Summary
Some might have fancied Melbourne City going into this one given the sheer quality of their squad, but I imagine few would have pictured the absolute severity with which they put Melbourne Victory to the sword.
Second-best in every category tonight, the hosts just didn’t get a toe-hold in midfield, and their big names up front were denied service.
It started testily, and despite City’s dominance for about twenty or so minutes the niggle you’d associate with a derby meant no real rhythm developed. But if it looked like descending into the mire an absolute moment of real brilliance elevated this contest.
Tim Cahill. Does this bloke ever stop delivering? Scroll down and find the vision – it’s a 40 yard screamer, and he’s announced his presence back in Australia and the A-League.
He had an absolutely brilliant supporting cast; Kamau was electric, Fornaroli as slippery and wily as we knew last season, and Brandan an energetic presence and thorn in the defence.
Asked what went wrong post-game, coach Kevin Muscat answered: “Well, where do you start?”
“Structurally we were very, very poor. We lost our composure – it was an arm-wrestle that we were second best in.”
So shots fired in the A-League. If people thought Sydney FC sent a message last week in the Sydney derby, that was nothing compared to what City just threw down.
The challenge will be to back this up week-in, week-out, but for now it’s all about cross-city bragging rights; and they’ve send the Victory home with their tails between their legs.
Full-time: Melbourne Victory 1-4 Melbourne City
90 + 4 min: Huge chance for Fitzgerald right at the death, but Thomas does well to save at his feet, with the former Mariner one-on-one.
And that’s it! An absolute shellacking from City. If you were in any doubt about which Melbourne side is running strong early this season, now you know. The ‘noisy neighbours’ downunder have gone to their biggest rivals backyard, and they’ve played them off the park.
90 + 1 min: Valeri with a big up-and-under looking for Rojas, but it veers harmlessly out. City play it round the back, before turning it over.
Victory with a late chance – and it falls to Leigh Broxham, who sneaks round the back but stabs a difficult bouncing ball just over the crossbar!
Let off for City, in fairness a 4-2 scoreline would heavily flatter Victory. You could almost argue a 4-1 scoreline already does.
89 min: The early aggression and heat has very much gone out of this one, with Victory players in particular you’d imagine just hoping for the full-time whistle.
Fornaroli almost toys with Geria down City’s left flank. There are four minutes of additional time shown by the fourth official.
87 min: Fornaroli turns Donachie well, and earns his side a corner. He urges the crowd to lift. To be fair to the Uruguayan, his team have been absolutely dominant in every single footballing category today – except for in numbers in the stands.
Will performances like this convert a new generation of City fans? You’d imagine.
85 min: Right on cue, Victory muster a decent half-chance – would you believe it, I reckon that’s Berisha’s first effort at goal!
It’s a header, and it drifts over. Needed to do better there the Albanian.
83 min: Fornaroli penalised for a foul on Broxham, it’s winding down here in tempo here, especially from City.
They have to be careful – sure they’re unlikely to lose it from here, but mentally, they need to practice keeping their heel on opponents – especially when there’s potential to land such an emphatic psychological blow on your No1 rival.
80 min: It’s defended by City, but at the price of a corner. Rojas whips in well and finds Ansell. His header fires goalwards, but is blocked by a City defender. After some ricocheting it ends up a goal kick.
Pasquali again in the thick of it as he evades another Brattan challenge. It builds down the right with Geria, and Jakobsen defends well.
Cahill enjoys a smile and a chat on the bench with youngsters Kamau and Chapman.
Our crowd figure for the night comes in – 43,188. Not too shabby for a regular season fixture, no?
Updated
79 min: Fitzgerald tries to run past Ansell, but the Victory stopper does what the job-description requires of him.
Pasquali is caught by Brattan, and he’s earned his side a freekick. It’s Rojas over it, about 30m out. Can he get a decent ball in?
77 min: Brandan too comes off, he’s replaced by Malik. With all the talk of the ‘big’ City signings, this guy could be one of the steals of the season. He took his goal brilliantly, and was one of City’s best in the first half – no mean feat given the competition for that category.
75 min: Nice moment here as young Seb Pasquali comes on for his A-League debut. The 16-year-old replaces Ben Khalfallah.
Kamau too sees his number up, and it’s Nick Fitzgerald who replaces him.
74 min: Victory with a rare counter attack and it’s Geria with a good ball in across the face, but it’s too close for Bouzanis who gets there just ahead of a on-coming Marco Rojas.
He hasn’t done much wrong the understudy ‘keeper. But for Rojas’ moment of individual magic, he hasn’t been trouble by the Victory tonight.
