Thursday’s Australia Day “Big Blue” between the Hyundai A-League’s two glamour sides will be approached with an air of collective desperation not often associated with Sydney FC or Melbourne Victory.
Thursday’s Australia Day “Big Blue” between the Hyundai A-League’s two glamour sides will be approached with an air of collective desperation not often associated with Sydney FC or Melbourne Victory.
Indeed the 2011-12 season, one that promised so much for the Victory and Sky Blues, has been marked by a sharp fall for both, with a dog-fight for the last place in the top six on offer rather than any affirmation of the clubs’ title ambitions.
Melbourne lie unfamiliarly in seventh, four points behind Sydney, who occupy the last finals spot with eight matches to go and with a game in hand.
With the resurgent Perth Glory two points ahead of Sydney and seemingly firing on all cylinders, and Adelaide and Newcastle breathing down their necks, and also with a game in hand, Thursday’s clash looms as a make-or-break encounter for both sides.
A new coach hasn’t altered Victory’s fortunes as of yet and for all the waves of positivity that back-ended their opening 1-1 draw under Jim Magilton’s tenure, the reality check they received on Sunday in Perth served to undo all that and left Victory fans with more questions than answers.
The 4-1 hammering Glory dished out was arguably Victory’s worst performance of a stuttering season, including the string of uncharacteristically disjointed displays under the much maligned Mehmet Durakovic before he was dismissed.
Victory have picked up just one point of a possible six under Magilton and for all his positive rhetoric, nothing appears to have changed.
That so much was expected of both sides prior to the season’s kick-off probably hasn’t helped.
Victory pulled off the signing of Harry Kewell, the biggest in domestic football history and arguably Australian sport, while the Sky Blues didn’t do too badly themselves in luring Socceroos’ stalwart Brett Emerton.
That the pair have failed to inject life into their respective sides on a regular basis says a lot about the quality of the competition and perhaps even a misjudgement on their part as to how difficult it is to adapt to life in the A-League.
Admittedly, Kewell has started to find his feet. His three goals this campaign, including a stunner against Brisbane on New Year’s Eve, have somewhat coincided with his switch to a permanent spot on the left of midfield, even if two have come from the penalty spot.
He has shown a renewed verve in recent outings, creating and causing problems for opposing defences alike.
Emerton, too, has three goals this season, and has warmed similarly to the league.
The former Blackburn man missed the chance to win the respective encounter from the penalty spot when the sides played out a goalless draw on the opening day of the season, a memory he will want to erase on Thursday.
Kewell’s performance in that match lacked the kind of conviction he has shown of late but both he and the experienced Emerton will know the importance their late-season form could have on both sides’ chances of salvaging disappointing seasons in time for the finals, starting Thursday.
