Melbourne Derby (A-League Men)

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This article is about the A-League Melbourne Derby. For other uses, see Melbourne Derby.

Melbourne Derby
Melbourne Derby December 2014.jpg
A Melbourne Derby match at Marvel Stadium in 2015.
LocationMelbourne
TeamsMelbourne City
Melbourne Victory
First meeting8 October 2010
A-League Men
Heart 2–1 Victory
Latest meeting18 December 2021
A-League Men
City 2–2 Victory
Next meeting19 March 2022
A-League Men
Victory v City
Statistics
Meetings total36
Most winsBoth teams (13 each)
Top scorerBesart Berisha
Jamie Maclaren
(9 each)
Largest victoryCity 7–0 Victory
(17 April 2021)

The Melbourne Derby is an intra-city local derby in Australia's premier soccer competition, the A-League Men. It is contested between the first two Melbourne teams playing in the competition, Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory, and is the A-League Men's first intra-city derby.

History[]

With the introduction of Melbourne Heart (who would later be known as Melbourne City) to the A-League Men 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 Men 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]

In the nine matches played from the start of the 2017–18 season to the end of the 2019/20 season, the teams shared three wins, three draws and three losses respectively, indicating a period of relative evenness between the rivals. This changed in the first two derbies of the 2020–21 season, when City claimed historic record wins in the fixture's history, defeating Victory firstly by six goals to nil in March 2021 and then by seven goals to nil the following month.[16] Jamie Maclaren became the first player to score more than three goals in a derby in the latter game and the second player in league history to score five goals in a match, after Archie Thompson scored five goals in the 2007 A-League Grand Final.[17] The results, which coincided with a torrid run of form for the Victory that left them in last place on the ladder,[18] resulted in the sacking of head coach Grant Brebner on 17 April 2021.[19]

Matches[]

2010–2020[]

Season Derby
 Comp* Date
 Home team
 Score
 Away team
 Goals (home)
 Goals (away)
 Venue
 Attendance
2010–11 1 RS 8 October 2010 Heart 2–1 Victory Aloisi (10), Terra (56) Kruse (35) AAMI 25,897
2 RS 11 December 2010 Heart 1–3 Victory Sibon (17) Kruse (12, 28), Srhoj (54 o.g.) AAMI 23,059
3 RS 22 January 2011 Victory 2–2 Heart Allsopp (11), Hernández (30) Aloisi (45+2, 51) Etihad 32,231
2011–12 4 RS 22 October 2011 Victory 0–0 Heart – – Etihad 39,309
5 RS 23 December 2011 Heart 3–2 Victory Thompson (37, 39), Terra (62) Thompson (21), Hernández (90+2) AAMI 26,579
6 RS 4 February 2012 Heart 0–0 Victory – – AAMI 26,396
2012–13 7 RS 5 October 2012 Victory 1–2 Heart Rojas (24) Williams (14), Macallister (45+2) Etihad 42,032
8 RS 22 December 2012 Heart 1–2 Victory Fred (81) Rojas (67), Thompson (90+2) AAMI 26,457
9 RS 2 February 2013 Victory 2–1 Heart Thompson (29), Milligan (55) Williams (72) Etihad 41,203
2013–14 10 RS 12 October 2013 Victory 0–0 Heart – – Etihad 45,202
11 RS 21 December 2013 Heart 1–3 Victory Kalmar (80) Nichols (28, 63), Troisi (60) AAMI 26,491
12 RS 1 March 2014 Heart 4–0 Victory Engelaar (8), Dugandzic (15) Williams (83) Kewell (86) – AAMI 25,546
2014–15 13 RS 25 October 2014 Victory 5–2 City Thompson (23, 87), Berisha (45+1, 46, 67) Wielaert (13), Hoffman (26) Etihad 43,729
14 RS 20 December 2014 City 1–0 Victory Paartalu (90) – AAMI 26,372
15 RS 7 February 2015 Victory 3–0 City Berisha (10), Barbarouses (53), Ben Khalfallah (62) – Etihad 40,042
16 FS 8 May 2015 Victory 3–0 City Berisha (18), Barbarouses (30), Thompson (87) – Etihad 50,873
2015–16 17 RS 17 October 2015 Victory 3–2 City Ben Khalfallah (23), Barbarouses (57), Berisha (90) Fornaroli (68), Mauk (71) Etihad 40,217
18 RS 19 December 2015 City 2–1 Victory Mauk (20), Retre (30) Berisha (45) AAMI 23,572
19 RS 13 February 2016 City 2–2 Victory Fornaroli (22, 31) Ben Khalfallah (29), Finkler (47) AAMI 25,738
2016–17 20 RS 15 October 2016 Victory 1–4 City Rojas (62) Cahill (27), Fornaroli (31), Brattan (52), Brandán (62) Etihad 43,188
21 CUP 25 October 2016 Victory 0–2 City – Brattan (9), Brandán (77) AAMI 15,791
22 RS 17 December 2016 City 1–2 Victory Cahill (16) Rojas (24) Berisha (78) AAMI 24,706
23 RS 4 February 2017 Victory 2–1 City Berisha (84), Muscat (86 o.g.) Baró (70 o.g.) Etihad 35,426
2017–18 24 RS 14 October 2017 Victory 1–2 City George (55) Budzinski (45+3), Kamau (64) Etihad 35,792
25 RS 23 December 2017 City 0–1 Victory – Milligan (95 pen.) AAMI 22,515
26 RS 2 March 2018 City 1–2 Victory Fornaroli (54 pen.) Barbarouses (12), George (62) AAMI 20,083
2018–19 27 RS 20 October 2018 Victory 1–2 City Honda (28) de Laet (40), McGree (70) Marvel 40,505
28 RS 22 December 2018 City 1–1 Victory Vidošić (90+2) Toivonen (55) AAMI 24,306
29 RS 23 February 2019 Victory 1–1 City Barbarouses (50) Maclaren (16 pen.) Marvel 32,431
2019–20 30 RS 12 October 2019 Victory 0–0 City – – Marvel 33,523
31 RS 21 December 2019 City 1–2 Victory Delbridge (56) Toivonen (15, 41) AAMI 17,083
32 RS 7 February 2020 City 2–1 Victory Berenguer (8), Maclaren (71) Toivonen (78) AAMI 16,872
* RS: A-League regular season, FS: A-League finals series, GF: A-League grand final, CUP: FFA Cup, AAMI: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Etihad/Marvel: Docklands Stadium
Melbourne City were known as Melbourne Heart from 2010 until 2014

