The Heart Is Pumping

The Heart Is Pumping    

By Mark Humphrey

Melbourne Heart celebrated their 100^th A-League game with an emphatic 3-1 win over the Newcastle Jets on Friday night at AAMI Stadium. The match ball for Heart's 100th game is delivered by the Westpac Rescue helicopter

With Melbourne on the end of a week long record heat wave, their namesake A-League club Melbourne Heart continued the hot spell for an additional 2 hours into the evening as they dominated the scoring to overrun the Newcastle Jets in front of a small but parochial hometown crowd.Conditions were hot on and off the pitch 

With the club’s first win in 20 games and under returning caretaker coach John Van’t Schip the burning question is “what’s changed?” Answer “not much”.

28 minutes into the first half and you could argue that the same cracks were once again appearing for the Heart up front. Striker David Williams header attempt early in the game from a Hoffman delivery was nowhere near the mark and at the 28 minute mark he was on the end of a soft clearance from Jets goalie Mark Birighitti that gave Williams open territory into goal. When Redmayne did something similar against the Victory several weeks ago he and the team were punished with a Nichols goal the end result. Unfortunately for Melbourne Heart, Williams attempt was seriously well wide no doubt letting Birighitti off the hook. Maybe Williams is lacking confidence at the moment as he barely put a shot into the back of the net against reserve goalie Tando Velaphi in the pre match warm up.

Heart during this period were active up forward with 3 solid shots on goal with Kewell’s long range the best of them and only kept out by an outstretched Birighitti arm knocking the ball over the top bar. For most of the  season Heart has been lively in the first 20 or so minutes without success so nothing has changed in this department.

Williams was subbed out of the game at the 31 minute mark and replaced with Mifsud after clashing with Birighitti minutes earlier.

Good work by the Heart defence and goalie Redmayne had repelled any advances the Jets had made in the match to date and it was only from a bit of luck that the Jets were able to post a goal at the 37 minute mark of the first half. A Jets corner kick cleared the waiting pack including Heart goalie Redmayne and basically landed at Taylor Regan’s feet.  Regan made no mistake and put the ball into the back of the net to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. Familiar situation once again for the Heart having to force the equalizer.

Dugandzic was active for the Heart up forward and created plenty of opportunities for his team mates which would eventually be re-paid with 2 Dugandzic goals with the go ahead goal coming just before the break.Mate Dugandzic was lively all match and scored twice

Hoffman had been busy at both ends for Heart and worked in well with Kewell on several occasions up forward to set up scoring attempts. At the 43 minute mark Hoffman got past the Jets defence to set up Ramsay with a short pass who in turn lifted the ball towards the goals. The Ramsay kick deflected off the head of Jets defender Emile Heskey into the corner of the net for the equalizer.

Into injury time an unguarded Dugandzic with a solid header put away a perfectly placed Behich corner for the go ahead goal just on the half time whistle.

With possession shared in the first half Melbourne Heart had the slight advantage with shots on goal being 7-4.

2^nd half action was a blueprint of the first half with Melbourne Heart creating plenty of scoring opportunities and not giving up any space in defence for the Jets forwards.

Orlando Engelaar is subbed in for the Heart at the 58 minute mark much to the delight of the small crowd. Engelaar was straight into the action with a solid header that went wide but looked threatening and gave the Melbourne attack a new dimension as he towered over the pack.

Dugandzic received a clear pass from Kewell that allowed him to run onto the ball in clear space in front of goal. An outside slot goes between the outstretched legs of Jets goalie Birighitti for Heart’s 3^rd goal with 67 gone in the match.

Heart players celebrate Dugandzic's 2nd goal of the night while Jets goalie Mark Birighitti crouches in disappointment.

Kewell was instrumental in setting up Dugandzic and saved his best for last as this time he was on the end of a Dugandzic pass which gave him plenty of time 20 out and left of the goals to sum up the situation. Spotting a hard running Mifsud, Kewell lifted the ball with a pin point perfect cross to the waiting unguarded Mifsud who was barely metres out from the goal line. Mifsud completely missed the shot carrying on the season tradition of strikers blowing scoring opportunities. It was like someone handed him the ball on a pedestal and all he had to do was guide it in. Luckily for Mifsud the team had a commanding strangle hold on the game and the miss had no bearing on the end result.Kewell gets off the perfect cross to Mifsud.

So in the end the Heart had a win which is what they initially set out to do.Heart fans rejoice their teams win.

What stayed the same?

*Williams and Mifsud’s inability to capitalize on difficult shots and put the team in a winning situation. Both players should have had a goal each from the match no question about it. If you look at the 3 Heart goals scored, one was a deflection from a Jets player’s head, one went through the opened legs of a jumping Jets goalie (surely a mistake by the goalie) with the 3^rd coming from an unguarded Heart’s player. It is reasonably to say that Dugandzic’s header goal was the result of putting yourself in the right place to receive a perfectly placed corner kick but the other 2 goals had more than a fair share of luck attached to them. The result could quite easily have been a 1 all draw.

*Hearts attack on the game early was outstanding and has been their trademark all season.

*Harry Kewell. Just a standout and super skilled.

What was different?

*The Heart defence was a blanket throughout the night. I’m guessing that the interim coach is bringing his own brand to the team but after only 2 weeks you have to seriously consider if the changes could happen that quickly. Whatever the case, the defence was simply outstanding Friday night. Capably led by Gerhardt and Wielaert, the Newcastle Jets continually had to pass the ball around looking for an avenue into attack. Although the Jets had several scoring attempts throughout the match they never really threatened to bust open the game. The Heart defence looked to work back on every occasion giving absolutely no real estate to the Newcastle forwards. Usually Redmayne is faced with an opposition forward breaking into open space and taking him on head on. On Friday night it was hard to remember one situation where that happened although Redmayne did have some work to do. Even the goal the Jets scored, come from a congested corner that was scrambled into the back of the net.

*#4 was different. Big man Orlando Engelaar although not having a huge impact on the game, gave the impression that he is going to cause damage to opposition team defences for the remainder of the season. He is big and he is skilled and I’m sure Aloisi would have been itching to have him in his side. If Engelaar can be that striking forward then instantly the pressure is removed from the shoulders of Williams and Mifsud who quite clearly are not premium A-League strikers. Having said that, both these guys are definitely skilled enough to assist Kewell and Engelaar up front and could be quite dangerous for opposition defences.Big man Orlando Engelaar gets a shot on goal.

Look out opposition teams if Engelaar in combination with Kewell gets going.

Melbourne Heart makes the trip over to Adelaide to take on United who also have not performed to pre-season expectations. It was a 3-3 score line the last time the teams met.

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