I was there.
I haven't read 600 odd posts in this thread. But here's what I saw and felt at the game.
First Half:
We came out and we were positive.
In
the first 22 minutes the foul count was 4 or 5 to 1 in our favour. It
MUST have been very close to tipping point where the ref was going to
lose patience, and a pile of yellows might flow against the Victory.
Almost ALL of these fouls were in the midfield. I've glanced at the
thread and it seems like the angst-o-meter has seen us obsess on Manny's
yellow. Truth be told, from where I was watching Manny actually played
pretty well. What we should be focusing on is the avalanche of yellows
that the Victory gave away early in the midfield.
Why was that?
Because we were all over them like a bad suit. Alex Rodriguez in
particular was playing like a man possessed when they had the ball. He
would come sprinting in from 20 or 30 metres away and close the Victory
down on their right/our left flank.
Riera, Liaand Roly were
playing superbly, individually and together as a hub, and Fenton, Manny,
Wee Mac and Burns were all feeding off Roly and Lia. We looked very
threatening going forward, and at the back we had the occasional blip -
mostly when Siggy was exposed for pace, but all in all they had really
threatened that much before the first goal. For the record I think
Fenton played superbly well.
The first goal really came
against the run of play. The people around me in the away bay just felt
shocked and deflated that we'd conceded after being so much in charge up
to that point.
After the goal, again MOSTLY we were the team
looking likely. They were threatening for sure on the break, where their
pace (particularly Kosta) was a threat, but in measured build up we
were more than holding our own.
I felt sure Burns was going to level it, but alas. We went in at half time and I felt really cheated to be 1 - 0 down.
Oh, and the Victory fans were F***ING Awesome in the first half. What an atmosphere!
Second Half:
I
was shocked to see A Rod hooked, but when I worked out that Eddie had
brought Brockie on I shrugged and thought, okay I can see what he is
doing, and someone had to make room to put a point man in.
However,
the second half just saw us gradually overwhelmed. Wee Mac in
particular was almost totally non-existent in the second half. The
midfield dominance first of all evaporated (Maybe not having A Rod on
was a big factor?) and then it was reversed. We were no longer winning a
lot of fouls - I think because we were not frustrating the Victory
midfield - in the first half we were pressuring and rushing them and
they were giving the ball away, and then coming back and committing
fouls. The pressing disappeared, they were no longer as rushed, they
kept the ball more, and didn't retaliate, and the foul count dropped.
The second goal was awful. It completely killed our morale.
The
highlight of the second half was the Victory crowd. They were awesome
in the first half and went stratospheric in the second half. The North
Terrace were ON FIRE. It was worth going just to see them.
I left
the ground and had a good chat with a couple of Victory fans on the walk
back to South Yarra. It was a disappointing result but a good night.
One day Roger Fitch, one day...