Melbourne Derby (A-League)

Melbourne Derby

A Melbourne Derby match at Etihad Stadium in 2014.
Locale	Melbourne
Teams	Melbourne City Melbourne Victory
First meeting	Melbourne Heart[lower-alpha 1] 2–1 Melbourne Victory (8 October 2010)
Latest meeting	Melbourne City 1–2 Melbourne Victory (2 March 2018)
Next meeting	Melbourne Victory vs Melbourne City (20 October 2018)
Statistics
Meetings total	26
Most wins	Melbourne Victory (12)
Top scorer	Besart Berisha (9)
Largest victory	Melbourne City[lower-alpha 1] 4–0 Melbourne Victory (1 March 2014)

The Melbourne Derby is an intra-city local derby in Australia's premier soccer competition, the Hyundai A-League. It is contested between the two Melbourne teams in the competition, Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory, and it was the A-League's first intra-city derby. Later, the second intra-city derby became Sydney FC versus Western Sydney Wanderers.

History

With the introduction of Melbourne Heart (who would later be known as Melbourne City) to the A-League at the start of the 2010–11 season (the Victory having joined the league at inception), the first derby was held on 8 October 2010 at AAMI Park. The match was originally scheduled for 2 October 2010 however due to the 2010 AFL Grand Final Replay occurring on the same day, the match was postponed.^[1]

Melbourne Heart won the inaugural derby 2–1, with goals from Alex Terra and John Aloisi. Robbie Kruse scored for Victory. Aziz Behich was sent off late in the second half, but Heart were able to hold on and secure the win. Although the game was an official sell out, only 25,897 fans turned up, well short of AAMI Park's official capacity of 30,050. The Victory hosted their first home derby on 22 January at Docklands Stadium, with the match ending in a 2–2 draw.^[2] The match was marred by an unacceptable tackle by Kevin Muscat on Adrian Zahra, which earned the Victory captain his second straight red card and a subsequent eight-match ban, ending not only his season, but his A-League career.^[3]

The first scoreless draw in the derby occurred in the third round of 2011/12 season, whilst a record crowd at AAMI Park was in attendance for the second derby of the season. This derby was arguably one of the best in the rivalry's brief existence, with Heart midfielder Matt Thompson scoring twice in a matter of minutes late in the first half to put Heart in the lead 2–1, before Heart substitute Alex Terra scored controversially after appearing to handball preceding his goal in the second half. Heart would win the match 3–2.^[4] The intense rivalry and passion between both sets of supporters occasionally boiled over, as occurred in February 2011 when four Melbourne Heart supporters were charged with "conspiracy to falsely imprison a [Victory supporter] ".^[5]

In the 2014/15 season, Heart underwent a takeover by the City Football Group. Melbourne City had their first derby win under the new management that season, winning the pre-Christmas derby 1-0 with Erik Paartalu scoring one of the latest winners in a derby.^[6] Victory and City later met in the Finals Series for the first time, in front of a derby record attendance of 50,873 at Etihad Stadium. Melbourne Victory won the Semi Final convincingly with a score of 3-0, with goals from Besart Berisha, Kosta Barbarouses and Archie Thompson.^[7] The third derby of the 2015/16 season was marred by a series of flares let off both outside AAMI Park before the match and inside the arena during the match by some Melbourne Victory supporters. The poor behaviour from Victory fans also extended to "an alleged assault on TV news personnel outside the stadium, throwing missiles at Melbourne City player Thomas Sørensen and a Victoria Police officer, and altercations with police after the match".^[8] Football Federation Australia subsequently issued Melbourne Victory a $50,000 club fine and a suspended three competition points deduction.^[8] On the field, the match was lauded as one of the most "captivating" derbies of the rivalry and featured an incredible passage of play for a goal from City striker Bruno Fornaroli.^[9] In Round 2 of the 2016/17 season, City recorded just their second ever derby win at Etihad Stadium, comfortably defeating Victory 4-1. The match featured the A-League debut of Socceroos all-time leading goal scorer Tim Cahill for City, who scored an incredible long-range goal to open City's account.^[10] The February 2017 derby was a spiteful and controversial affair. Most notably City goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, was suspended and forced to undergo an education course after ethnically slurring Victory striker Besart Berisha during the late stages of Victory's 2–1 win.^[11] Tim Cahill was also red carded before even being entering the field of play, and Victory held on to record a stunning come from behind win.^[12][13]

The two rivals have been drawn for an FFA Cup derby only once; in 2016 at the semi-final stage of the tournament. Melbourne City advanced to the Final, knocking out Victory 2-0 in what was one of the most physically confrontational clashes between the two rivals. The game was not without controversy, with Melbourne City's first goal of the match allowed to stand, despite the fact that Tim Cahill had seemingly interfered with Lawrence Thomas's line of sight whilst in an offside position.^[14][15]

Matches

Records & Statistics

• Most Wins: 12, Melbourne Victory
• Biggest Win: Melbourne City 4–0 Melbourne Victory (1 March 2014)
• Most Consecutive Wins: 3, Melbourne Victory (7 February 2015 - 17 October 2015)
• Most Consecutive Matches Undefeated: 5, Melbourne City (22 January 2011 - 5 October 2012)
• Most Consecutive Games Without a Draw: 8, (21 December 2013 - 19 December 2015)
• Most Consecutive Draws: 2, (22 January 2011 - 22 October 2011)
• Highest Goal Scorer: 9, Besart Berisha
• Individual With Most Consecutive Matches Scored: 4, Besart Berisha (7 February 2015 - 19 December 2015)
• Highest Attendance: 50,873. (8 May 2015)
• Lowest Attendance: 15,791. (25 October 2016)

Top goalscorers

Besart Berisha is the Melbourne Derby's all-time top goalscorer, with 9 goals

Player	Club	Goals
Besart Berisha	Melbourne Victory	9
Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory	6
Bruno Fornaroli	Melbourne City	4
Kosta Barbarouses	Melbourne Victory
John Aloisi	Melbourne City	3
Fahid Ben Khalfallah	Melbourne Victory
Robbie Kruse	Melbourne Victory
David Williams	Melbourne City
Alex Terra	Melbourne City

• Players in Bold are still active for their club.

Players who have played for both clubs

Mate Dugandžić became the first player to transfer directly between the two Melbourne clubs, when he joined Melbourne Heart from Melbourne Victory in February 2011

Correct as of 5 August 2017

Player	Melbourne City career			Melbourne Victory career
	Span	League apps	League goals	Span	League apps	League goals
Aziz Behich	2010–2014	89	2	2009–2010	5	0
Christian Cavallo	2016–	1	0	2015	0	0
Christopher Cristaldo	2016	0	0	2012–2015	4	1
Mate Dugandžić	2011–2015	75	13	2009–2011	36	7
Hernan Espindola	2015–2016	4	0	2013	0	0
Fred	2011–2013	38	3	2006–2007	20	4
Harry Kewell	2013–2014	16	2	2011–2012	25	8
Luke O'Dea	2013–2014	0	0	2012–2013	2	0
Paulo Retre	2013–2017	53	1	2011–2012	0	0
Kristian Sarkies	2010–2012	12	2	2005–2007	35	3
Tando Velaphi	2013–2015	22	0	2011–2013	3	0

See also

• Sydney Derby

Notes

References