Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Melbourne Victory produced a calculated and clinical display of counter-attacking football to square the derby ledger with Melbourne Heart in front of a raucous crowd of 23,000 at AAMI Park last night.
The Victory strike pair of Robbie Kruse and Archie Thompson used their speed and movement to devastating effect with Kruse scoring a brace and man of the match Thompson setting up two goals, including Kruse’s opener.
Adrian Leijer nabbed the other goal for Victory while Gerald Sibon scored an inch-perfect free-kick for the Melbourne Heart in what was another fantastic advertisement for attacking football in the A-League. After a few weeks of heartache this was just the tonic for local football fans.
A vibrant crowd of 23,000 packed in to AAMI Park to see the second Melbourne derby and both the Victory and Heart fans were in full voice which made for an electrifying atmosphere. Despite its infancy, it was clearly evident the rivalry between supporter groups is growing by the week.
There was a shock before kick-off with current Socceroo Michael Beauchamp being dropped in favour of vice-captain Matt Thompson partnering skipper Simon Colosimo in the centre of the Heart defence.
It was to prove a costly error as it was Thompson’s horrible miscontrol at the back on 28 minutes that let Kruse in to score his second goal through the legs of Clint Bolton.
The Heart had entered the game without scoring in 540 minutes of football and that trend did not look like changing in the early going with Victory dominating the midfield. They duly converted their possession on 15 minutes as Hernandez slipped in Thompson who provided a slide-rule cross from the right for Kruse to tap in. It was slick, ruthless stuff.
The Victory’s joy was to be short lived however as Sibon threw up a contender for goal of the year with a stylish free kick on 18 minutes. The lanky Dutchman curled a sublime shot over the wall and into Michael Petkovic’s bottom right corner to give the Heart its first goal in 6 games.
The equaliser set up the game nicely as both sides set out for a second with the Heart looking dangerous down the flanks and the Victory causing all sorts danger on the counter-attack. However, despite the flowing football it was Thompson’s embarrassing gaffe that let the Victory take a 2-1 lead into half-time.
The Heart brought on Kristian Sarkies in place of Sibon at half-time and the former Victory player helped the Heart regain control of the midfield in the early going. Both Wayne Trohj and Nick Kalmer had guilt-edge chances to level the scores straight after the break before Simon Colosimo produced a stunning goal-line clearance to deny Hernandez the Victory’s third goal.
The Victory wouldn’t have to wait long however as Thompson received another silky pass from Hernandez on 54 minutes and duly drove a low ball across from the left touch-line for Leijer to bundle home over a hapless Bolton.
Despite the third goal the Heart would not give up and both Kalmar and Sarkies had shots hit the cross-bar in the final 20 minutes. It was equally exciting at the other end as substitute Tom Pondeljak had two one-on-one chances saved by Bolton in the space of two minutes.
Only in the final minutes did the game settle down as the Victory closed up shop to record a much-needed win.
