On a very wet night in Melbourne, our City boys showed that this season will be anything but a write off. Though the first half left little to be desired, the effort and desire shown in the second 45 minutes gave City fans something to cheer about.
The tie got off to the worst start imaginable. Our forwards lost the ball, and Victory launched forward with Charles Nduka beating Harrison Delbridge in the air, and leaving our centre back pairing chasing shadows as neither of them arrived at the spillage. To top things off, Nathaniel Atkinson was unable to follow Keegan Jelacic through a simple one-two passage, and the Victory forward had all the space in the world to smash the ball into the back of the net.
I counted four defensive mistakes in one passage of play. Neither Kavian Rahmani, Besian Kutleshi or Aziz Behich were able to put a foot in to stop ex-City player (traitor?) Jordi Valadon at the start of the move. In a derby, especially early on, we need our players to cut them down. It’s as simple as that. Allowing a player to escape a three-man press is inexcusable in these situations.
The second and third mistake came when Delbridge was beaten in the air by Nduka, and neither Delbridge or Liam Bonetig read the play well enough to clean up at the second attempt. Finally, Atkinson’s tracking effort closed off a poor defensive effort, all in the space of 20 seconds. After this, we didn’t play much better. We should have been two or three goals down at the half-time break, but luckily for us, Victory were unable to finish their dinner.
Enter our saving grace. After another lacking performance in midfield by young Kutleshi, new signing Emiliano Marcondes made his debut at the commencement of the second half; and what a debut it was. Only eight minutes into his life at City, Marcondes flicked the ball over the heads of the Victory backline for Medin Memeti, who fought valiantly to keep the ball in. Marcondes read Memeti’s intention perfectly, sneaking in to knock the ball into the six-yard box for Andrew Nabbout, who tapped home the easiest goal he’ll ever score.
This sent the City fans wild in Bay 14. It was truly something special considering the lacklustre first half. Finally, we saw City put in that fight you would expect in a derby, and it paid off by bringing the game back level.
From then on, Aurelio Vidmar improved our plight further as we saw Mathew Leckie and the new man Julio Cascante grace the pitch. Cascante put in fantastic numbers during his short debut with four defensive contributions, including that clearance late in the game which could have easily ended up in the net.
All in all, the second half was to die for. Great saves by Macklin Freke kept us in the game, new signings proved exactly why they’re at the club, and Awer Mabil put in a fantastic shift too. His first City goal is coming.
To round out this week’s thoughts, I want to bring your attention to Rahmani. Two weeks into the new A-League season, and the 19-year-old has been astonishingly good. The young midfielder completed 80% of his passes while competing in a much more experienced opposing midfield, held his own while battling on the grass and in the air, and wasn’t afraid to take a shot on. Yes, he should have passed to Mabil in the 67th minute, but with a bit of polishing, Rahmani could be the young player to watch this season.
His improvement over the off-season has already been phenomenal. What else is to come?
All in all, an acceptable performance in the Melbourne Derby. We should be excited to see what this team can do as they continue to gel.
FT: 1-1 draw in the derby
POTM: Kavian Rahmani
Want to hear more about City’s performance in the derby? Check out The City Loop podcast!
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