The Melbourne derby sets pulses racing with an electrifying atmosphere like no other at Etihad Stadium.
A big ticket item, there is something unique about the A-League’s two inner-city Melbourne rivals facing off in a turf war.
The sell-out crowd rolls up early, sets the tone with voice, colour and the obligatory flare or two from the North End, with no harm done and stadium staff on hand to quickly douse.
Melbourne Victory fans, who outnumbered the ‘visitors’ by a lot, break into their pre-game ritual of singing Stand By Me with scarves raised above their heads Anfield-style.
The ground announcer introduces the players one by one, reading out the Christian name, before the fans respond with the surname.
The growing Melbourne City fan base, largely confined to the grandstands behind a corner flag along with a smattering of the lighter blue and even old Heart shirts in other bays, gave as good as they took in the noise department.
Then came the fireworks on the park. Seven goals complimented a good, clean, but physical game, refereed well by Strebre Delovski.
There was a tactical war between Victory coach Kevin Muscat and City counterpart John van’t Schip and dazzling skills and highlight reel goals.
It was the A-League burger with the lot. Not that the league needs more great advertisements, but this game was one to export to any player thinking of plying their trade down under, coming on the same night that Western Sydney Wanderers took a 1-0 lead over Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League two-legged final.
All Melburnian eyes were fixed on the action at the Docklands.
It did not take long for the touchpaper to be lit when City’s new attacking midfielder Aaron Mooy served up a delightful cross from a free kick to marauding defender Rob Wielaert at the far post and the Dutchman headed home to silence the Victory faithful in the 13th minute.
The early signs were positive for City with headline-act David Villa running rings around the Victory defence, Damien Duff showing off his fleet feet on the right side and Mooy’s distribution spot on.
But the Victory hit back when right winger Kosta Barbarouses found Gui Finkler in space and Finkler’s shot rebounded off City goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne and into the grateful feet of Archie Thompson to tap in the equalising goal on 23 minutes.
Three minutes later, City would have their second lead of the game, again through an unlikely source in right back Jason Hoffman.
Massimo Murdocca made a threatening run to earn a corner for City. Mooy played it short to Mate Dugandzic, who gave it back for Mooy to produce a precision cross to the head of Hoffman, who rose above a scrum of bodies to head past Victory goalkeeper Nathan Coe, who can take some blame for being caught in no man’s land after coming to the ball too late.
At 2-1, City had all of the momentum, but Victory started to find their mojo with five minutes to go in the half and would get an equaliser in the seconds before half time.
Besart Berisha commanded the big money because of his success as a Brisbane Roar player and he delivered on the big stage with a hat-trick.
Berisha’s first and second goals came two minutes of playing time apart – before and after half time.
The equaliser came courtesy of best-afield Barbarouses, who barged his way around and through four mesmerised City defenders and had his shot parried by Redmayne to the feet of Berisha, who looped the ball into the underside of the crossbar and in got a goal to restore parity at 2-2 at the break.
In the first minute of the second half, Berisha struck again, and deserved every bit of the break he got when his shot deflected off the back of Wielaert and past a sprawling Redmayne for a 3-2 Victory lead.
Berisha did all the lead up work, re-started play for the half from the middle, made two gut-busting runs and cut inside City’s Erik Paartalu and Duff to create a half chance and bulged the back of the net with a world class strike.
It was the goal that gave Victory their first lead of the match at 3-2 and broke the spirit of City.
The game was totally out of reach of City when James Brown clumsily fell into the back of Matthieu Delpierre in the box in the 67th minute for Berisha to compete the hat-trick from the spot.
Thompson rubbed further salt into the wounds when he was played in by Barbarouses for a one-on-one with Redmayne to make it four unanswered goals.
The Victory moved to the top of the A-League ladder pending other results, while City is languishing in the bottom half with two points from three games.
Star Weekly’s three stars …
Kosta Barbarouses (Melbourne Victory)
It’s not like City weren’t putting time and effort into stopping the New Zealander, it’s just that he was beating two or three defenders at a time to make like hell for them and serve his grateful strikers on a platter. A small sample size, but Barbarouses is fast becoming the most improved player in the A-League.
Besart Berisha (Melbourne Victory)
If you’re a young striker making your way in the suburbs, do yourself a favour, log onto YouTube watch the highlight of Berisha’s second goal, seconds after the half time break. You will see what a good striker does to will himself into the contest.
Carl Valeri (Melbourne Victory)
The general at defensive midfield, worked hard on the backtrack and was relevant going forward. If you’re Victory coach Kevin Muscat, you would like the certainty of performance you get from Valeri in his important position.
The bottom line …
Melbourne Victory 5 (Berisha 45′ 46′ 67′, Thompson 23′ 86′) d Melbourne City 2 (Wielaert 13′, Hoffman 26′).
Crowd: 43,729 at Etihad Stadium.
