Melbourne Victory hosted Perth Glory in the last game of the Hyundai A-League’s Round Seven with both teams needing the three points to climb up from the wrong side of the table.
Victory were without star signing Harry Kewell who injured a hamstring whilst on Socceroo duty with Marco Rojas confined to the bench and Solorzano left out completely. Ante Covic was welcomed back between the sticks after serving his suspension earned against the Roar two rounds ago.
Perth gave a start to their Australian marquee Mile Sterjovski starting him up front in a 4-3-3 formation, joining Smeltz and Mehmet.
The first half was largely uneventful with the exception of Jacob Burns breaking his 239 minutes without a yellow only eight minutes in. Fabio was also in the book early as card happy referee Chris Beath asserted his authority.
On 37 minutes though the game changed dramatically with former Celtic and Manchester United player Liam Miller shown a straight red card for bringing Victory striker Archie Thompson down outside the box, the all time A-League leading scorer deemed to be in a scoring position. Carlos Hernandez put Thompson through with acres of space with only Josh Risdon sitting behind the ball.
Thompson skinned Risdon and was one on one with ‘keeper Vukovic until Miller slid in and bought Archie’s legs from under him. Perth could count themselves unlucky as Bas Van Den Brink was closing in on the speedster.
Victory bought on Marco Rojas at half time for Matthew Kemp and immediately looked more pacey and attacking whilst Perth took Sterjovski off for McGarry at the same time. Melbourne were awarded a very dodgy penalty on 51 minutes when Van Den Brink took only the ball from Archie Thompson. Neither Thompson or any of the Melbourne players tried to claim a penalty and Archie even apologised to Van Den Brink before Hernandez slotted home the opener.
18,404 fans lifted and the majority of them were out of their seats again six minutes later when Melbourne doubled their lead with a goal from two meters out. Roddy Vargas headed down a Carlos Hernandez corner with Danny Allsopp unmarked and he was easily able to poke it home, the Victory looking to be in cruise control.
Perth however were able to peg one back on 71 minutes when Andrezinho, who had just entered the park in place of Billy Mehmet, slotted a super strike home from 30 meters. Ante Covic was able to get a hand to it but was beaten well by the power and placement.
Perth’s attacking in the final 10 minutes ensured they rescued a brave point when Smeltz was given the deeds to Etihad Stadium and able to head home the easiest of headers on 87 minutes to make the game 2-2. Smeltz had a golden opportunity to gain all three points for the Glory in injury time but managed to put his downward header wide of the mark, the game finishing a justifiable 2-2 draw.
Melbourne Victory: Hernandez (pen 52′) Allsopp 58′
Perth Glory: Andrezinho 71′ Smeltz 87′
Subs: Thomas, Rojas, Franjic, Jeggo.
Perth Glory:
1.Vukovic, 2.Mitchell, 3.van den Brink, 4.Mehmet, 6.Coyne, 7.Burns (c), 8.Hughes, 9.Smeltz, 10.Miller, 19.Risdon, 21.Sterjovski
Subs: 14.McGarry, 17.Howarth, 27.Andrezinho, 30.Italiano
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