More possession. More shots. More corners. More play. Zero goals. Not the result we wanted.
More possession. More shots. More corners. More play. Zero goals. Not the result we wanted.
I can confidently say that we dominated Gold Coast United. Having watched the replay of the match and seen their one shot on target, our clean sheet was never in doubt. Defensively, we were outstanding.
Both of our full backs were accountable in defence and impressive moving forward. Nothing looked likely to get between Beauchamp and Thompson. Despite a few iffy touches early on, Clint Bolton could have slept in goals and had a clean sheet.
Defence doesn-t always win you games, though, and we didn-t take advantage of our dominance on the scoreboard. We certainly had a youthful forward half.
When Rutger Worm, 24, is the most experienced forward on the park, you know that you-ve got a young attacking force.
Despite their supposed inexperience, our young players were fairly composed. Zahra didn-t have as good a match as he did against Wellington, but was still pretty heavily involved on the ring wing.
Babalj stepped into Aloisi-s shoes well, but his rustiness after having not trained with the team for a while and not played in the U19s as much as expected was apparent.
The biggest bonus for our young players was Aziz Behich. I can-t speak highly enough of him and how far his development has come. Having begun his time with us as a left winger, he has converted himself into a left back with aplomb.
With no Dean Heffernan against the Victory and Gold Coast, Aziz has pushed his case to own that left back position. On current form, it would take a monumental effort from Heffernan to unseat Aziz.
Overall, it was a frustrating match. We certainly deserved the three points, but if you don-t score, you can-t win. Hopefully with Sibon back this week, we-ll be able to put a few more goals away.
The furore surrounding the handling of Energy Australia Stadium is understandable. For far too long, football has allowed itself to play second fiddle to other sports in this country.
Playing on poor surfaces can increase the risk of serious injury to players (specifically knee injuries) and we need to have our team as fit as possible this season.
Hopefully, when we play the Jets, we can come away with a win, and this time our goal won-t come from the boot of Kantarovski.
On a side note, thanks to everyone who sat at the Olympic End and got involved with chants. It was obvious to all that the atmosphere we-re aiming to create isn-t an active or terrace style of support, but one that is open to all and encourages casuals and families to get loudly behind our team.
My dream is that one day the whole of AAMI Park is filled with a sea of Red and White, chanting as one, spurring the Heart on to win championship after championship. For now, we-ve made a start and we-ll continue to grow with every match.
If you haven-t got anywhere to watch the match this weekend, or if you want to meet other Heart fans in a fun and friendly environment, get down to the Imperial Hotel from 1:30pm to watch us send the Jets crashing!
Yours in support,
– The Punter
www.redwhiteunite.com – The home for all Melbourne Heart supporters
