Da Silva the hero, again, as Victory find more form ahead of finals
In lifting Melbourne Victory to a 2-1 win over Melbourne City in Saturday's Derby, Damien Da Silva has another momentous moment and given his side another building block heading into finals.
It hasn’t taken Damien Da Silva very long to create some special memories with Melbourne Victory, his 86th-minute winner in Saturday evening’s Melbourne Derby just the latest portentous momento in his time at AAMI Park. Quite, that the French centre-back has only been Down Under for just over a year, arriving from Olympique Lyonnais in February of 2023, but still managed to make it feel like he’s been around for much longer demonstrates just how rapidly he’s not only been able to integrate into Tony Popovic’s setup, but become one of its focal points.
A Bordeaux product whose previous stints were at Stade Malherbe Caen, Stade Rennais, and Olympique Lyonnais, Da Silva brought an undeniable pedigree to proceedings upon arrival, one justified when he managed to win a Victory Medal as the club’s Best and Fairest for his labours dispute only starting 11 games, a shining light in what was an otherwise dismal 2023-24 for the club. This season, not only has he anchored one of the stoutest defences in the league, second-best when it comes to expected goals (xG) conceded and third-best in actual terms, he’s twice now popped up the other end as a match-winner, first with two late goals to break Western United hearts on February 20 and now tonight.
It was a sterling header to condemn City, too, generating enough power in his neck to send his effort across Jamie Young and into the back of the net despite needing to go behind him to get it, before wheeling across to the corner flag in celebration. One would have forgiven him for feeling like he had to do it himself at that point, too, given that his teammates were doing everything but score in their myriad attempts to find a winner after Bruno Fornaroli’s first-half penalty erased Tolgay Arslan’s fourth-minute opener. Indeed, up the other end, he was doing to keep out a City attack that at one stage went 59 minutes between shots and only created two actual attempts on target.
“He brings a lot of experience,” said Popovic. “A lot of calmness. [He] brings an amazing professionalism that a lot of our young players can follow and even the senior players can follow. You don't have the career that he's had, and [been] a captain at so many big clubs in France, if you're not respected by the club or the change room. He's come here and just slotted in seamlessly. We're very happy he's here. He brings his quality defensively, and, also, he's adding some goals now.”
For Victory, Saturday’s evening win moves them to within five points of the A-League Men summit, now jointly held with 46 points by both Central Coast and Wellington after the former’s dramatic late win earlier that day. Set to travel to face the Phoenix next Friday, a late push for a top-two finish isn’t out of the equation, either, but with three games remaining on the season, they’ve now at least mathematically secured finals football for just the second time in the last five seasons and now only need one win from their remaining slate of games to guarantee themselves at least one home final.
And while they’ll now need to adjust for the loss of Ryan Teague, Jordi Valadon, and Nishan Velupillay to Olyroos duty in the weeks ahead, unsettling what has been the same starting XI in back-to-back matches, it could be said that they’re finding some good form at just the right time as well. Undefeated in their last four games and winners of three of those, Victory has now scored multiple goals in six of their last games, now leading the league in xG with a flat 43 – a figure they’ve to this point underperformed by three, missing 47 big chances thus far, a figure trailing only City and Macarthur – to go along with their second-best xG against statistic.
On an individual level, Fornaroli now leads the Golden Boot race by three after his first-half penalty, while Daniel Arzani logged another game where he was streets ahead in successful dribbles and amongst the leaders in chances created. Winning the penalty that Fornaroli converted, Jason Geria perhaps put in his best performance of the season against City, demonstrating the value that he brings to this side, especially when Adama Traore is fit enough to allow him to play on his preferred right.
They’re not unbackable favourites for the title by any stretch of the imagination, yet to demonstrate anything like the peaks that the Central Coast Mariners have shown in possession throughout the season nor yet to demonstrate that they can reliably produce the killer cutting edge needed to break through a defence like Wellington’s. Victory fans who sat through the run of form in which they occasionally resembled entropy made manifest while in possession certainly won’t be getting carried away. But at least things seem to be trending in the right direction at just the right time.
“We've shown a lot of these signs throughout the year, expected goals, chances created, shots on goal but we haven't had a consistent reward,” said Popovic. “Hence why we've had a lot of draws.
“But also the flip side to that is we haven't fallen apart when it's happened and we haven't thrown away games. We're becoming more consistent with the goal-scoring. The chances, I feel are getting clearer.
“The next step is, I anticipate, that hopefully we can punish someone and put a game away a bit earlier. But it's evolving. It's improving. What a great game now to look forward to in Wellington where we'll try and do it again and score multiple goals again.”