Tuesday 24 May 2016

Where do I even begin?

Where do I even begin? A fair bit has happened in the past few weeks and I was beginning to think it might be the end of the blog. (Un)fortunately thought I'm at home with then cold/flu which has given me some much needed free time. The last few weeks have been absolute chaos in terms of getting as many things as I need done before heading overseas in a couple of weeks.

Had I been doing this blog over 10 years ago, I wouldn't have gone more than a few days wihout writing something about the 'Melbourne Derby' let alone a few weeks. For some reason on my way to the match I was thinking about how different the fixture has become. What was once the date I would look for immediately every year when the fixtures were released. What was once something I would countdown to for weeks, is now something I look forward to after work that day. Gone are the days of thousands of people coming close to filling a stadium and creating a pulsating atmosphere. It has now sadly become nothing more than any other game. A great crowd now is anywhere near 1000+ which was once an average crowd against Green Gully or Altona Magic. I have shown such little interest in the ocassion this year that I haven't even bothered to check our rival blog to see what they have been saying about us.
As far as the match itself went, you couldnt asking for much more (other than the three points). If you were wanting to put your case forward about the club to anyone this was the match to do it. The crowd was good, the weather was fine, there were plenty of goals and not a sign of any violence which Melbourne Victory has been plaguing the league with in recent times (without any form of sanction it would seem). 
An early lead was as good as it was going to get for us. While a comment about us probably going on tok lose 3 - 1 may not have been correct, it was at least pointing  in the right direction. There have definitely been easier losses to swallow than this one, but I don't think we can really fault the boys all that much. We are a very young side with injuries shuffling around our 11 weel to week, against a side who has the luxury of splashing the cash on quality players every year (at least until the government funding runs out). 
Jason Hicks may not have done what I was hoping he would do, but he did enough to impress one older Knights fan who went on to claim he is our best player since the NSL, could play anywhere in the world apart from the EPL and that we should send him to Hajduk Split. And we always have the return leg for him to make things right. 

Our loss to Avondale hurt me a lot more than the one against South did. I'll even go as far as saying that it is worse than our second round loss to Heidelberg. 
Our last Friday night match at home, which I don't agree with for a number of reasons. Mainly because I just prefer Friday nights. And I think the majority of our fans who aren't in or approaching retirement would agree. But also I don't buy the arguement that it's too cold in winter, Sunday afternoons in then middle of winter are bloody cold and if you can bare them you can bare Friday nights. And a lot of people just don't want to go on a Sunday afternoon. I'll go no matter when we play, but Sunday afternoon I believe is the worst time lot and is probably the day I would miss most games due to other commitments. People with young kids who are out at 8am for juniors football don't want to hang around until 5pm. Nor do people want to hang around for a drink as is evident by the place being a ghost town by 6pm. Nothing beats a few drinks before the game after work on a Friday, followed by more of the same until 1, 2 or even 3am on some occasions this season. 
Anyway the only thing lacking from our first half performance was another three or four goals. We definitely created the chances but failed to take them. What happened at the break still remains a mystery to me and how two teams can come out the complete opposite the way they did that night just doesn't add up. I initally jumped to the conclusion that our season was over, until common sense prevailed and I realised it was only just the half way mark.

Our last fixture was far more pleasant than the two prior.  My first time back to CB Smith since we donned the ol' camouflage jersey. The place sure has changed a bit with the old stand being knocked down and rebuilt on an adjacent pitch. Nice little set up and decent stand, just a shame there was no foresight with some genius placing three light towers between the playing arena and the stand blocking a fair bit of the view from numerous spots. Another match where our 11 had to be reshuffled due to injuries and suspensions but the boys definitely proved they have what it takes. I felt that they dominated throughout the match and the result never really looked in doubt, even after heading into the rooms the exact same way we did the week before. 
Jason Hicks took another step closer to anywhere else in the world after the break with a well taken goal on his weaker right foot. The magic man together with Stipo Andrijasevic were unstoppable with both finding the back of the net after assisting each other. But I think the man in yellow may have beat them both for man of the match after showing two Pascoe Vale players red. I really do think that he listened to me when I told him he still owes us three red cards against them.
The win put us back into contention for finals just a week after the season was prematurely labelled over. But even though the boys have shown they have what it takes to put away the teams below us, it seems we may need to have a bit of activity in the window if we are to be able to take on the few at the top.

And finally tonight our much anticipated FFA Cup clash against our Croatian brothers Dandenong City. Win and were probably cunts, but lose and they will all laugh. I learnt from our last cup match that if you are 50/50 about going to a match, go as you will never no what you may miss out on. But if there is one thing that can stop me from going to a game, it's man flu.

*Please note this is a rush job, affected by sickness and medication. Therefor there are no images and more than likely a handful of mistakes with a lot of bad writing.

