The Glory had right to feel hopeful entering the weekend’s game against Melbourne City.
Their last outing against City was the FFA Cup semi-final, a significant contest for both teams, in which the Glory prevailed 3-1. It is always much easier coming up against a side you know you have beaten in recent times, a factor the coaches would not mull over, but the players would use as motivation nonetheless.
City have shown flashes of brilliance throughout the season, but the constant throughout it has been inconsistency. The differential between their best and worst has been substantial, a continual trend in the short history of the club that has resulted in John van’t Schip’s reign at the helm being one of a shaky existence. The club’s form has often replicated that of a seesaw.
Despite the reasons why the Glory could hold onto an underlying sense of belief as they entered AAMI Park on Friday night, circumstances had changed drastically since the sides’ last meeting. If the Glory were able to genuinely hold onto some kind of hope from the FFA Cup semi-final, they may have had to dig deep down to bring it to the surface, as confidence is not an easy characteristic to muster up when your performances have been well below par. The equation simply does not add up.
The Glory’s last win against City was within the comforts of home. The venue the game is located at cannot be disregarded; it is home ground advantage for a reason. The Glory were missing key personnel and the current predicament of their injury list is starting to take a toll, growing by the week. Dino Djulbic, Gyorgy Sandor, Guyon Fernandez, Ruben Zadkovich, Josh Risdon and Alex Grant were all absentees from the weekend’s match, either through injury or other means. It is hard to know how to go about completing the jigsaw puzzle, when not only quantity but quality is missing.
However, the most decisive factor that contributed to the Glory’s embarrassing 5-1 drubbing was the influence of one particular individual, Aaron Mooy. It was almost a month and a half ago since the Glory took on City, a short time period in the scheme of things, although Mooy is seemingly, scarily, on a completely different level now, then he was then. It is hard to argue against Mooy being the best player in the A-League as we speak after he delivered an individual masterclass on Friday night. He is skilful, creative, intelligent, unselfish, composed and has a nous for finding the back of the net when called upon. His list of positive attributes is extensive.
All this contributed to the Glory’s capitulation on Friday night, but they are not excuses. Despite creating a number of opportunities themselves, the Glory were convincingly outplayed, which the scorecard exemplified, and it in itself is most important.
Glory skipper Richard Garcia has denied the side has hit rock bottom and believes the loss could act as a catalyst for a turnaround. Sometimes you need to break so the pieces can be put back together. No two ways about it, the Glory players would have been shattered with their effort at the weekend; it was humiliating.
While the Glory appear in dire straits, sometimes perspective is needed. One has to admire Garcia’s positivity in a time of great difficulty, a situation that you can be sure he would be frustrated at. The Glory sit only one point ahead of cellar dwellers Adelaide United, but remarkably they are only two and a half games outside the top six with 19 rounds remaining. They can adopt an attitude of optimism out of the comfort of that fact alone. Coincidently, it is the cellar dwellers they face this weekend.
Glory’s finals chances cannot be discredited just yet, it is still very much in the realms of possibility that they could be there when the whips are cracking.
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