72 min: Somebody’s just made the point that these two sides now get to play each other again in about ten days time in the FFA Cup semi-final!
Yikes. Imagine the long nights among the Victory coaching staff before then.
The first task might be a structural one. How do they get a midfield foothold in that next game? Brattan is just pulling the strings – as he did against Wellington, and as he did in City’s demolition of Wanderers in the FFA Cup.
70 min: Baro in late and he’s picked up a yellow card. I think it was Colazo he clattered.
It’s gone pin-drop quiet in Etihad at the moment. Only City fans are raising a cheer as again a slight lull falls over the game.
68 min: A collision between ‘keeper Thomas and Kamau, and the young winger lies prone. He’s been absolutely brilliant tonight. I wasn’t sure he’d quite done enough last season at Adelaide, despite his flashes of brilliance, to justify the big move to City, but he looks right now one of the most dangerous prospects in the A-League.
He gets to his feet, which is good to see.
65 min: So it’s an early shower for Cahill. His job is done and on comes last week’s match winner Adrian Caceres. The Victory fans try to give Cahill the razz. Are they for real?
Cahill – with all the right in the world gives a little smile and a wave. Were those clowns even watching the first half?
Goal! Melbourne Victory 1-4 Melbourne City (Brandan)
63 min: Well, deary, deary me. There goes the resistance.
It’s 20 X-Wings against the Death Star out there and they’re nowhere near that tiny tiny channel, are Victory.
They lasted less than 90 seconds into the comeback before a piece of defending you could only describe as insipid; Geria pushed far to easily off the ball. He appeals more in hope, and so too does defensive partner Donachie, and Brandan just rolls straight past Thomas, at his near post.
That’s a horror-show from Victory. Muscat would be apoplectic.
Goal! Melbourne Victory 1-3 Melbourne City (Rojas)
61 min: Ben Khafallah looks for Broxham but it’s under-hit. The ball bobbles loose and lands at the feet of the Kiwi flyer. He puts the head down and runs straight at a wall of about four City defenders, and somehow the ball sticks, and he cut’s straight through – and strokes calmly under Bouzanis!
A lovely individual effort – surely this won’t spark the greatest of all comebacks? Surely!
60 min: Rose with a raking ball to find Brattan, but he caresses it backwards. No real urgency from City – they’ve not taken their foot off, but they’re definitely drifting towards ‘comfortable’ in their style of play.
57 min: Victory look to build as Ben Khalfallah finds Geria, but his cross is easily headed clear from Jakobsen.
Kamau goes to ground, but no foul says Beath. Valeri tries to pick out Rojas but it’s underhit. He’s lost possession twice in recent minutes the Victory skipper – his side needs better than that.
55 min: Muscat’s seen enough – Bozanic is hooked for Broxham, who makes his 16th derby appearance; Austin is sacrified for Ansell.
A winger off for a centre half? Georgievski is pushed further forward, and Baro shifts to midfield. Probably more concerned with stemming the blood-loss rather than chasing a very unlikely win, you’d imagine.
53 min: Well, the floodgates opened in the second half of the Sydney derby – will we see a repeat here? If anything City have a headstart on Sydney FC with those first two first-half goals.
This could turn into a derby rout. And you don’t imagine the predominantly Victory-blue clad crowd will be too happy with that.
Updated
Goal! Melbourne Victory 0-3 Melbourne City (Brattan)
51 min: Fornaroli tries the backheel to one-two with Brandan but it doesn’t come off.
It falls to Kamau who surrounded by five in dark blue picks out the one light blue shirt – it’s a late arriving Luke Brattan – and he’s bagged his first goal in City colours as well!
Far too soft through the centre of defence from Victory.
Updated
49 min: It’s been an incredibly subdued performance from Berisha thus far, but in fairness he’s had absolutely no service. There’s a piece missing in this Victory team, probably about James Troisi-sized at the moment.
47 min: Valeri clears, but it’s City again making the early running. Donachie tries to play out, but concedes a throw in.
Brandan tries to get round Geria – gee this will test the fullback’s Socceroo aspirations. 45 minutes more of minding these tricky feet whilst walking a yellow card tightrope.
Second half: Melbourne Victory 0-2 Melbourne City
45 min: We’re back underway. No changes from either coach then, so Muscat perhaps giving his chargers a few more minutes to see if they can respond.
2-0 isn’t entirely Good night, Josephine – if they snatch one it could turn around very quickly. But the added bonus of Cahill means that he brings a winner’s mentality to City.
Archie Thompson – hardly the most objective of commentators given his playing history – has been asked to sum up that first half:
“I’ve never seen a Victory team get dominated like this.”