2021–present[]

Season Derby
 Comp* Date
 Home team
 Score
 Away team
 Goals (home)
 Goals (away)
 Venue
 Attendance
2020–21 33 RS 6 March 2021 Victory 0–6 City – Maclaren (34), Berenguer (52), Griffiths (56), Metcalfe (74, 77), Colakovski (90+3) Marvel 11,467[a]
34 RS 17 April 2021 City 7–0 Victory Nabbout (11), Maclaren (34 pen., 64, 75 pen., 84, 85), Luna (87) – AAMI 14,031[b]
35 RS 6 June 2021 Victory 1–1 City Brooks (90+5) Ansell (54, o.g.) AAMI 0 (BCD)
2021–22 36 RS 18 December 2021 City 2–2 Victory Maclaren (60), Nabbout (63) Margiotta (12), D'Agostino (81) AAMI 19,640
37 RS 19 March 2022 City Victory AAMI
38 RS 9 April 2022 Victory City AAMI
* RS: A-League (Men) regular season, FS: A-League (Men) finals series, GF: A-League (Men) grand final, CUP: FFA Cup, AAMI: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Marvel: Docklands Stadium

Statistics[]

As of 18 December 2021
Competition City wins Draws Victory wins City goals Victory goals
League regular season 12 10 12 58 48
League finals series 0 0 1 0 3
FFA Cup 1 0 0 2 0
Total 13 10 13 60 51

Top goalscorers[]

Besart Berisha is the Melbourne Derby's all-time top goalscorer, with 9 goals
As of 18 December 2021
Player Club Goals
Kosovo Besart Berisha Melbourne Victory 9
Australia Jamie Maclaren Melbourne City
Australia Archie Thompson Melbourne Victory 6
New Zealand Kosta Barbarouses Melbourne Victory 5
Uruguay Bruno Fornaroli Melbourne City 4
Sweden Ola Toivonen Melbourne Victory
New Zealand Marco Rojas Melbourne Victory
Australia John Aloisi Melbourne City 3
Tunisia Fahid Ben Khalfallah Melbourne Victory
Australia Robbie Kruse Melbourne Victory
Australia David Williams Melbourne City
  • Players in bold are still active for their club.

