Robbie Kruse. Who would have thought? A little under two years since he joined Melbourne Victory who would have thought that he would be now on your way to Fortuna Düsseldorf and have played five games for the Socceroos. All in all a pretty remarkable turnaround you would have to say.
Looking back to 2009 when news came through that Melbourne Victory had signed Kruse as replaced for the then departing Danny Allsopp I would have to admit that I was less than impressed. Looking back at a post on one of my other blogs entitled "Don't let him near King Street" I wrote the following:
"Kruse, who has a reputation for spending more time in the bars of Fortitude Valley than on the training pitch, is a surprise addition to the squad. Not a really a direct replacement for Allsopp but a handy acquisition nonetheless, as long as we can keep him away from King Street."
Looking back at it now it kind of makes me laugh but you could probably see where I was coming from. After a breakthrough season in 2007-08 for Brisbane Roar, a season I which I remember Kruse scoring a cracking goal against Victory, the season that followed was one that he would rather forget and grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Also going against him was the fact that he wasn't really considered a striker, more of a winger that scored a few goals.
Kruse's first season with Victory didn't exactly get off to a flier taking him a good two months to find the back of the net and it often seemed that the Victory hierarchy hadn't really made the right choice for an Allsopp replacement. A hat-trick against Gold Coast and a cracking goal against Sydney were the highlights but not a real pointer of what was to come this season just gone.
In a season that provided few highlights, the form of Robbie Kruse was definitely one of them. Without Kruse's goals the season would have been much worse than it was. To put it plainly without them we would have been screwed. Even with the form that he displayed throughout the season in mind even I as the most parochial Victory fan didn't really think Kruse would make the Asian Cup squad let alone get some game time. But there he was slotting in amongst the regular Socceroos and looked right at home. He even looked pretty impressive in the ten minutes that he played against Germany last week.
This week's ACL match against Tianjin Teda again highlighted how important Robbie Kruse is to Melbourne Victory and it was no coincidence that we looked a lot better when he was on the pitch. If only he could have put away that one-on-one chance. Having signed with Fortuna Düsseldorf for the start of the 2011-12 season the next three ACL games provide us with the last chance we get to Kruse in Melbourne Victory colours for the time being at least. Now all we ask that is that he helps get out the group stage. That's not too much to ask is it?
