For the neutral, Tuesday night’s 3-3 epic at AAMI Park was one for the ages but for City and Head Coach John van’t Schip, the match was a question of what could have been for the home side.
City took the lead three times and were pegged back on all three occasions against Perth as a 94th minute penalty to Bruno Fornaroli was saved by Glory keeper Liam Reddy.
The Dutchman made his disappointment obvious when speaking to the media post-match and said it was key decision making moments from his side that cost City the three points rather than the opposition’s creativity.
“Decision making in how to defend in those moments needs to be better,” he said.
“It starts with how we want to play and if we don’t do exactly the things we talked about that we worked on, and they can break through the lines and get easy opportunities,
“It’s easy to say Michael Jakobsen [is the difference] because he’s a good player, but I think there are some things that go wrong before those things happen.
“We’re humans and we’ve made mistakes, so we have to learn from this. We’ll have a review and see what we could have done better.”
The result keeps City in the hunting pack chasing league leaders Sydney FC and the draw is not disheartening van’t Schip’s squad who are keen to bounce back in a short turnaround to the match against the Mariners on New Year’s Eve.
“In football, a lot is possible. In this league winning a few games in a row – which is easier said than done – brings you back close to chasing, to getting pressure on teams [above you],” he said.
“We have to keep on working on what we want and make sure that we start collecting more points, because the last few week haven’t been enough.
“It’s still the halfway point in the league. We saw what happened with Adelaide last year going from the bottom and finishing first. We’re not at the bottom at the moment; we’re in the fourth position so everything is possible.
“It’s a short turnaround which I think is very good. We can prepare ourselves and try to make this game turned around into a win against Central Coast, which is going to be a tough game as well.”
Melbourne City take on the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford on Saturday 31 December at the earlier kick-off time at 7pm (AEDT). Bring in the New Year with your City and see the match live on Fox Sports 505.
