The much anticipated 10th season of the A-league has kicked off, with the Melbourne Victory comfortably defeating the highly fancied Western Sydney Wanderers 4-1 at Etihad Stadium on Friday Night.
In an opening night fixture as eagerly anticipated as any in recent memory, the hosts blew the game apart early on, with three goals inside the opening half an hour.
Both teams were missing key players through international duty – Mark Milligan for the Victory, and Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Matt Spiranovic for the Wanderers.
In what are encouraging signs for Melbourne, two of their new signings were on the scoresheet inside of 20 minutes.
Matthieu Delpierre opened his account, volleying home from close range on nine minutes after a pinpoint Gui Finkler free-kick.
Minutes later, Western Sydney had a good shout for a penalty, but referee Jarred Gillet waved play on after Brendan Santalab was felled by the goalscorer Delpierre.
To add to the Wanderers’ pain, they would soon fall two behind, from a penalty.
Albanian international Berisha’s shot rebounded off the arm of Anthony Golec in the box, and the marquee signing kept his composure, sending ex-Victory keeper Ante Covic the wrong way.
Stand-in captain Leigh Broxham added a third just before the half-hour mark.
New Zealand international Kosta Barbarouses, who was lively all game, had his shot blocked, but the ball fell kindly for Broxham, who smashed it home from 10-yards.
Western Sydney would find a goal before the half concluded, with captain for the night Mark Bridge latching onto an innocuous long ball that was poorly dealt with by the Victory defence, before taking a touch and smashing home past Nathan Coe, who could do very little about the strike.
The half ended 3-1, but the home side would add another just nine minutes into the second half.
It was a classic Victory counter-attacking move with Berisha playing the role of provider, running down the wing before finding talisman Archie Thompson who – having beaten the offside trap – finished calmly past Covic.
After this point, the home side seemed content to defend what they had, although this almost immediately cost them.
Coe tried to play out from the back, but Jason Geria was caught on the ball, and a snapshot from Santalab forced the Victory custodian into a stunning reflex save to keep the margin at three.
That one scare aside however, the Victory were able to hold on comfortably to record an opening round win for the first time since Season Two of the A-League.
Melbourne Victory 4 (Delpierre 9’ Berisha 19’ (p), Broxham 28’, Thompson 54’) defeated Western Sydney Wanderers 1 (Bridge 41’) at Etihad Stadium
Crowd: 30,083
Melbourne Victory XI: 1: Nathan Coe (GK), 15: Daniel Georgievski, (16: Rashid Mahazi 87’) 2: Jason Geria, 17: Matthieu Delpierre, 23: Adrian Leijer, 7: Gui Finkler, 6: Leigh Broxham (c), 21: Carl Valeri, 10: Archie Thompson (11: Connor Pain 63’) , 8: Besart Berisha, 9: Kosta Barbarouses (14: Fahid Ben Khalfallah 72’)
Unused Substitutes: 20: Lawrence Thomas (GK), 22: Jesse Makarounas.
Western Sydney Wanderers XI: 1: Ante Covic (GK), 6: Anthony Golec, 5: Brendan Hamill, 3: Daniel Mullen, 18: Iacopo La Rocca (23:Jason Trifio 46’), 2: Shannon Cole, 14: Kwasi Appiah-Kubi (10: Vitor Saba 46’) 7: Labinot Haliti, 8: Mateo Polijak, 11: Brendan Santalab (17: Romoeo Castalen 68’), 19: Mark Bridge (C).
Unused Substitutes: 20: Dean Bouzanis (GK), 31: Alusune Fofanah
Match report graphic thanks to Aaron Vanston