The latest edition of the Big Blue rivalry clash between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC on Thursday was billed as the battle between fallen giants. The two apex teams of Australian football found themselves marooned in the lower half of the A-League Men table this season, with both Tony Popovic and Steve Corica under immense pressure to turn their season around. In the end, it was Corica who managed to ease some of the pressure off his shoulder, as Sydney battled to a 2-1 victory away at the AAMI Park.
Sydney’s win was very hard-fought, as the Sky Blues went behind in the 26th minute thanks to a Jake Brimmer long-ranged free-kick getting the better of Andrew Redmayne in the Sydney goal.
Brimmer’s goal sparked confidence to a Victory side sitting dead last in the current league campaign, with the Big V pinning Sydney to the ground for a good six minutes, until Sydney’s Max Burgess managed to seize an attempted turnover from Matthew Bozinovski to land home the equalizer past Victory goalkeeper Matthew Acton.
Sydney then successfully turned things around in the 52nd minute. A perfect pass sent by Joe Lolley was received by Adam Le Fondre, with the former Reading man beating his marker Cadete before firing a hammer blow into Acton’s net.
The Sky Blues then hung on for three valuable points, easing some pressure off Corica who was rumored to face the sack soon with former Macarthur FC boss Dwight Yorke in line to replace him.
Instead, intense scrutiny was on Popovic, highly-regarded as one of Australia’s best head coaches, he has now led Victory to a 6-match winless run that saw the Big V tumble down the A-League Men standings and into the league’s basement.