It was a tough day at the office for the Perth Glory as Tony Popovic’s Melbourne Victory were just too good for Alen Stajcic’s side, defeating them 2-1 on Sunday afternoon.
There was a slim mathematical chance of the Glory securing a spot in the finals leading into the game. However, this loss, extending the Glory’s winless streak to five games, effectively extinguishes any lingering hopes for the season.
The Glory’s start was decent; they maintained possession reasonably well, with a clear intent to predominantly attack down the right-hand side, utilising Johnny Koutroumbis’ forward runs to find Adam Taggart in the box.
Taggart had the first chance of the game, receiving a cutback pass only to have his strike blocked by a sliding Victory defender.
Victory then turned the heat up after that moment and really started to control proceedings. This dominance was characterised by a lack of intensity and pressure from the Glory players, contrasted with the intelligent and swift movement of the Victory forwards.
Their fluidity in movement and quick passing dismantled the Glory defence. For Bruno Fornaroli’s first goal, Damien Da Silva’s incisive pass found Daniel Arzani, who exploited a large gap in the box, backheeling the ball to Zinedine Machach, whose touch set up Fornaroli for a deflected goal, leaving Oli Sail helpless.
There’s no doubt when Alen Stajcic and his coaching staff review this goal in particular with the players, he’d be pulling his hair out. There was a massive gap between Johnny Koutroumbis and Darryl Lachman, which was just asking for a player as intelligent as Daniel Arzani to make the run to that area.
The subsequent lack of communication and organisation from the Glory players was unfortunately really bad at that moment.
Fornaroli could have doubled the lead around the 36th minute, but his shot, from a cross delivered by Arzani, narrowly missed the post.
In the second half, it followed a very similar set of proceedings to the first, with the Victory dominating the game while the Glory players were defending in a very deep, low block.
Victory’s second goal mirrored the sloppiness of the first in terms of defending. Arzani had ample time to cross to Fornaroli, who capitalised with a close-range header.
I hate to be harsh, but the defending again was extremely poor. Just a lack of intensity and attention to detail, especially when dealing with a player as tricky as Daniel Arzani and a striker who has elite penalty box movement in Bruno Fornaroli.
The Glory, to their credit, did well to get back into the game in the 63rd minute and Daniel Bennie’s first senior goal was a really well constructed finish.
Riley Warland, Jarrod Carluccio and David Williams combined really well, where Williams was able to play a slide rule pass in behind to Carluccio, who then did well to find Bennie, where all the young winger had to do was tap the ball home and he made no mistake.
It was a great goal, as it carved open what had been a really well-organised Melbourne Victory backline.
From there, the game ebbed and flowed, where Victory continued to have a few pot shots here and there with Oli Sail pulling off a couple of decent saves, notably from Roly Bonevacia’s strike.
But ultimately this was an away performance and result that Glory fans are just far too familiar with, and this has got to change.
The commentators during the game spoke about the Glory’s away form over the years and there’s no massaging of the numbers, it’s pathetic.
Understandably, various factors make away trips tougher for the Glory than it is for other teams, but for a side that would no doubt want to play finals football every season, to struggle to win more than one game away from home throughout a season is not good enough.
Many people when watching this game in particular pointed out several issues, and one that was made with a particular emphasis was the Glory’s non-existent midfield. Ben Smith, the football journalist with The West Australian, spoke about this issue during the game on Twitter.
“I’m not sure a Colli-Ostler double pivot works at all. I’m a bit sick and tired of people just reverting to ‘Oh it’s about the process, Staj is cooking something’ – he’s cooking burnt toast with this midfield. His player selection and utilisation have been questionable – like banishing Bodnar and McEneff for an ill-fitted Colli.”
Ben’s right to some extent, as there’s no sugar-coating it, the midfield has been an utter disaster this season which hasn’t been helped by, for instance, injuries or the manager not utilising certain players, particularly someone like Luke Bodnar, whose defensive nouse as a midfielder would’ve been a handy asset for the team, particularly in this game.
It’s an issue that needs rectifying in the offseason, but looking forward at least to what we have in front of us, there’s still the objective of trying to automatically qualify for the Australia Cup and the Glory can’t do that where they are right now in 10th place.
Wednesday night’s clash against Sydney FC will be a tough test, as they’re in red-hot form after knocking off the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday night.
About the Author