Wednesday 4 May 2016

Victory

'an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, game, or other competition.'

Kind of weird to have that name when you lose isn't it? 

I was very close to not attending this match. It was one of those worst possible time situations where I had more than enough things to do/places to be at the exact same time. But after weighing things up I don't think I really had a choice. Being so busy I naturally turned up about five minutes late. I do hate being late, but when it's due to my own actions and there is legitimate reason behind it then I am ok with it. I must admit it also felt a little sweet to get some revenge on the person that made us late to Richmond.

As mentioned prior to the match, there were separate entrances for home and away supporters. What they failed to mention about who went to the left and was where they were looking from? Is it to the left walking in or to the left from the other side of the pitch? As far as I could remember it was the opposite of what I would have expected. And in the end probably pointless as Victory officials didn't allow their active supporters inside the venue anyway.

Going into the match I was expecting a 1-1 draw. But quickly changed my mind to a certain win when I found out we pretty much had a full strength squad available. And just our luck that it only stayed that way for half an hour or so, after Ben Surey came off second best in a 50/50 challenge hurting his knee. Still haven't heard anything as yet but I would hope it's not too serious as at his age and with a fair amount of time already spent on the sidelines through injury in the last few years, a serious injury wouldn't leave much hope of seeing him return at the top of his game.

Nikola Jurkovic did well to replace him in what I believe was his best performance for us so far. I also didn't mind see him getting in former player Anthony Duzels face after we got the winner.

Was somewhat surprised that Victory Youth were on top of us in the opening stages. Not sure if they were good, or we were shit, or there plan was to just try and hit us early and hope for the best. Kind of made for boring viewing until we started to lift our game. Luckily for us there was a group of around 30 or so 'Victory Youth' fans who seemed to look like they couldn't really give a shit about the result and was probably the last reason that they turned up.

No matter how scrappy our opening goal was, it was a great one. Even though were playing the Victory Youth side it was still beautiful to put one past them and take the lead. I thought we would have put a few more post them as by that stage we were well and truly on top of them, but it just wasn't to be. The half time break came but not before a few vocal exchanges between supporter groups. The highlight having to be a handful of them singing something along the lines of Ustase Pickice or some other form of bad grammar. I don't think anyone could help but laugh and applaud them. And more an embarrassment than a highlight was them not only ripping off BBB with their 'If you want to stay alive go home gypsies' chant but the broken English accents they tried putting on while singing it. I understand that when you are a part of something like that you have your ultra goggles on and struggle to see how ridiculous you look. Take for example the 'there is only one team in Melbourne chant'. Well no, clearly there are hundreds of teams in Melbourne. Most of them in existence well before yours. But if you had to pick one team going by name, wouldn't you naturally go with Melbourne CITY?

The second half saw former South man Vaughan Coveny make two early subs allowing Victory Youth step it up a level and get on top of us. An equaliser followed with the goal scorer getting a bit smart with Knights fans. A little disrespectful just like his clubs supporters who repeatedly insisted we make our way home for the sake of our lives. I must commend the members of VicPol who were there guarding them as they braved the threats and stood their ground for the full 90 minutes. Seriously though, why wouldn't you just move them on? 
The return of Robbie Zadworny was a very welcome one, with the winger having a few darting runs down the line before his lengthy downtime caught up with him.

For the second time in only a few days, we got another win that dreams are made of when (WHO ELSE BUT) Jason Hicks belted the ball right under the keeper into the back of the net. I don't think a description of the celebratory scenes will be necessary as it's exactly as you would imagine it to be, with not only MCF but most Knights fans in good voice.
Like it always seems the case is with us when we are winning, too many minutes of stoppage time are added. But not enough to further alter the scoreline. The match was over and Victory was ours.

After the conclusion of the match I was stopped by security at the gate who informed me that VicPol had ordered them to keep Knights fans behind for a little while. Kind of stupid if you ask me, and probably now proven to be a dumb idea after what transpired. If you have a group of 30 looking for trouble, isn't it smarter and easier to contain them for a further 15-30 minutes allowing all other fans to leave, rather than allow them to 'leave' and then lead innocent bystanders into a planned ambush? For those that don't know what happened in the car park you're not going to hear it here, I'm sure there are plenty of other places/people you can here it from. But from what I have heard, Melbourne boys are still #1. 

The FFA Cup draw took place today and saw us drawn at home to fellow Croatian club Dandenong City. It would be expected that we would progress to the qualifying match for the FFA Cup proper, but I'll just be looking forward to a great night in the Croatian Community. 

And finally the big one has come. The original Melbourne Derby. We take on South Melbourne at home this Friday with all females gaining free entry for mothers days. I have nothing else to say about this match other than, Jason Hicks, it's your time to shine!