Someone mentioned to me the phrase “points where we don’t deserve them” when talking about our match against the Fury. I think that against Brisbane we got no points when we at least deserved one.
Someone mentioned to me the phrase “points where we don-t deserve them” when talking about our match against the Fury. I think that against Brisbane we got no points when we at least deserved one.
The Fury match has gone now and, thankfully, a lot of the discussion about our two goals has died down. In football, there will always be decisions that people won-t agree with.
As for the first goal, my feeling is that Eli checked his run at the last second and was in line with Rutger when the ball was played. And even then, it was so close that the linesman has to give the advantage to the attacker.
As for the second goal, even Gerald admitted that it hit his hand, however he questioned whether it was hand-to-ball or ball-to-hand. It-s a 50-50 call, and I wouldn-t be surprised if some referees gave a free for it, but it went our way.
Let-s look at the positives from that game.
After playing a shocking first half with zero shots at all, we dominated the first twenty minutes of the second half and scored three goals with three opportunities. From 1-0 down to 3-1 up in a short period of time, that-s a good turn around.
Gerald got his first goal from open play, which bodes well for him. Wayne Srhoj had a blinder and dominated the midfield in the second half.
Rutger, with another top notch performance, has become irreplaceable for us now. He is easily our most in form player and his work down the left wing has been top class. Which brings me to the Brisbane match.
This was a serious game of two halves. A friend of mine who saw the game told me that, if you didn-t know where teams were placed on the ladder, you-d assume at half time that we were top of the table and they were cellar dwellers.
We dominated them, let-s be honest. The first goal was a brilliant build up and top-class work from Marrone to cut back inside his defender and set Gerald up for his second goal in as many matches.
If Rutger-s header had gone in, whether off the post or off Theoklitos, the game would-ve been a different story at half time. 1-0 against the ladder leaders isn-t a safe position at all, and having a two goal buffer would-ve been slightly more comfortable. We all know what happened next, so I won-t bother talking about it.
The next few matches we-ve got, however, are going to be absolutely crucial to where we-ll sit at the end of the year. Three games in eight days and, honestly, we-ve got a good shot at walking away with nine points from these.
Adelaide are reeling with three defeats in four games, Wellington-s home ground advantage has been broken and Sydney are a shadow of the team that won last year-s championship, so to go undefeated in these matches should be our minimum aim.
Ideally, though, we want maximum points from all games. This stretch will test the depth to our squad. Kalmar should get a few matches starting and Heffernan should return to the squad for some of the matches.
We-ve got a good 16-17 players who can play comfortably in our starting XI, so it-ll be good to see that depth come to play in the coming games.
As for checking these matches out, head to the Imperial Hotel this Friday night from 5:30pm to have a few pre-drinks, a meal and then join the Imperial March down to AAMI Park to see our boys demoralise the Reds!
Yours in support,
– The Punter
www.redwhiteunite.com – The home of all Melbourne Heart supporters
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Melbourne Heart FC.
