Melbourne Heart should make the finals after a 1-0 win over the Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park on Sunday. 5034 fans turned up on a sweltering Melbourne day to see another fascinating encounter between these two sides.
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| Dugandzic hasn’t yet quite refound his early season |
An Eli Babalj goal in the 50th minute was enough for Heart to pull the Mariners back to the pack and in doing so confirmed themselves as a major contender should these sides meet come finals time. Now you might scoff at the suggestion that sixth placed Heart are a genuine threat to a Mariners side who have only lost three games this season. The fact is that Heart have now outplayed the ladder leaders twice in a six week period.
Firstly, Melbourne Heart have all the right qualities to beat the Graham Arnold’s team; the creativity in the middle of the park through Fred, Clint Bolton between the sticks, pacey duo Aziz Behich and Mate Dugandzic out wide, and a centre forward in Eli Babalj who is going to cause headaches for all A-League defenders for years to come.
Sure the Mariners have a line up filled with equally good players who play a very tight, physical game. And they’re well coaches by Arnold who has deservedly installed his team atop the Hyundai A-League table this season. The Mariners even have their own young gun striker in Tomas Rogic, who could be the find of the year.
Heart introduced Aziz Behich and Mate Dugandzic back into the A-League after their disappointing Olyroos campaign with varying success. Dugandzic, who was close to the best player in the league before the trip, struggled for any meaningful possession and was eventually moved out to the left wing to stop Bojic’s runs down the right. Behich on the other hand was better although his shooting might be a reason why the Olyroos failed to score in their campaign. Behich was also involved in an ugly incident early on when he clearly attempted to win a penalty by diving and in the process left a trailing foot which collected a sliding Mat Ryan in the cheek. Ryan then confronted Behich and shoved him in the chest which Behich reacted to by going down like he was shot. This isn’t the first time Behich’s acting has come into question.
After the game John van’t Schip avoided questions on the Finals Series and how many points were needed to guarantee a top six spot, rather worrying about how his team plays in accumulating the points to get them there. He was all praise for his young giant striker Babalj who he claimed is defensively as good as any in the forward in the league. Simon Colosimo spoke of the determination in the Heart camp to be on the ball for the whole 90 minutes. With a full squad to choose from excluding Nick Kalmar every spot is up for grabs, which, coming into the finals is a good headache for van’t Schip to have.
The Mariners now sit only three points above the barnstorming Brisbane Roar with four games to go and a slightly harder draw. Heart on the other hand have their destiny firmly in their hand. Either way it would be great to see these two sides meet in a final at years end. You just might be able to get some good odds on a Heart upset.
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