The Melbourne Victory have fought out and showed a lot of character to get a 2 all draw with the Brisbane Roar after going down to 10 men in the first minute and 9 men in the 37th minute.
In a tale of two halves, the first half was in complete contrast to the second. The first had more explosions than New Years Eve on Sydney Harbour; while in the second half the Melbourne Victory put a wall of defence up in their last third that would have kept people trying to flee the former communist states out.
The match started with an explosion. The Melbourne Victory kicked off and passed the ball around until a poor backpass from Leigh Broxham to Adrian Leijer had Besart Berisha putting immediate pressure on the centreback. Leijer then tripped and the Albanian International was one on one with Victory keeper Ante Covic. The goalkeeper advanced towards Berisha and brought him down in the box. Referee Ben Williams had no option but to issue a red card to the Victory Custodian - to become the quickest red card in A-League history. On the second opportunity, after Roar players encroached, Henrique slotted past an outstretched substitute Lawrence Thomas.
The Victory than retorted with a goal in the 10th minute. After a mistake by Matthew Jurman, the Victory's Diogo Ferreira bounced on the ball, passing to Archie Thompson at the top of the box. Thompson than flicked the ball and chipped Roar keeper Michael Theoklitos, who was yards from his line.
Melbourne took the lead after 21st minute after a lovely through ball from superstar Harry Kewell put that man Thompson in acres of space. Thompson than decided to turn Jurman three or four times before somehow Theoklitos tripped and fell just watching Thompson spin like a whirly bird. Thompson then hammered the ball in the back of the net.
The Roar than equalised to make it 2-2 with a free kick from Thomas Broich. After initially drawing the foul from Leijer, Broich decided 'Why go over the wall when you can go straight under it?' and that he did. Keeper Thomas had no chance and the see sawing battle was all tied up.
A twist came once again that Steigg Larrson would be proud of. Referee Williams controversially sent off Victory rightback Matthew Foschini for a late tackle in the 37th minute on Broich. The Victory fans and players alike were steaming from the decision, which left the Victory side down to 9 men.
Once the Victory went to 9 men, they compacted the defence and played either Thompson or Kewell up front as the lone man hoping to catch the Roar on the counter. The Roar kept coming at the Victory with wave after wave of attacking play. The Roar had a lack of movement by players, simply pushing the ball around and not penetrating through the Victory defence.
It took the Roar until the 86th minute to have a genuine chance on goal since the second sending off, with a Broich thunderbolt going wide. Once the injury time board went up, the Roar started playing with a sense of urgency. They almost had a winner after Fabio gave away a free kick. The ball was put into the mixture, it pounded onto Matthew Jurman's head and Lawrence Thomas became the hero making a critical save to get the Victory 1 point from a spirited second half performance.
As the officials left the field, the Victory fans let them know what their opinion was of their performance.
The Brisbane Roar's stretch now goes to 34 games and they now go home to face the Wellington Phoenix next week. The Victory now face the red hot Central Coast Mariners at Central Coast Stadium without goalkeeper Ante Covic and Matthew Foschini.