ABOUT a year or so ago I wrote about how much I hated Adelaide and couldn't bear to give them any kind of support during their semi-successful Asian Champions League campaign. A year on I take it all back, I love Adelaide.
Just when things were looking a little glum in the Melbourne Victory camp, along comes a game against Adelaide and all is good again. I guess you could call them our 'feel-good team' because in recent times after every game against Adelaide us fans feel pretty good about things.
Even Ernie Merrick appears to have a soft spot for Adelaide; it's a place where he seems to come out of his shell. Last season, he pulled a masterstroke in the first leg of the semi-final in Adelaide by playing Carlos Hernandez basically minutes after he arrived on a plane from Costa Rica.
This time around, we saw Merrick play one of his most attacking formations away from home in recent times. That 3-4-2-1 formation was truly inspirational. Plus it had the added bonus of Grant Brebner not making the starting XI. No offence, Grant, but you have had your time and the game has moved on.
Now Ernie, listen closely because I know that you read this blog. We all liked what we saw on Friday night so for our next home we would like to see more of the same. In fact, why not try it again next week against Gold Coast because there is nothing more that we would like to see than Melbourne giving the new boys some comeuppance in front of their home fans.
Speaking of people who love playing against Adelaide, Archie Thompson played one of his best games of the season in a somewhat unfamiliar role of a lone striker.
Credit must be given to Ernie Merrick on this one as well, as Thompson wasn't left to languish on his own as he had both Tom Pondeljak and Nick Ward ably supporting him. And with Carlos Hernandez prompting all three from behind it produced some brilliant interplay, the likes of which we haven't seen all season.
That brilliant interplay was also helped by the fact that the Hindmarsh Stadium surface was in brilliant condition, something that always suits Melbourne's style of play. Take note, Etihad Stadium management that's what a football ground should look like and they have less water to work with than Melbourne does.
Finally, it was good to see Kevin Muscat back on the pitch and at his provocative best. His leadership qualities were certainly missed in the previous six weeks. My favourite Muscat moment of the match was when he was striding out of defence with the ball at his feet and still found time to give Srebre Delovski an earful. I guess that's why us Melbourne fans love him, and everyone else loves to hate him.
