The Victory once again have shown that you can have the arsenal of the US Armed Forces but if it doesn't know what it is doing, it will never hit its targets. For the 39,309 fans that paid good money to come to the match, upset and anger was expressed with boos from the Melbourne Victory faithful as the final whistle sounded.
This is the side that at the start of the pre-season have been touted as the attacking weapon that could go toe to toe with the brilliance of the Brisbane Roar. But the Victory has now gone 385 minutes without scoring a goal in an A-League fixture.
Having said that, the match had every sense of a derby. Both set of fan were in fine voice from the start of the match. Players went into tackles a lot harder than they normally would. But the lack of finishing and a lack of intensity to counter were the contributing issues for both the Victory and the Heart.
Both sides had been quite creative but another issue was the poor last pass by both sides. That last pass seemed to find absolutely no one each time, either being pushed too far or ending up behind the pack.
During the whole match, the Heart looked the more dangerous of the two sides having plenty of opportunities. The best of those chances came in the 14th minute when a free kick was floated to Matt Thompson, who headed the ball back in front of goal but Alex Terra was unable to finish.
The Heart came with a plan to attack the left hand side of the Victory's defence, targeting Fabio, who has been the Victory's Achilles heal this year. Mate Dugandzic and Michael Marrone were a lethal double act, turn Fabio on a number of times and keeping Harry Kewell very quiet.
After finding more space than Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth, Thompson had the ball at his feet and tried to beat Rodrigo Vargas. In trying to pass him, Thompson dived to draw the free kick. Instead referee Delovski issued him with a yellow card for simulation in the 42nd minute.
The Heart had the last chance of the first half after Dugandzic created a chance for Marrone, and the only thing saving Victory from going into the half time break down was Ante Covic.
Coach Durakovic decided a change of structure at the start of the second half by replacing Isaka Cernak with Jean Carlos Solórzano moving Kewell to the left from the middle and playing a traditional 4-4-2.
Matthew Foschini was issued a yellow card after diving in for the ball with his whole sole of his boot exposed. In what you would expect from the previous occupant of the Number 2 jersey at the Victory, Foschini exploded with a barrage of abuse at the official, claiming to have got the ball cleanly.
When Jason Hoffman replaced Thompson, he had an immediate impact. He creating space for himself and gained a corner for his side.
A brain explosion in the 78th minute by Clint Bolton nearly cost the Heart. A missed header outside his box had him scrambling for his goalmouth. Carlos Hernandez's shot however went over the crossbar.
Both sides are now languishing at the bottom of the table, the Heart having 1 point from a possible 9 while the Victory have only 2 points from two 0-0 draws [It is 385 minutes since Victory last scored in a league game]. This week Coach Durakovic and his players will be doing a lot of soul searching, trying to figure out what they need to do an open their account in the goal department.