tournament in 2008. Frankly, it is a farce that the proposed reform of the competition to get rid of the December registration (ie, put balls in the draw pool with ‘Australia 1’ and ‘Australia 2’) won’t be until at least 2009. It wasn’t that hard for the programmers of Football Manager to have the immediate A-League premier and minor-premier proceed to the Champions Leauge, but obviously it was for the AFC in real life. There has been some dissent from Victory fans that the FFA didn’t lobby hard enough for the Victory’s cause, but it’s the rule that is the problem, having the previous year’s champions go into Asia will always be screwing someone.

For everyone going over to Adelaide next weekend, do the team proud, and be sure to say hello to United’s no #1 female fan “Burger Tits” for me. Everyone else, be at Telstra Dome on Friday December 8th for the Sydney game. Probably a good idea to pre-book a ticket if you’re not a member, because after almost 40,000 turned up in Round 2 they’ll be expecting 45,000 for A-League’s marquee fixture. Who knows, maybe even Bryan Taylor will come along and have a look at the best football team in town.

Melbourne’s fantastic A-League season rolled on tonight with a comfortable 2-0 win away to Queensland Roar. The result broke another league record, Melbourne now holding the longest winning streak in away games with six. It was apt that the venue for the record was Suncorp Stadium, a ground where the inconsistent Roar have only managed four wins since the A-League’s inception. You can read the full match report here, and follow the links to video highlights on the Fox Sports website.

It’s proven to be a physically taxing week for Melbourne, with most of the side needing physio attention throughout the match, and first choice goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos unable to start. Eugene Galekovic made his first appearance for the year, and played arguably his best game for the side, although the post did come to his rescue on one occasion. But if Theo is fit, then Theo has to stay number one. Alternating goalkeepers proved to be a failed experiment for the Victory last season, and tonight’s opponent Queensland also had their demise coincide with a “rotation” of Liam Reddy for Tom Willis.

Daniel Piorkowski’s exit from the game due to a shin injury also meant a first appearance for midfielder Michael Ferrante, whose only taste of A-League action this season before tonight was in the league’s TV commercial. If Piorkowski pulls up fit for the next fixture then it’ll be more time on the bench for Mark Byrnes, and more time in the doldrums for Geoffrey Claeys…but at least he now has the seemingly vanquished Claudinho for company.

Off the field the Victory’s high rollers had quite a successful banquet auction last Saturday night, one of the highest pieces sold went for over $5500; a framed shirt, signed, rather ironically, by Kaka. The fans on the Victory forum unwilling or unable to fork out for a seat were given good insight into the night by the club’s latest high profile fan “Nadja”, who won her seat in an on-field fashion competition during half time of the Perth Glory game.

In a blow to the fans, some cold water was poured on the petition to have the proposed “bubble” stadium, a purpose built rectangular ground, increased to over 30,000 seats. While last Sunday had a rumour that a new figure of 28,000 was the go, currently-election-campaigning State Premier Steve Bracks declared on radio during the week that the capacity would remain 20,000…which is lower than every crowd the Victory have drawn at the oval shaped Telstra Dome which seats just over 50000. But, ever positive these days, the fans decided to spend their time on the Victory forum arguing what the stadium should be named. Personally, I think pride should be set aside and the name go to the highest bidder. “Samsung Stadium” doesn’t sound that bad at all, and regular Asian Champions League action will only add zeroes to exactly how much naming rights will ultimately cost when building finishes (regardless of capacity) in time for the 2009/10 season.

For our overseas readers, you can hear commentary of every Melbourne game on SEN radio over the internet, and read live text commentary on the club's official website. The next match for the Victory is on Sunday November 26th, at 5pm Melbourne time (GMT +10...minus daylight savings).

And all you Melbourne based readers make sure you’re at the Dome next Sunday!