Lacklustre Melbourne Victory Humilated 3-0 At Home By Rivals Sydney FC

Sydney FC comfortably defeated an insipid Melbourne Victory 3-0 on Friday night, retaining top spot ahead of Perth Glory and stretching their lead over the defending champions to five points, who now lie in third place.

The game was billed as the season’s first block buster and a crowd of 30,000 took their seats at Etihad Stadium to witness the clash between two of the A-League’s powerhouses.

Victory started unchanged from last week’s win 2-1 home win against Brisbane Roar, while Sydney FC made one change enforced through injury, with Sebastian Ryall moving into central defence and Shannon Cole slotting in at right back.

The game started at a crisp pace, with both sides closing the ball down well and neither side able to retain possession for long periods.

The first real chance came in the second minute, when the ball broke to Carlos Hernandez on the edge of the Sydney box. The Costa Rican international (left out of the squad for this week’s World Cup qualifiers) fed in Ney Fabiano on the left, but Fabiano shot well wide from an increasingly tight angle.

After escaping some early Victory pressure unscathed, Sydney came into their own, retaining possession and gaining the upper hand in the process. Moving the ball faster than their opponents, Sydney began to make their numbers count against Melbourne’s exposed three-man defence.

The opening goal came in the 13th minute, as Simon Colossimo found the space on the left wing to send a dangerous, in swinging cross into the Victory area. Alex Brosque managed to get his head on the ball before any Victory defender and sent a looping header into the net to give Sydney the lead.

Minutes later and a series of neat passes saw Sydney advance into the Melbourne half. Badly undermanned in midfield, the Victory players could only watch as Terry McFlynn played an accurate ball forward to Mark Bridge.

Loose marking by Rodrigo Varkas provided the striker with the time and space to control the ball and he duly struck low to Glenn Moss’s left, putting Sydney 2-0 up.

The damage was well and truly done shortly afterwards as a good exchange of one touch passing on the right wing played in Karol Kisel, who reached the byline and sent a hopeful cross towards the centre of box. Mark Bridge reached the ball ahead of his marker once again to hit his second of the evening and Syndey’s third with a crisp half volley, effectively putting the game beyond Melbourne’s reach in the 20th minute.

With the visitors enjoying a comfortable lead so quickly in the game, a shell shocked Victory struggled to make any real impact in the first half. Ernie Merrick’s three-man defence continued to be exposed against Sydney pacy counter-attacks, while any rare forays forward for Victory ended in disappointment, with Archie Thompson in particularly squandering both shots and crossing opportunities.

Key midfielder Carlos Hernandez was equally disappointing, failing to find any of the ball and looking decidedly off the quick pace set by Sydney.

The second half saw little improvement for the Victory, with Sydney justifiably content to keep numbers behind the ball and frustrate the majority of Victory attacks.

Matthew Kemp offered some rare moments of promise on the right flank before being replaced by Evan Berger on 64 minutes. Berger proved a willing replacement but found little assistance from his lacklustre team mates.

Melbourne’s best spell of the game came in the last 20 minutes, with Sydney finally allowing their hosts to gain a share of possession. A sequence of one-two passes between Hernadez and Thompson in the 69th minute led to the latter breaking into the box and shooting over. Shortly after Thompson again threatened the Sydney goal but shot well wide.

Melbourne’s late pressure was largely wasted in a series of ineffectual free kicks and stifled advances. An 84th minute corner summed up Melbourne’s efforts going forward, when Vargas found himself unmarked and somehow contrived to head well wide from 6 yards out.

Sydney will be delighted with this heavy defeat of the defending champions on home soil, silencing the biggest crowd of the season and making a statement of intent to the rest of the league.

Ernie Merrick and the Victory players would want to put this down as a freak performance, the victims of a nightmare five-minute period that left them buried before the game really began.

Merrick may well need to reevaluate his defensive set up if he hopes to challenge effectively this season and will ask for much more desire and urgency from his players when they face Newcastle away next weekend.