There you have it, folks. Mark Bosnich has chimed in with: “It’s men vs boys”.
Massive 45 then for Kevin Muscat. What will the Victory supremo do now? Will he go ‘full-Mourinho’ – three half-time subs? Hook Ben Khalfallah, or perhaps the not entirely match-fit Rojas?
He’d be looking at his bench and seeing a 16-year-old kid there. What a baptism of fire that would be for young Seb Pasquali.
Updated
Well played A-League social media team – here’s you vid.
Hey Australia, @Tim_Cahill has arrived. #MelbDerby #ALeague pic.twitter.com/XkKGGySHsb
— Hyundai A-League (@ALeague) October 15, 2016
And if that’s not hard to swallow from a Victory perspective, I’ve just been told they completed 66 passes in the entire half.
66 passes. Literally only just above 1 successful pass a minute. Far. Out.
So! How bout that. He came, he saw, he delivered. Saint Timmy of Melbourne City and it’s 1 from 1 in his A-League career, and what a belter to get things started.
I’ll have a little hunt round the internet for you, see if I can’t find that in some kind of Vine, or whatever it is the kids are sharing these days.
Half-time: Melbourne Victory 0-2 Melbourne City
45 + 3 min: Fornaroli tries to hold up the ball under the interested gaze of two Victory players. He’s so strong with the ball inside the gait, this kid.
There’s the whistle, and boos ring around Etihad Stadium. Not for the quality of football – that’s the majority Victory fans reflecting on a half where they’ve just been skinned.
45 min: Three extra minutes added on, as Georgievski chops down Kamau. Really silly stuff that – both Victory fullbacks are now on yellows with more than 45 minutes still to run.
They’re just getting done on the flanks, and the sometimes combustable Macedonian is going to have to really watch himself for the remainder on this one.
44 min: Lovely bending strike from Colazo! Thomas dives headlong to divert that around the post, great football.
City get the corner, but it’s blown up straight away for a push on Valeri, possibly by Cahill.
42 min: A momentary lull, with both XIs perhaps with one eye on the break now. It’s a relatively subdued crowd, as more stats come in that make for hard reading for Victory fans. 18 balls to 3 into the box for City.
Luke Brattan is calling the shots here – as he did in the Roar’s fabled championship season. He’s picked up a freekick, and one last chance for City before half-time.
39 min: Good ball in with Rojas whizzing in, but Bouzanis does well to pluck the cross out of the air before it reached the Kiwi.
Geria goes in the book now for about his third foul, Brandan intercepts a weak pass from Ben Khalfallah to the right back, and he has no choice but to bring the Argentine down.
City now pick up a corner. What can they muster?
37 min: 8 of the past 10 fouls conceded by Victory, but van ‘t Schip angry that his side wasn’t given an advantage call then, with a break potentially on.
Austin fouled by Muscat (Manny), arguably needlessly there, with the winger going nowhere. Poor old JP de Marigny, back at Victory as the number two is hearing a real earful from Muscat (Kevin) on the bench. He’s probably wondering why he didn’t stay in Newcastle just about now.
35 min: Muscat is going off like a frog in a sock on the sideline. He’d best save that for his halftime talk.
Colazo jinks past Valeri, before Fornaroli pressures Donachie into a hurried clearance.
City play it backwards, before a nice switch from Bouzanis finds Rose. Jakobsen’s copped a nasty one from Bozanic, but perhaps not malicious that one.
33 min: Brandan almost goes close again, before a poor clearance from Thomas gives it back to Kamau. They can’t get out of their back third at the moment, Victory.
You don’t want to labour the point, but they’re struggling at the moment. You don’t expect this from a side with their experience. If anyone can regroup though, you’d imagine it’s Melbourne Victory. Valeri needs to have words to his fellow players.
Goal! Melbourne Victory 0-2 Melbourne City (Fornaroli)
31 min: Would you believe it! Cahill finds Colazo out wide left and the former Boca Juniors man puts a peach of a cross onto the noggin of Bruno Fornaroli!
They’ve been billed as the biggest strike duo the A-League has even seen, and within less than a third of their first game together, they’ve both grabbed one.
Champagne football from City, and Victory are reeling.
Updated
30 min: Well that’s quietened some of the home supporters. What a screamer!
Brandan tries another decent ping from about 20m out this time – Victory are very much on the back foot; what can they summons here?
Goal! Melbourne Victory 0-1 Melbourne City (Cahill)
28 min: There’s nothing much happening as Fornaroli and Donachie contest a header about 5 metres inside the Victory half, and who should pop up and lash it home?
Timmy #$%$^ Cahill!
