Victory crashed to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night, making it back-to-back below-par performances to open a 2019/20 campaign that began with the club being hailed by most as one of the favourites for premiership and title glory.  

Though cruelled by pre-season injuries to Robbie Kruse and Tim Hoogland, the depth of Victory’s offseason recruitment – bringing in the likes of Andrew Nabboout, Jakob Poulsen, Kristijan Dobras, Migjen Basha and Adama Traore – had left Kurz with a side that should have been capable of beating any A-League opponent on their day.

“I felt this week, I saw a focused team,” the German gaffer had said in the week leading into the Friday.

“It was different to last week because now we know the tournament has started.”

And indeed, for the first 20 minutes of Friday evening’s contest against Western Sydney Wanderers, it did look as though Victory were going to live up to their coach's words in putting in a much-improved performance after the somewhat dour showing they had turned in in the 0-0 draw with Melbourne City.

Creating early chances for both Ola Toivonen and Elvis Kamsoba in just the second minute of the contest, Victory was able to work the ball down the channels with relative ease; creating a further two chances for Nabbout that were both scrambled clear by the Wanderers defence.

However, when a Pirmin Schwegler was headed into the Victory post by Matthew Jurman in the 22nd minute, the tide dramatically shifted.

All of a sudden, it was Wanderers that appeared to be in control; taking all the sting out of the contest as Victory’s moves forward became increasingly unimaginative and ineffective.  

The visitors – who entered the contest without a win in 11 games against their navy-blue clad foes – should have taken the lead in the 44th minute when German attacker Alexander Meier, somehow, put a header wide of the net after some great build-up play from Daniel Georgievski allowed the right-back to whip a cross into the back post.

Then, ten minutes into the second stanza with Victory still looking tepid, blood was drawn when three products of the Wanderers highly-rated academy – Keanu Baccus, Nicholas Sullivan and Mohamed Adam – combined to set up the 21-year-old Baccus to launch an inch-perfect curling effort from just outside the penalty area beyond Lawrence Thomas and make it 1-0.

In the 62nd minute, a calamitous mix-up at the back between Storm Roux and Thomas enabled Mitch Duke to force the ball to spill back to an open Meier – who fired first time from range into an open goal to double the Wanderers lead.  

Looking to spark his side to life just when it looked like the Wanderers were cruising, newly minted South Sudanese international Kenny Athiu was able to win his side a penalty when he headed the ball into the clearly outstretched arm of defender Dylan McGowan.

Ice in his veins, Toivonen fired past Daniel Lopar to halve the deficit and score Victory’s first goal of the season.  

However, it did not augur a comeback; Wanderers able to hold on and start their season with two straight wins for the first time in the club’s history as they saw off a Victory fightback that - though furious and dramatic - still retained the same basic principles that had marked their attacks throughout the contest.

Playing for the first time with the spiritual successor to North Terrace – Original Style Melbourne – behind the goals area it was an ultimately disappointing performance from the four-time A-League champions.

Chances, as should perhaps come as no surprise given Kurz’s previous record at Adelaide, were almost entirely being derived from crosses into the area and being dealt with by a Wanderers defence that knew they were coming. 

While two draws from the first two games of the season are not going to eliminate any side from contention – especially in an Australian system in which over 50 per cent of the league plays finals – the custodial staff at AAMI Park could perhaps make sure that the alarm bells around the facility have working batteries.

Should Victory fail to get a result against Brisbane next week, perhaps they should then start checking the switches.