Today was boxing day and playing host to the newest Melbourne Derby in the A-League competition with the newest Melbourne team, Western United hosting Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park. This game was controversial as the previous Melbourne Victory match was marred with poor crowd behaviour after the Melbourne City goalkeeper threw back a flare that was thrown onto the field triggering a calamitous series of events that has made the league organisers to only allow Melbourne Victory and Western United members and ticket holders of Western United supporters. Though the Punctual Football Fan is certainly no fan, nor member of either of these two teams playing this evening, I bought my ticket before the decision was made to suspend ticket sales to the general public. Now with that backdrop out of the way, let us talk about the match and what we are here for; food, drink and football.
Western United are the defending A-League champions after beating Melbourne City in the final who finished on top of the table and were expected to win the final. The defending champions have been struggling to string wins together in their title defence as they are sitting in 10th place and are starting to fall away from the top 6 pack. Melbourne Victory on the other hand, are also suffering from an inconsistent season and are just outside the top 6 with a win in this game putting them back into contention for the title challenge and into the top 6.
It was a warm evening with plenty of sunlight still and was much cooler inside the stadium with a bit of a swirling breeze inside the ground. Perhaps this is because there were not many people in the stadium, about 2700 actually, though had Melbourne Victory not had a ban placed upon their fans it might have been twice that amount or even about 10 thousand people. That would have been a good turn out for a boxing day match and for the league. But the events from the Melbourne City-Victory Derby put an end to that.
The game was a bit of a mess. By that meaning both teams could not get into their respective grooves and find their rhythms. The game was rather scrappy for both teams and when teams managed to settle down for a brief moment, they were unsettled by usually from a rash tackle and free kicks stalling any momentum they had built prior. This was especially the case when A-League journeyman Nikolai Topor-Stanley was given a straight red car in the 32nd minute for a rash challenge according to the referee as he went into the challenge with a raised right boot when going for the bouncy ball. Western United were down to 10 men and with such a disjointed game for both teams, it was going to be a challenge for the home side.
Western United managed to hold the storm from Melbourne Victory but the went a goal up from a set piece corner from Troisi connected with a Risdon header and Western United took the lead in the 45th minute. The game was 1-0 to Western United at the break. The second half was very much the same as the first, a scrappy affair where no team were able to find any flow or rhythm with scrappy fouls and free kicks conceded ruining any potential gains they were making.
Now onto the food and drink. The food was rather nice actually. I bought a hotdog and chicken tenders with chips and mustard sauce. The chips were nicely salted and were very crunchy and great taste, the chicken was very nice and the sauce complimented the chicken and went down a treat. As for the hotdog, it was a standard dog with the bun that is usually served at the AFL grounds. The dog was hot and didn't taste revolting and the bread tasted fresh and soft. Though the only down side was that I had ordered some mustard for it but I did not get it with the hotdog. However, the hotdog was very nice. The chicken tenders and chips cost 16 dollars with the hotdog costing 5.50 dollars. I also bought a Cascade light beer and a cider, going down a treat in the warm evening watching the football. The beer cost 8.30 and the cider cost 11.50. The going rate really at sporting venues around the country. I often wonder how people can drink copious amounts of alcohol during a sporting event in Australia with such ridiculous prices. Coke was 6 dollars and water was 5 dollars, that price for water is ridiculous and the coke 1 dollar too much.
My first time at AAMI park for an A-League football game would have been better given the circumstances of events occurring prior. However, the stadium is of a very high quality and it is a fantastic boutique stadium for the 30 thousand capacity that it can hold. It would be nice to see Perth's stadium develop into something like this as Perth Stadium (Optus) is just too huge and cannot cater for football as it is not designed for it. But for my first footballing experience in Melbourne's premier football stadium was something special and I do hope that Western United get their act together and build their stadium out in the western suburbs of Melbourne as promised as having multiple stadiums for Melbourne football is important for the game in the city, state and country to get better.
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