Well there’s hype – and then there’s basis – Tim Cahill has just thundered a truly audacious shot at goal, and from 35-40m Thomas has had absolutely no chance! What a goal!
Updated
27 min: Stats man says City 80 completed passes to Victory’s 33, they’re playing with fluency, but wait a second, what’s this..
25 min: Baro gets floored and then has a bit of a tete-a-tete with Fornaroli. There’s a few players out there who can count Spanish as their native tongue, and they seem more than happy to find each other out.
Brattan plays it nicely to Kamau, but he’s well defended by Georgievski. Brattan regathers and tries again, and this time Kamau whips in a dangerous cross – but it evades his colleagues in the centre.f
23 min: Colazo with the freekick, but again it’s a slightly disappointing delivery. Kilkenny picks up the loose ball just outside the box but unfortunately slices his effort well wide of goal.
Austin looks to get round Muscat – what a ding-dong that particular battle could become – but the former ‘Nix fullback just shades that encounter.
22 min: Bozanic and Berisha gang up on Kamau and win possession. He looks up to hit first time for a flying Rojas, but can’t find the NZ speedster.
Donachie fouls Fornaroli; and about twenty seconds after the restart does exactly the same, again.
20 min: Late challenge on Rose from Geria, who steams in. The former Mariner slumps to the turf, he appears to be really feeling the after-effects of that furious contested header. City very literally being knocked out of their early stride in these last few minutes.
18 min: Fornaroli again having words with Beath, he has to watch himself the captain. He appears quiet het up, and it’s probably best if he just focuses on his shooting.
Georgevski goes through Brattan late, this is getting a bit niggly/nasty. Muscat gives the stricken Brattan a spray from the sideline just for good measure. Leadership.
16 min: City with it in midfield, Kilkenny and Brattan exchange passes before Kamau slips in possession.
Brandan does well to win a corner from Geria. Nothing on there but the Argentine’s harries the recent Socceroo into a mistake.
Colazo with the cross, but it’s nowhere near The Golden Forehead.
Victory look to break quickly and that’s a really awful challenge from Kilkenny. He scythes down a flying Austin, and he’s the first man into the referee’s book.
14 min: Speak of the devil, Muscat concedes a foul as he goes straight through Mitch Austin, in one of those you’d describe as ‘agricultural’.
Bozanic with a freekick, but he’s absolutely butchered that. It was a lofted cross that went like a party balloon held by a toddler and released before it was tied up.
12 min: Rose makes good progress down the left hand flank, Brandan has been lively early, and it’s a semi-smothered shot from Fornaroli that doesn’t trouble Thomas.
Fliggsy Biggs (possibly his/her real name) joins the coverage from Spain: “following my beloved @gomvfc from barcelona on your site, off to see Messi et al tonight at Nou Camp.”
Bloody nice life for some. Who needs Messi when you’ve got Manny Muscat, but eh?
10 min: Freekick to City in a pretty handy area, just to the left of the box, after Georgievski is fouled. Cahill lines up in the middle, but Colazo tries a very cheeky bending effort, aiming for the top left corner.
Now we’ve got a bit of push and shove – very innocuous there, but Ben Khalfallah and Fornaroli are really getting stuck in. Hardly the ‘hard men’ of their respective teams, so something said. It’s a freekick against Geria for a foul on Brandan. No cards handed from our referee, who is Chris Beath incidentally.
8 min: Goalkick to City as Rojas tries unsuccessful to regather after scampering round his man, big night for the returning Kiwi.
Understudy ‘keeper Bouzanis almost caught at the back – good pressing from the Victory forwards. Both teams looking to deny their opponents the chance of playing out from the back.
6 min: It’s City who have started marginally the brighter, and it seems Victory fans are taking a leaf out of the RBB book by singing about themselves less than ten minutes into a game. Love it. Good bants in the stands though. Part of the wonderful package that is attending live football.
Updated
5 min: Nice moment from Kamau down the right flank – he gets a handy ball in and it’s a bobbling grab from Thomas. A nervy moment at the back for the Victory custodian, but he hangs on.
4 min: Victory fans start a chant of “Who are ya? Who are ya?” as Cahill comes on the ball.
Pretty easy – the guy who scored that absolute belter against Netherlands at the 2014 World Cup you grubs.
3 min: So it appears Kilkenny is playing a floating role between centre-back and holding midfield – a back for in defence therefore, but a back three when attacking. Let’s see how the former Socceroo copes with this very van ‘t Schip role.
1 min: First contribution from Timmy Cahill – he’s landed a howitzer of an elbow on the schnoz of Alan Baro. Cahill lucky not to see early censure there, perhaps.
Baro gets send to the sideline for a blood violation. He’s cut on the right cheekbone.
