Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic has lavished high praise on Harry Kewell, saying his performance in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Adelaide United shows the star recruit is ready to hit his straps.
Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic has lavished high praise on Harry Kewell, saying his performance in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Adelaide United shows the star recruit is ready to hit his straps.
Kewell may not quite have had the impact many expected of him when he arrived in the Hyundai A-League and he admitted earlier this week that he has been surprised by the standard of the competition and has struggled to find his feet.
But against the Reds he could have, as Durakovic pointed out, finished with two or three goals after three separate times being denied by goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic and having another shot cleared off the line.
In the opening minute he went one-on-one with Galekovic but had his shot saved and then in the shadows of half-time he spied the shot-stopper off his line and tried to lob him, only for Galekovic to just get a despairing hand to the ball to tip it wide of the post.
Galekovic was at it a third time in the second half as Kewell curled in a shot from outside the box before substitute Cameron Watson got in on the act in the dying stages after Fabian Barbiero had cancelled out Archie Thompson’s goal.
“I thought Harry’s game tonight was very, very good,” an upbeat Durakovic said.
“(I was pleased) just the way he went about his job.”
“He’s getting match fit, he was brilliant tonight.”
“His passing, his vision (and) his running with the ball, he was absolutely (in a) different class tonight.”
“On another day he could’ve had a hat-trick tonight but that’s football for you.”
“But at least he’s combining well with Archie and Carlos (Hernandez) and it’s good to see.”
Having suggested he believes Kewell’s comments should be seen as a ‘good message’ for the Hyundai A-League, skipper Adrian Leijer also echoed Durakovic’s thoughts on Kewell and the way he, Thompson and Carlos Hernandez are starting to click.
“You see guys like Brett Emerton (at Sydney FC), it took time for him to settle in (and) it’s taken Harry time (too),” Leijer said.
“But now I think especially in the last two weeks we’ve really seen the best of Harry and he’s only going to get better and the way that Harry, Carlos and Archie are playing up front, they’re really starting to gel and click.”
“The opposition teams would be quite frightened of that trio.”
“I think the interpassing between the three of them was good tonight and they’re always looking for each other and we know if we can get the ball to Carlos’ feet to feed Archie and Harry they will create chances.”
“I think it’s going in the right direction.”