Records[]

  • Most wins: Both teams (13 each)
  • Biggest win: Melbourne City 7–0 Melbourne Victory (17 April 2021)
  • Most consecutive wins: 3, Melbourne Victory (7 February 2015 – 17 October 2015), Melbourne City (7 February 2020 – 17 April 2021)
  • Most consecutive matches undefeated: 5, Melbourne City (22 January 2011 – 5 October 2012, 7 February 2020 - 18 December 2021)
  • Most consecutive games without a draw: 8, (21 December 2013 – 19 December 2015, 15 October 2016 – 20 October 2018)
  • Most consecutive draws: 3, (22 December 2018 – 21 December 2019)
  • Highest goalscorer: 9, Besart Berisha, Jamie Maclaren
  • Highest goalscorer in one match: 5, Jamie Maclaren (17 April 2021)
  • Player with most consecutive matches scored: 4, Besart Berisha (7 February 2015 – 19 December 2015)
  • Highest attendance: 50,873 (8 May 2015)
  • Lowest attendance: 11,467 (6 March 2021)

Honours[]

As of 5 February 2022
Competition Melbourne City Melbourne Victory
A-League Men Premiership 1 3
A-League Men Championship 1 4
FFA Cup 1 2
Total 3 9

Players who 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 10 September 2021
Player Melbourne City career Melbourne Victory career
Span League
apps 		League
goals 		Span League
apps 		League
goals
Australia Aziz Behich 2010–2014 89 2 2009–2010 5 0
Australia Oliver Bozanic 2018 9 0 2015–2017 48 5
Australia Joshua Brillante 2019–2020 28 1 2021–present 11 1
Australia Mate Dugandžić 2011–2015 75 13 2009–2011 36 7
Brazil Fred 2011–2013 38 3 2006–2007 20 4
Australia Scott Galloway 2019–present 58 4 2013–2016 54 1
North Macedonia Daniel Georgievski 2021 3 0 2014–2017 67 3
Australia Brendan Hamill 2010–2012 35 1 2021–present 8 0
Australia Gianluca Iannucci 2017–2020 0 0 2020–2022 1 0
Australia Harry Kewell 2013–2014 16 2 2011–2012 25 8
Australia Anthony Lesiotis 2018–2019, 2021–present 3 0 2019–2020 23 0
Australia Dalibor Markovic 2018–2019 0 0 2019–2021 4 0
Australia Andrew Nabbout 2021–present 32 8 2012–2015, 2019–2020 62 13
Australia Paulo Retre 2013–2017 53 1 2011–2012 0 0
Australia Kristian Sarkies 2010–2012 12 2 2005–2007 35 3
Australia Matthew Sutton 2020–present 1 0 2018–2020 0 0
Australia Tando Velaphi 2013–2015 22 0 2011–2013 3 0

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Capacity of the stadium was reduced by 50% due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  2. ^ Capacity of the stadium was reduced by 25% due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References[]

  1. ^ "First Melbourne derby delayed". The Age. 27 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Victory, Heart draw first derby at Docklands Stadium". Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "Kevin Muscat banned for eight games for tackle on Adrian Zahra". Herald-Sun. 28 January 2011. Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  4. ^ "Melbourne Heart defeat Melbourne Victory 3–2 in cracking A-League Men derby at AAMI Park". Fox Sports News. 23 December 2011.
  5. ^ "A-League: Melbourne derby rivalry turns nasty". Herald Sun. 26 February 2011.
  6. ^ "Melbourne City 1–0 Melbourne Victory: Paartalu nets dramatic winner". Goal.com. 20 December 2014.
  7. ^ Muscat hails 'deserved' Victory triumph Official FFA Match Report, 9 May 2015
  8. ^ a b "Melbourne Victory accepts $50,000 fine and suspended points deduction handed down by FFA". ABC News. 17 February 2016.
  9. ^ "A-League Melbourne derby: Bruno Fornaroli's Magic lights up game as 10-man City hold on for draw". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 February 2016.
  10. ^ "Melbourne Victory's noisy neighbours take over the party and stake a claim to be top dogs". Fairfax Media. 16 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Melbourne Derby: Dean Bouzanis apologises for Besart Berisha gypsy slur". ABC News. 5 February 2017.
  12. ^ "Incredible derby finale as Victory snatch late win over City". The Age.
  13. ^ "Tim Cahill Red Card in Melbourne Derby before entering pitch". YouTube. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  14. ^ "Luke Brattan awarded goal from 25m shot for City to lead despite Tim Cahill drifting into off-side spot". Fox Sports Australia. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  15. ^ Lynch, Michael. "'Two sets of rules': Melbourne Victory coach fuming at referee after loss to City". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  16. ^ Zac Rayson (7 March 2021). "'Six and out': Fan fury as derby 'humiliation' caps three-year collapse of A-League giants". Fox Sports.
  17. ^ Nick D'Urbano (17 April 2021). "City equal record for biggest ever A-League Men win with 7–0 local derby thrashing". news.com.au.
  18. ^ Simon Smale (7 March 2021). "Melbourne Victory's off-field woes laid bare after record derby defeat against Melbourne City". ABC News.
  19. ^ "Victory coach Brebner sacked after seven-goal derby drubbing". SBS Sport. 17 April 2021.
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