An ill wind blows in Melbourne

There is nothing like a red card to get everybody out of their seat and on Friday night provided that opportunity in the Victory's 2-0 loss to the Newcastle Jets . It even raised the supporter groups on the third level out of their committed silent protest at their treatment by the Telstra Dome administration. That incident being a stray Steve Pantelidis' elbow supposedly to the face of Newcastle's Joel Griffiths (who is slowly becoming the most hated player outside of Newcastle). Griffiths' who went down as if shot (nothing new here) but as soon the red card was produced, was up and remonstrating with the Melbourne players. Replays clearly show Pantelidis' elbow connecting with the upper chest of Griffiths and not his face.

I'm currently reading the The Beautiful Game: A Journey Through Latin American Football where Argentinian Mauricio Taricco, an early import into the English game, who candidly talks about feigning injury to get someone sent off .

". . . If someone is really important in their team, I'll try to provoke him so that he retaliates and gets sent off. But that's an advantage that you can give the team because if you're playing against ten men, you've got an advantage. In Argentina it's accepted. If you get someone sent off, after the game the coach will see it as a good move."

I'm not saying Pantelidis is the most important player in the team but having a man advantage a distinct plus when holding onto an one goal lead. The incident which will obviously be hotly debated, took the wind out the sails of the Victory who were constantly on the attack until that point but not finding that killer finishing touch.

That probably was the real story of the night and should be discussed in more detail. The Victory dominated vast periods of the game possession-wise but were unable to find a way through the Jets' defence who were playing a competent counter attacking game away from home. For me, the reason for the inability to break down the defence was the inability of our wingers to draw players out of position and put in good crosses. Too often when given the chance, our wingers and particular Keenan, who had large amounts of the ball would cut back into the already crowded midfield when there was was an opportunity to take his man on and stretch the defence. Kemp, on the other wing was trying to take on the Jets but for me he never looks that confident on the ball.

The solution is not that difficult and its on our bench, his name is Caceres, a player who is not afraid to take on his man, can put in a decent cross and also possesses a decent shot as well. So Ernie, please put Caceres on from the start so we can get some decent width into our game. Its also my wish also to see Caceres and Hernandez have a decent spell of time together on the pitch as I believe it could be the making of key offensive combination. For me the better players on the night were Hernandez and Thompson, whom it appears are starting to gel as a partnership and are constantly on the look out for each other in the attacking third. Matthew Breeze, was in charge for the game, had a shocker and the boys MVFC Blog have discussed this in greater detail in their discussion of the game.

There was a lot of positives from Friday's nights game as well as a few negatives as already stated it will be interesting to see how the players and coaching react for next week's game against Central Coast at the Bluetongue Stadium. I will be most probably be down at the Charles Dickens Tavern watching the game.