At the 30-minute mark of the match on Wednesday night, I wouldn’t have blamed the Glory fans watching for expecting the worst.
Two goals down against one of the best teams in the league, I assume most supporters would have been asking themselves “how many are we going to lose by today?”
Considering our struggles in front of goal, it would have been easy to write us off there and then. This Glory is built differently though.
Not once this season have the players shown any signs of giving in. The football hasn’t been the prettiest, but the effort of the whole squad cannot be questioned.
Richard Garcia said his main focus is on the team getting better with each game, and from what I can see, it’s coming together nicely.
Of course, there are still issues that need working on. One of those being defensive slip ups which great teams like Melbourne City make you pay for.
The first goal came from a long pass down the line by Scott Jamieson. Matt Leckie made a good run in behind Antonee Burke-Gilroy and squared a ball across to Florian Berenguer, who floated into the space between the defence and the midfielders.
Brandon O’Neill couldn’t get back in time to make a block Berenguer’s shot, rifling a shot high into the net past Liam Reddy at his near post.
I thought Burke-Gilroy really struggled defensively this game. He was isolated one on one against Andrew Nabbout on a few occasions and got beaten. I mentioned the Leckie run in behind for the first goal and when we were in possession, he wasn’t able to make his usual influence on our forward play.
The second goal I put some blame on Kosuke Ota and a fair bit on Liam Reddy. Ota gave Leckie far too much time and space to pick his spot. He should have been closer to Leckie and not so focused on Connor Metcalfe, who was being closed down by Jonathon Aspropotamitis and O’Neill.
Reddy’s positioning was very questionable. I think he wanted to make sure his near post was covered after being beaten there by Berenguer, but he left too much room at the far post for Leckie to aim at.
Cameron Cook has been on the bench the last few games and it looks like Brad Jones is nearing full fitness. Reddy hasn’t done a lot wrong since coming into the starting lineup, but I think I’d prefer to have Cook or Jones in between the sticks.
Further up the pitch, it’s good to see more goalscoring opportunities being created. Daniel Stynes started and was central to a lot of our best play when he was on the pitch.
He set up Jack Clisby’s early effort which struck the post, it was his first time through ball which put Callum Timmins through on goal and he was involved in the lead up to the equaliser in the second half.
I am a big fan of the midfield three we used for this match. Stynes is our best option for linking the midfield to the attack, Callum Timmins plays with good aggression and is capable of a long-range goal as we saw and Brandon O’Neill is a must have.
The skipper put in a tremendous shift against Melbourne City.I liked how he would drop in between the two central defenders to aid with City’s press when we had the ball. His passing alleviated some of the pressure that was put on us and it helped to set up both of our goals.
Our first goal was the perfect reply after conceding. O’Neill found Ota out wide with a long pass, the Japanese full back absolutely skinned Carl Jenkinson with a fake cross and dinked a ball over the top of Tom Glover and onto the head of Bruno Fornaroli.
The second goal, O’Neill played a lobbed ball through to Daniel Stynes who timed his run perfectly. He squeezed a pass to Ota, who picked out Clisby. He laid the ball off into the path of Timmins who struck it low and hard past Glover.
Melbourne City will be disappointed to have let a two-goal lead slip, although they moved back to the top of the ladder. Berenguer continued his fine form with a goal from midfield and Leckie did likewise on the right-hand side of the attack. City’s fluency in the front third dropped when he had to be substituted after a hard tackle from O’Neill.
Before rounding off, I wanted to speak briefly about the incident which occurred in City’s active support area. It was disappointing to read the statement from the City Terrace and hear about the actions of a security guard who went too far.
I know HBF Park usually handles our active support quite well, I just hope with Shed members having to be in silver/general admission for Sunday that things go smoothly and the Shed can continue to sing and chant to their hearts content.
I hope the performance midweek is indicative of things to come. City controlled the play and had most of the ball, but I thought we created the best chances of the match. The team defence was pretty solid, not allowing them many if any clear cut chances in the second half.
The wait is nearly over. Sunday at 4:05pm against Adelaide United. It’s been a long time coming, and I am super excited. Whatever happens on Sunday, I’m just thankful we’ve got A-League action back in Perth.
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