Kick-off!
1 min: And we’re underway! The 20th Melbourne derby – what headline awaits this one?
We’re about to kick-off – your last-minute predictions? First scorer?
Getting buzzed for this!
Victory supporters the larger contingent in the stands, as you’d imagine, but a fair smattering of the lighter blue of City among the crowd. Less in the red and white of #HeartBelieve but kudos to those that still do.
Curious to see if City start with a back four, or back three - Kilkenny may be pressed into back four, but that’s a head-scratcher when you’ve got both Osama Malik and Connor Chapman on the bench. More likely a 3-5-2, with a star-packed midfield five.
We are not too far away from kickoff now, and big news obviously is that Tim “Timmy” Cahill will be starting in his A-League debut. What a big night this could be for youngster James Donachie and Spanish veteran Alan Baro, in just their second game playing together, marking Cahill or Bruno Fornaroli.
The players are in the tunnel – not too many smiles, more nervous shuffling and tense looks is the flavour of the day. Especially for this brace of young ‘keepers – Victory’s Thomas, City’s Bouzanis.
Some team news:
Melbourne Victory
Thomas; Geria, Donachie, Baro, Georgievski; Valeri (c), Bozanic, Austin, Ben Khalfallah, Rojas; Berisha
Here's our line-up for the #MelbDerby tonight 7.50pm AEDT at @EtihadStadiumAU. COYBIB! #MVFC pic.twitter.com/MOGwwOsgOQ
— Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) October 15, 2016
The loss of Troisi is the only change from the side that faced Brisbane in the opening round; he’s replaced by Rojas though, who returns from international duty.
Melbourne City
Bouzanis; Muscat, Jakobsen, Rose; Brattan, Kilkenny, Colazo, Brandan, Kamau; Cahill, Fornaroli (c)
Our team is in for tonight's massive #MelbDerby at @EtihadStadiumAU!
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) October 15, 2016
Thoughts on the line up? #ThisIsOurCity pic.twitter.com/HUkRsY3cpp
The big loss for City is the suspension of ‘keeper Thomas Sorensen – how they might miss his experience tonight. Van ‘t Schip appears set to spring a gamble, playing three at the back, but it means a five-man midfield and a two-man attack with Cahill coming in alongside Fornaroli.
Chapman drops to the bench to make way for Muscat, as does Caceres who loses his spot to the Socceroos’ all-time top goalscorer.
Hi all. Richard Parkin in the chair here for this, the first Melbourne derby of 2016-17.
I’ll be spinning the discs tonight so if you have any special requests shoot them through to @rrjparkin via twitter or richard.parkin.casual@theguardian.com. Always love to hear your insights, dad-jokes, angry complaints etc – write to me and I’ll see if we can’t share the best during the coverage.
Where are you following the derby from? Are you a Melbourne lass or lad trapped on the wrong side of the globe and thus unable to follow ‘Cahill-cam’ for tonight’s match? Get in touch.
Also, memories of your favourite Melbourne derby moment? I’ll get that started with that lowest of low-hanging fruit – ladies and gentlemen – Kevin Muscat:
Preamble
A record crowd, and then a record derby win – the A-League started with a bang in Round 1 in Sydney; now it’s Melbourne’s turn to turn up the heat as cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City lock horns for the first time in 2016-17.
Tim Cahill is set to make his Australian domestic league debut, as will perhaps Victory’s promising 16-year-old Seb Pasquali. You’d say “no pressure, kid”, but then his club debut did come against Juventus in the International Champions Cup.
While the derby is always good for some fireworks (on the pitch, preferably), this season’s first clash is set to have added spice given the arrival of Cahill. Bruno Fornaroli’s arrival last season and his prolific goalscoring alongside Harry Novillo and Aaron Mooy meant City, perhaps for the first time, stepped out of the shadow of their more established competitors.
Now with Cahill in town and Victory’s failure to secure big-name signing Michael Essien, all the early season hype appears set to surround the upstarts.
It’s a great opportunity for the (nominally) home side Victory to do their talking on the pitch; the loss of marquee Troisi is a setback, but the return to health of captain Carl Valeri will feel like a new signing, so key is he to their season’s chances.
City have long suffered the tag of being ‘soft’ – with John van ‘t Schip’s team far too inconsistent despite their flashes of brilliance. If they can add the quality of mettle to their abundantly talented squad, this could be the season that really announces the club as A-League big boys.
A massive opportunity to strike the first blow in the battle for Melbourne supremacy tonight therefore; it should be a real lip-licker.
Richard will be with you shortly but in the meantime, check out David Squires’ take on the second weekend of A-League action.
