Phoenix 2-4 Melbourne

Well, that was annoying. A promising start, a decent 4-4-2 formation (although Kwasnik was dropping a little deeper than I like), Daniel looking keen and Johnson getting a start. The same back 4 retained should have been a good thing, as consistency of selection should lead to consistency of form.
But Allsopp for Melbourne is really good. Far too strong and experienced for poor Manny Muscat, and so was Ney Fabiano. With the referee seeming to miss much of the action, they physically dominated the Phoenix defence. Johnson started sharp but faded quickly (although, interestingly, he re-asserted himself impressively in the late stages). Daniel stopped playing wide and did his usual, nearly useful, tricks. Hearfield looked excellent with good pace and sharp skills. But they did us proper, like. Defensive muddles and stupid decisions left us vulnerable to the savvy of the forwards, and they made us pay in spades. The opening goal was soft, with Manny poorly positioned, allowing Allsopp to attack and then cut inside with Moss failing to make the save. Blame the slippery surface if you like. I don't. Crikey - that might even have been the second! I can't remember.
We got back into it with a Smeltz goal - he looks so sharp and motivated. But he always looks unhappy later, as his efforts look to have been wasted by other players.
The Victory went ahead again (possibly with the goal described earlier) and the Phoenix were awarded a penalty which wasn't especially controversial from my angle. But then the same thing happened for Victory.
I have no idea where it went wrong (although Ricki's tactics and Ferrante's presence rather swing my blame allocation) but this was not good enough. So many encouraging signs, wasted by the fact that the Victory strikers got so much joy out of our defenders. Maybe we just don't play niggly enough? The ref doesn't give the fouls, so they pay off.
Hearfield, Smeltz, Coveny and even Christie come out okay, but the others need seriously to look at what happened today.