Yet again Melbourne Victory claimed the bragging rights over the Sky Blues after a battling 1-0 win in the Australia Day Big Blue.
It did not take long for Melbourne to create the first chance of the game as Besart Berisha was put clean through with only one minute on the clock, though Vedran Janjetovic was quick off his line to stop the clinical marksman from opening the scoring.
The game went into a bit of a lull for the rest of the early stages, with both sides producing some crunching challenges as they arm-wrestled for the right to play.
The second 45 minutes saw more chances being created, however, the Sydney defence was finally broken as substitute Jesse Makarounas got in behind Rhyan Grant and produced a dangerous cross that Matt Jurman could only deflect into the back of his own net, with Berisha lurking just behind him for the tap-in.
Andrew Hoole then had a great opportunity only minutes later to level the scores, but failed to get enough purchase on his shot and Vukovic was able to get two strong hands to the ball and deflect it well out of harms way.
The Victory were then able to sit back and absorb any Sydney pressure to see out the game and yet again pick up the three points over their bitter rivals.
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Sydney FC’s resolute defending
The Sky Blues went to the Etihad and looked as though they only had one tactic, parking the bus in the hope of either securing a bore draw or possibly a goal on the counter. It did work to great affect, managing to frustrate not only the Victory players, but the fans too for much of the game, though when teams have the mindset of defending it is very hard to then switch to attacking to try and chase the game.
To Victory’s credit, they stuck to it and continued to press the Sydney team all over the park which did not allow them to play out of the back. Sydney were also quick to press the ball after they lost it and with both teams applying the same pressure the game fell into a stop, start contest.
Berisha left isolated
Berisha, who always is a key man for the Victory, was left very isolated up front at times and made it easy for the Sydney defenders to pick up the seconds.
On a number of occasions, the Albanian would show and receive the ball to his feet but then lacked the support to be able to play and then spin in behind and the Sky Blues were able to quickly pounce on his second or third touch and win the ball back.
It was only until the second-half that Kevin Muscat’s men were able to support the striker and this came down to the Sydney defenders and midfielders tiring. Tavares was key to this as he was the one that was tracking the forward runs of Finkler and stopped him from receiving many balls from Berisha and being able to influence the game.
Barbarouses at it again
The New Zealand international just seems to be getting better and better in recent weeks and this has somewhat matched the Melbourne Victory rise up the table.
Grant did do a good job on Kosta Barbarouses for 60 odd minutes in this match, but eventually he could not keep up with the Kiwi and his pace and skill showed, getting in behind the Sky Blues defenders and whipping in a number of dangerous crosses.
Barbarouses has not shied away from the ball in recent weeks and will drift in field if he does not receive it, which again is credit to Grant as he forced the playmaker to drift inside and crowd the midfield area. But at the end of the day Barabarouses had the last laugh and yet again picked up the three points in the Outside90 Player of the Year race.
Outside90 Player of the Year
3 – Kosta Barbarouses
2 – Mickael Tavares
1 – Leigh Broxham
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