In Big Blue win, Victory gets a vital tonic

Calling their 2-0 win over Sydney a much-need one for Melbourne Victory feels too great an understatement, it snapping a six-game winless run and giving interim Arthur Diles a much-needed three points

Calling it a much-needed win for Melbourne Victory feels like too great an understatement. For the first time in 47 days, since Patrick Kisnorbo abruptly headed for the exit, they won a football match, defeating bitter Big Blue foes Sydney FC 2-0 thanks to goals from Nikos Vergos and Bruno Fornaroli. Interim coach Arthur Diles, thrust into the spotlight with strong backing only for that to dissipate into uncertain silence surrounding his role, will finally be able to go about his business with one, increasingly rancorous monkey on his back.

There was a feeling heading into Friday evening’s game that it represented something of a make-or-break game for Diles. Rumours continued to swirl that he had inked an agreement to formalise his role as something greater than interim but publicly there was nothing, no definitive word from the club one way or the other surrounding his future. He had declared “I'm not looking for security,” during the build-up but even if behind the scenes he felt quite supported, this lack of public stance from the club, one way or another, left him in a tenuous position; it much easier to call time on a decision that you never actually publicly acknowledged existed.

A failure to pick up three points would have made it seven games without a win for Victory, a quarter of an entire season that was supposed to be one in which the club challenged for silverware. Further, it would have come against one of the club’s deepest rivals, at home in one of the biggest games of the season. Yes, the nature of Kisnorbo’s shock exit and Diles’ unexpected ascension required a certain level of grace, and it wasn’t he who took a risk on the former Melbourne City legend nor was he the one committing the individual blunders costing the side in games. But in circumstances like this it’s always the coach, the one trotted out multiple times a week to be the face and voice of the club, that feels the harshest glare.

Which is why – even if he did his best to downplay any level of personal satisfaction in his post-game media duties – there must have been some level of catharsis for both Diles and the players when Lachlan Keevers blew his whistle to make their 2-0 triumph official. For the coach, there was the obvious, the avoidance of a potential comunicado oficial emanating from AAMI Park the following day.

But just as much he has been steadfast in preaching that neither he, his staff, nor the playing group was wavering, this win had to have been important for their esprit de corps, too. Because with every passing game, the anchor around necks this winless streak was becoming had to be getting heavier. And it was almost inevitably that such a weight would at some begin to subconsciously begin to chip away at spirit, effort, and desperation. It’s not a personal failure, that’s just human nature.

“This job is never easy for anybody,” Diles said. “It Doesn't matter whether you're winning or losing. In the end, the most important thing tonight is that the players have been rewarded for the last six games. That's all I care about. Yes, it gets a monkey off your back but in the end, they've been rewarded for their work and their performances, and that's that's the most important thing.

“We've got a really strong change room and a special change room and that's what gets you through these moments. In the end, if you're not together as a unit on and off the pitch, and if your change room is not strong, you can be vulnerable in these situations. That shows the quality of the change room as individuals and as footballers, and that's why you get your head above water eventually, and you keep doing the right things each day, and eventually, you'll be rewarded.”

Of the game itself, it wasn’t the best performance Victory has ever had. It might not even have been their most functional under Diles. But it got the job done.

After showing signs of promise in a helter-skelter opening, they took the lead when Vergos somehow found himself isolated against teenage wingback Zac De Jesus on a corner after 24 minutes and bulleted a header into the net. So far so good. But then there was something of a fadeout as the first half concluded; nerves inevitably rising in the home fans every time Sydney got forward given, based on their lived experience, that a goal was about to be immediately answered back by the opposition. A VAR review of a penalty given away by Roderick Miranda, subject to increasing scrutiny for gaffes during the winless run, then spared them a spot kick just before the main break.

There was this same level of underlying malice, a kind of fear that can only exist in an extended winless run has started to beat the optimism out of you, when Sydney came forward with regularity in the second half. Talay's side had 73% of the ball in the second 45, with a decent chunk of it inside Victory territory, completing 157 passes in the Victory half compared to the 19 that Victory completed in theirs. Diles would admit post-game that this was much more than he would have wanted and given the thrown-away leads of recent weeks, the 4-3 loss to Western United ago where they sat off too greatly and shipped two added-time goals an obvious example, the threat of a rug pull never felt like it was too far away.

However, whereas that loss to United was characterised by their opponents being able to work the ball into dangerous areas and to find in-form attackers in Hiroshi Ibusuki and Noah Botić, Sydney’s huffing and puffing amounted to very little.

For all their possession and territory, when it came time to get the ball into threatening positions and test Mitch Langerak in the Victory goal, they proved ineffectual, producing a single shot on target across the entire 90. This came from Patryk Klimala in the 39th minute, meaning that despite having all of the ball as they chased the game in the second stanza, a Sydney side that has scored the most goals in the league this season failed to force a single save. Making his first appearance for Victory in over a decade, Langerak played a significant role in this fortitude even if he didn’t need to use his hands much, his command of the penalty area and voice of leadership, marshalling the backline and bringing a presence that very few keepers, less than a handful in A-League Men history, possess.

“I think we had a total of eight shots today and one on target,” Talay glumly summarised. “Makes it difficult to score goals if we're not hitting the target and making the keeper work.”

Victory, in turn, were able to present enough a threat in transition that they had the same number of shots in the second half, four apiece, and were able to seal the game through Fornaroli in the 90th minute; the Socceroo muscling off Alexandar Popovic with casual ease as he chased down a Kasy Bos ball hoofed over the top, rounding Harrison Devenish-Meares as the keeper was caught in an indecisive no-mans-land, and kissing the ball into an open net.

"We've been so close to getting a win. I think this is now maybe the turning point which we needed," Ryan Teague said.

"There's great camaraderie between the boys. It's one of the best changing rooms I've ever been a part of.

"So I think now we're turning the tables. We've had good performances, but now we've got the result to match it.

"So hopefully, going into Perth this week, we go out there, put in a good performance, and win again."

For the Sky Blues, however, their season is going in a direction few anticipated when they rolled out their high-powered squad at its commencement. Frustrations are increasingly beginning to mount as to how they could find themselves in a position outside the top six with the most games played in the league and dogged by questions surrounding approach, square pegs being deployed in round holes, the lack of minutes for players like Jaiden Kucharski and the complete disappearance of Max Burgess, and a sudden gaping hole that has been opened up in defence by Hayden Matthews record-setting move to Portsmouth.

A week before helping Victory snap their streak, they had given a Brisbane Roar side setting records for ineptness their first win of the season, shipping four goals at home in the process. The last thing they can afford to become right now is Dr Sydney, the reviver of seasons.

“I agree with the expectation of the squad that we have, the players that we have,” said Talay. “I think it's the consistency of being able to maintain a starting XI, week in and week out, that has definitely hurt us. I think Douglas [Costa], one of our most important players, not being available for a long period of time has definitely hurt us in that position.

“Overall, I think we are a team that creates a lot of scoring opportunities. In the last maybe -- not this game we conceded two -- but in the prior seven weeks, we've been quite okay [defensively]. When we brought [Rhyan Grant] back in as a central defender, I think we've been a little more solid in that space.

“But we continue to go. We have the belief that we have a good team. We have good players. We can still finish in a good spot. It's not doom and gloom. There's plenty of time to go.”