Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat was pleased with his side’s defensive effort as they toiled for 90 minutes to earn three valuable points against Yokohama F. Marinos.
Victory were subject to heavy pressure in the midweek clash and Muscat was happy with the style in which the team coped with an ever changing attack.
“We really had to withstand a barrage of pressure and if anything I thought we got better in the games that we’ve played in this competition and learnt from some lessons tonight because these teams don’t mind changing it up,” the head coach said post match.
“If they do go a goal down they’ll put you under pressure with a lot of balls into your box and we didn’t deal with it particularly against Jeonbuk but tonight the back four and the goalkeeper stood strong.”
Dealing specifically with that back four, Muscat reserved individual praise for a number of players, including young fullback Dylan Murnane, who came into the starting line-up for his first match in over two months.
“We’re enjoying some good results at the moment and Dylan Murnane comes in, has he let anyone down? He was brilliant,” he said.
“Lawrence Thomas was good tonight, Jimmy Jeggo was good again, accompanied by some senior players.
“They’re waiting for an opportunity and they want an opportunity to go on and perform.
“I don’t think they let anybody down tonight, it was a solid performance and collectively we’ve got everyone pulling in the same direction and enjoying some good results.”
The 1-0 result against Yokohama didn’t only secure a maiden three points for ACL 2014, but it also saw Melbourne keep a clean sheet for the first time in a staggering 15 matches, dating back to December of last year.
“It’s been a long time coming, though it really hasn’t been a major focus because while we’ve been conceding goals we’ve still been winning games,” Muscat said.
“We have spoken about it and there was a certain desperation tonight in that final third to stand up and really defend and not concede, and that was an improvement from the last game in this competition against Jeonbuk.”
At the other end of the park, it was a Kosta Barbarouses strike early on in the piece that separated the two sides.
“The goal was a classic example of the structure working at it’s absolute best,” Muscat said.
“Pinching the ball, freeing up someone on the opposite side, receive the ball, face forward and Kosta makes a very good run, times it right and a very good finish.
“We had one or two other opportunities tonight and what I say about having a threat going forward is, you’ve got a responsibility as a team to defend.
“But to get into that structure quickly, when we get the ball takes a lot of hard work”
The win leaves Melbourne equal second in their group and Muscat believes his side is a decent chance of progressing through to the knockout stages, given they pick up results on the road.
“We’ve put ourselves in a decent position now,” he said.
“I said we needed to win, it was our second home game and we got two on the road now.
“We needed to win today, so what that does do after the result tonight we’ll have to wait and see but it keeps us alive.
“It keeps us in a decent enough position that if we can win our last home game and pick up some points on the road then who knows where that’s going to take us.”