Back Down To Earth

Melbourne 1 - Chonburi 3

Melbourne landed with a thud last night when Chonburi FC demonstrated to them just how difficult the AFC Champions League can be.

Melbourne had a right to feel confident going into the game, last weeks win against Chunnam had given the club and team a reason to walk tall but in the world of football last weeks performance at home can mean little when faced with the task of undoing a team on their home turf. As Sydney discovered last year, the conditions and opposition should not be underrated.

Ernie Merrick had decided to stick with the same line-up that was so impressive last week but it was like a different team took the field. The Victory we saw last night was more akin to the team that struggled badly in the first half of the 2006-2007 A-League season. Too many times in the first half Melbourne lost possession on the third or fourth pass, cheaply giving away the ball without placing the Chonburi defence under pressure. Adrian Caceres, Archie Thompson, Billy Celeski all struggled with the conditions and had poor games. If it wasn’t for Rodrigo Vargas and Matthew Kemp in the first half, Victory may have found themselves further behind at the break

Matthew Kemp again enjoyed the freedom to push forward and was clearly the most dangerous midfielder for Victory in the first half. The reshuffle of the team at half time was badly needed and the addition of Seb Ryall allowed both Muscat and Vargas to push forward a bit more. With Vasilevski also introduced at the expense of the disappointing Caceres, Melbourne suddenly looked much more comfortable at the back.

Although coming in questionable circumstances, the Victory equaliser was a well worked goal with Matthew Kemp providing a quality cross to Danny Allsopp. Throughout the second half Victory looked the better team and Chonburi appeared to be holding out for the draw. All credit to Chonburi manger Jadet Meelarp for the timely introduction of his Cameroon striker Stephane Baga, the tiring Victory players were instantly on the back foot and his first goal was one of the best you will ever see (a superb 30m strike that left Michael Theoklitos with no chance). His second came with Victory pushing hard for an equaliser and being caught too far up the pitch but again he took his chance with a poise that had been lacking from both sides throughout the night.

Once again last night Ernie Merrick decided til the last ten minutes to use Kaz Patafta, which I am sure with hindsight he would regret. Billy Celeski, poor the entire night, and Matthew Kemp, showing signs of Fatigue, should have been subbed much earlier. Chonburi would have been the prefect opponent to pitch Patafta in much earlier and I thought he could have been introduced at around the 60 min mark.

Where does this leave Melbourne ? Certainly not all is lost with Gamba Osaka and Chonburi drawing in the first round this loss has not been the disaster it could have been. However Melbourne must achieve full points against Gamba Osaka on April the 9th at home to have any chance of topping the group. No easy task but the Japanese team has shown that it is possible to score against them (allowing in four goals to date) and Melbourne should be encouraged by that.