Let it be known that I like the number ten: I was born on the tenth day of the eleventh month and many of my favourite football players, including Zinedine Zidane, Diego Maradona and Juan Roman Riquelme, have worn it on their backs. Now Melbourne Victory have given me another reason to like it even more with their tenth consecutive win over Adelaide United on Friday night.
Therefore in light of this momentous occasion I thought it would be an opportune time to take a leaf out of the Opta Sports playbook and take a statistical look at the number ten and how it relates to the history between Victory and Adelaide United, starting with the most obvious.
10 - The number of consecutive wins Melbourne Victory has had over Adelaide United, the first of which was a 1-0 win in Round 4 of the 2008/09 season. That match wasn't without its controversy as this was the match where Ney Fabiano was giving his marching orders for allegedly spitting at Robert Cornthwaite. Of all these ten wins, my favourite would have to be the 4-0 win in the second leg of the Major Semi-Final of the 2008/09 season as it is the best I have seen the team play. Plus that game also gave us the term 'pissant'.
10 - Archie Thompson has been the only player to wear this number for Melbourne Victory since its inception. In Victory's run of ten consecutive wins against Adelaide, Thompson has played in eight of them and surprisingly he has only scored one goal in those eight matches. That was in the second leg of the Major Semi-Final of the 2008/09 season. Of course, I don't need to remind Adelaide fans that Thompson is most famous for scoring five goals against them in the 2006/07 Grand Final.
10 - After hearing rave reviews about Adelaide's number ten, Friday night was my first chance to see Marcos Flores in the flesh. Almost every time that he got the ball he looked dangerous and his battle with Adrian Leijer over the whole ninety minutes was worth the admission fee alone. If he didn't play for Adelaide I think I could become a fan. Unlike Victory, Adelaide have had a number of players wear the number ten with Fernando Rech, Nathan Burns and Cristiano all wearing the number at one time or another.
10 - When Robbie Kruse slotted home the opening goal for Victory on Friday night it was histenth goal for the team that he joined last season. It was also his fourth goal in as many games bringing his goal tally for the season to five in only eight matches. Whilst you would never regard him as an out-and-out striker, the strike rate so far this year has certainly been impressive and with the continued absence of Thompson and profligacy of Ricardinho we may very well need him to continue that run.
So hopefully you can all appreciate my love of the number ten (well maybe not if you are an Adelaide supporter) and that as Melbourne fans there will be ten more wins over Adelaide, but for now that it is all as I'm over to play my new copy of FIFA 11.
