Terrace Talk: Reds v Victory

ADL 1 def. MVFC  0

It was time again for what is probably the fiercest rivalry in Australian football, well aside from the mainstream media vs. football but that’s a story for another day. With the most professional team in Australia playing against an Adelaide side that has been lacking class both on and off the pitch in recent weeks, this game would be a test for both teams. Adelaide, like Melbourne Heart always turns it on against Melbourne Victory and is always dangerous at home.

Victory came out with the calm professional attitude they have displayed in previous weeks letting Adelaide play the dirty and some might say, unprofessional game they always do against Victory. With an early professional foul on Flores that went unnoticed by the ref, Adelaide looked panicked as was evident by Jeronimo’s miss from about 2 inches in front of goal.

As usual, the machine that is Ange’s Victory took a while to get started as they sat back and observed Adelaide for the first 15 minutes of the half and easily dealt with any threats on Coe’s goal. Adelaide didn’t give Melbourne much time on the ball but didn’t look threatening themselves.

After 20 minutes, the game developed a bit of a flow with Adelaide giving more space to Victory’s inexperienced midfield and still relying on fouls to stop Victory’s attack which worked much better than whatever Victory was serving up. With Adelaide playing on raw emotion due to a lack of skill, class and general likeability, Flores copped a beating from John McCain as he was elbowed in the head. I hope the MRP look into that like they did Mark Milligan but I won’t hold my breath.

Jeronimo finally found the back of the net in the 42nd minute as Victory weren’t offering much in the way of resistance and looked totally shell-shocked by Adelaide’s brutal approach to the game. Adelaide did their homework and knew that playing dirty was the only way to get the better of Victory as we saw when we struggled against Central Coast a few weeks ago in Tasmania.

Victory played the better football in the first half but Adelaide got their goal through sheer determination and intimidation and they went into the break with a 1-0 lead. Victory knew how Adelaide plays their football against us and there are no excuses for not dealing with it, it was a rather weak performance from Victory and didn’t bode well for the 2nd half.

The 2nd half got off to a great start with Adelaide playing a style of football more in line with the rules of the game with Victory still looking relaxed and being bullied by the Reds, but this time with skill instead of elbows. Adelaide was still poor in front of goal and should have been a couple of goals up due to some horrible defending from Victory and confusion in the midfield.

Connor Pain was the only shining light for Victory being the only player who could hold onto the ball for any amount of time but without any support, his possession and balls into the area were futile as Victory fumbled their way through the 2nd half.

Jared Gillett, in his 50th game must have been replaced by a doppelgänger at half time because he wasn’t the same man he was in the first. Out of all the players to give a straight red to, Adama Traore is the last person to deserve one yet in his ‘wisdom’, instead of booking McCain for simulation, he sent Traore off for “dangerous play”.

After Traore got a straight red for NOTHING, I’m lucky my laptop still has a functioning screen and I’m not picking glass out of my knuckles. The red card also did nothing to spur on Victory as they just sat back and took it from Adelaide while saying “thank you sir, may I have another?”, while also providing the KY and even buying the Reds some flowers for their trouble.

I usually don’t use cuss words when I write these reports but Victory put in a pissweak performance. It was painful to watch and while there are other words to describe how we played, another word to describe fecal matter is probably the most apt.

This was a game where players like Bru, Stella and Makarounis had the opportunity to show their worth but were practically anonymous for the entire game. Those players were not the only ones at fault as no one in the Victory squad, apart from Connor Pain, put in any effort; it was almost as if they didn’t know what this game means to the fans.

I’m too angry to write anything constructive for this last paragraph (or the whole article really), I’m having a beer, a ciggie and watching the Australian Baseball League grand final… BAH HUMBUG.

Votes: 3 – Connor Pain, 2 – Adama Traore, 1 – Jim Webster (I had to watch that game, I deserve something, even if it is a point from myself).