Patafta & No.13 - That's what I'm going put on my new Victory shirt

Kaz Patafta has long been seen as the next big thing in Australia and last night in front of about 3500 people at a rain soaked Olympic Park, he demonstrated why this is the case. Coming on in the second half of Victory 1-0 loss to Sydney FC, he dominated the midfield with his clean crisp passing and attack on the ball. He also let fly with a shot from distance that had Clint Bolton flapping at air and only the cross bar saved Bolton's blushes. Even though he is only on one season loan from Benfica, I think I'll be putting his name and number on the back of my new Victory shirt (when I get around to buying it). He is one of the future stars of Australian football and we should be privileged to have him playing in the A-League.

Apart from Patafta's performance it was a much improved effort from the Victory - even though they came away with another loss. In fact, they dominated long sections of the game and were largely untroubled by Sydney apart from the goal, that came from a scrappy clearance. Muscat started to show glimpses of how he dominated in the midfield last season and Hernandez was more in the game than last week and he started to gel more with Thompson and Allsopp. Although at times the ball was given up a little cheaply in the midfield. Caceres, when brought on midway through the second half was also impressive with his direct running at the Sydney defence. It was disappointing to see them lose again, especially at home to Sydney but when the main game starts in two weeks against the Wellington Phoenix I am sure the result will go our way.