This was published 7 years ago
Kevin Muscat believes Victory can catch Sydney in A-League title race
By Michael Lynch
Three games in seven days with trips to Wellington and Perth thrown in for good measure. Surely that takes its toll on players' physical and mental strength?
Not so, says Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat, as he looks to galvanise his team for Thursday's blockbuster Australia Day clash against runaway league leaders Sydney FC after defeats on the road in New Zealand and Western Australia.
Confident: Victory boss Kevin Muscat.Credit: Getty Images
Muscat refused to concede that fatigue was the reason for Victory's late collapse in Perth, where two goals in the last 15 minutes by the Glory gave Kenny Lowe's side a 2-1 win over Muscat's men.
The results leaves Victory trailing Sydney by eight points at the top of the table with 11 games left to play. It's not impossible for Victory to overhaul the so-far unbeaten league leaders, but it's highly unlikely.
Graham Arnold's team has shown a steely resolve and an ability to get the job done in a variety of difficult circumstances and Sydney now are worthy championship favourites given the likelihood that, if they keep their nerve, they will be hosting the grand final in May, should they get there.
Victory's best hope of overhauling the Sky Blues is to beat them in their two fixtures that are still to come , beginning on Australia Day at Etihad. But even if they do that – they also play Sydney away from home in the final weeks of the regular season – they would need to keep on winning and hope that Arnold's side slips up elsewhere. It's a tall order on the evidence of the season so far.
Where Victory will take some succour is from the fact that they are the team that gave Sydney the biggest scare earlier this season, taking the lead at Allianz Stadium and also missing a penalty before Sydney came back to win 2-1 through David Carney's controversial late goal.
On Saturday, Muscat made five changes to the side that crashed 3-0 in Wellington on Tuesday night, leaving defender Nick Ansell and midfielder Oliver Bozanic in Melbourne and resting Marco Rojas on the bench.
But the Victory coach wouldn't use that as an excuse either, much to his credit.
"Nothing to do with it. I'm too long in the tooth to start allowing people to use that as an excuse," Muscat told Fox Sports in a post game interview.
"Running out the game doesn't stop you from setting the wall up properly. There was enough freshness in there and our football was good. We created a load of chances and could have increased the lead and had it comfortably."
In the press conference after the match he could only rue a game he described as a "farce", the "worst possible night for us".
"The majority of the game we were bright and sharp. We should have put it out of Perth's reach.
"We found a way to destruct and beat ourselves, I thought we were the much better team on the night, but we found a way to beat ourselves. (There were) poor decisions towards the end when good decisions needed to be made.
"We have got a big game at home next week. We are certainly not going to panic. We will freshen up, we won't need any motivation next week."
Muscat certainly wasn't discounting all hope of competing for top spot even though it now looks a much more difficult assignment.
"I will never give up, we have still got to play Sydney twice, I will never give up, it's not in my nature."