Perth Glory played host to one of
the A-League's power houses of Melbourne Victory on a (I sound like I am a
broken record but I have to set the scene for each game here!) warm and
beautiful Perth evening that would not be an uneventful game and was definitely
worth making it to and watching. With Perth Glory going through some very
rough, turbulent, ridiculous and uncertain times ahead regarding their
ownership, license and their liquidation being all over the place; it is such a
shame that the once mighty club of the National Soccer League has been on the
downward slide for almost two decades. I am simply glad that Tony Sage has had
his tight grip on the team loosen and his disingenuous and two-faced actions
over the years has finally culminated in his removal. That is all I will
comment on that matter but I think it is the much needed first step to give
Perth Glory, or whatever franchise in Perth that would be its successor for an
improvement in fortunes on and off the pitch for football in Western Australia
and Perth.
Melbourne is headed by the
former Perth Glory premiership winning coach in Tony Popovic and his in-form
Melbourne Victory do consist of many former Perth Glory players who were part
of Popovic's campaign that topped the table, winning the premiership but
falling short to that elusive Championship trophy. Melbourne looked intent on
playing hard, determined and unfazed with what the hosts would try to throw at
them. Melbourne was wanting to walk away with an easy three points but found
out that Perth was not going to roll over and give up the full set of points
that easily.
Perth opened the lead in the
21st minute with a beautiful Taggart strike outside of the box and had thrown a
spanner in the works for the visitors and looked rather rattled and were
struggling to regroup. Melbourne had found their feet and were looking very
threatening as Perth were getting stretched and were at times looking to be
over-run by the pressing Melbourne attacks. The Perth goalkeeper definitely
kept the men in purple in the hunt for either a share of the points or possibly
full spoils as the defence were constantly under pressure and were constantly
leaving him exposed to potent Victory strikes.
Melbourne levelled the scores
at the 42nd mark with a Machach goal that really punched a hole in the Glory's
sails that really had rattled them and began to allow Melbourne to simply play
to their strengths and to begin to dictate terms to Perth and have them on the
run leading into half time. The scores at half time were 1-1. Perth was at
times looking threatening but they were a flawed collective as their ball
movement was slow, they were not able to transition quick enough and there were
not options when they were trying to venture forward to try and score.
Melbourne was able to get back, chase them down quickly and apply uncomfortable
pressure upon Perth's defence at times breaking them open and missing many
golden opportunities.
Melbourne finally found that
breakthrough in the 82nd minute with Adams stabbing the ball home into the back
of the net as Perth were just once again caught all at sea and were broken
open, leaving the keeper isolated and facing a difficult save. Perth was
stunned and rattled for a bit but Perth was throwing everything they could to
venture up forward and it was in the 89th minute that Perth was able to salvage
a goal and once again bring the scores level at 2-2 with a brilliant
Majekodunmi strike. Perth had their tails up from that strike and it looked
like that they would be heading to the final whistle with sharing the spoils.
However, this is Perth Glory that we are talking about and they were just oddly
deciding to 'turtle' up and trying to soak as much pressure as possible from
Melbourne. While this can be successful for other better equipped teams, Perth
is certainly not one of those. Victory was all over them and were shelling the
goals like a World War I artillery barrage hoping to pound the defending
trenches into oblivion to gain the ground. It was just like that and Perth were
holding on by the skin of their teeth.
It all finally came unravelling
with Melbourne's Folami scoring the winner in the 96th minute after Perth's
desperate defending for 7 minutes of stoppage time finally collapsed. Melbourne
would head back home with full points and on top of the league as 2-3 winners
in front of a 6,400 crowd. Now time to talk about the food and drink.
This time round I did not eat
any of the food that was on offer except for some crisps or chips but it was a
rather warmish, balmy evening so I was rather thirsty. Pepsi was 6.50 and
mid-strength Johnnie Walker was 14 dollars. Bit rough for mid-strength and I
understand it is to curtail the excessive drinking but I have always thought
that this is rather excessive. these drinks should be around the 10-dollar
mark, maybe 11 tops. The queues were long for hot food and I was not in the
mood to try some and feel yet again disappointed, so we only had packets of
cheese Twisties and honey soy and chicken Red Rock Deli chips. While these are
classic chip (crisp) flavours in the land down under, yes, the dollar amount
for these is too much for what you get; both packs coming in. These each were
5.50 but I would have preferred something hot but I just was not prepared to
wait in line.
Despite Perth playing poorly, which is nothing new as I am very accustomed to this, it is always nice to get out of the house and to enjoy watching some football with the city as a beautiful backdrop. Hopefully Perth turns it around on the park, but I think that it will be a tough task.
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