Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick has attributed two silly errors for his side’s 2-0 loss to K-League side Seongnam Ilhwa in the AFC Champions League on Tuesday night.
Melbourne’s defeat leaves it winless after two games, with Merrick conceding that another slip-up would be fatal to his team’s hopes of making the final 16.
“We probably have to go unbeaten from here. I don’t think we have to win every game but if we give away another game, I think we’ll struggle,” he said.
“It’s not going to be easy. Seongnam are at least one of the teams that has won two games. Hopefully the results will fall favourably for us with the other teams. I always feel you are in with a good chance when you are playing in a group of four where two go through to the next level.”
Merrick said two mistakes from set pieces proved costly in the match, but refused to blame the hectic schedule which saw his side back up just 48 hours after an epic semi-final success against Sydney.
“I won’t take anything away from Seongnam, they played good football. It came down to two set plays, the way we used to concede goals in the first half of the season,” he said.
“I’ve just came away from a players meeting. I praised the players. I thought they played terrific football and we created some really good goal scoring opportunities inside the 18-yard box. Had we put away one or two of those, I think it would have been a different game.”
Seongnam Ilhwa coach Shin Tae-Yong believes another win will be good enough to get the Korean side into the second round of the continental club showpiece.
Two defenders, Australian-born Sasa Ognenovski and local talent Yun Young-Sun scored goals in either half as Seongnam kept its ACL campaign perfect with a convincing win at Docklands Stadium.
It means that Seongnam and Beijing Guoan, who defeated Kawasaki Frontale in the other match, are both on six points, while the other two teams remain pointless.
“Two games, and we’ve won two, which we are happy about. One more win and we’ll be in a very good position to go into the round of 16,” Shin said.
Shin praised the influence of Ognenovski, who returned to the city of his birth to score the opening goal, while providing his usual staunch effort in defence.
“I coached with Sasa in Brisbane. I’ve always kept my eye on him. I have seen how strong he is and when I got the chance to pick him up, I took it,” he said.
“It is not usual for us to have two defenders score. The attacking players struggled out there today. They should have been more effective, but struggled.”
Shin said the performance was far from his team’s best, but any away win in the ACL was very valuable.
“Both teams looked very tired. I don’t think either side would be satisfied with the standard of play. The surface of the ground didn’t help. It will be a much better game if the surface wasn’t so bumpy,” he said.
“Both teams got very tired because of the surface, and we expected to play better, but we are happy with the outcome.”
