Melbourne Victory produced an impressive performance without key striker Archie Thompson this afternoon, recording a 2-2 draw in a trial match against fellow Australian AFC Champions League 2008 representatives Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.

The absence of Thompson, who will miss the club’s four remaining Group Stage matches with a grade two knee ligament injury, opened the door for Adrian Caceres and Nick Ward to join Danny Allsopp up front, in a move which paid early dividends.

Caceres broke the deadlock with a classy finish on six minutes but was substituted as a precautionary measure soon after with hamstring tightness in the hot and testing Adelaide conditions.

Attacking midfielder Lucas Pantelis equalised for Adelaide on 23 minutes before Allsopp restored Victory’s lead just prior to half time with his third goal in as many trial matches against United.

Victory Coach Ernie Merrick introduced a number of youngsters for the second half, including attacking options Kaz Patafta, Leandro Love and Nathan Elasi, who all created a number of chances.

Adelaide midfielder Matthew Mullen balanced the ledger again on 82 minutes followed by two Adelaide penalties in the dying stages, however, Travis Dodd, who hit the post, and Dez Giraldi, who fired over the crossbar, couldn’t give the home side the lead.

Merrick welcomed the return of Steven Pace from a broken leg to the starting 11 and said confidence was high among the team ahead of its crucial AFC Champions League 2008 match against Gamba Osaka at Telstra Dome next Wednesday, 9 April.

“We’ve flown over on the morning of the game, it’s pretty hot over here and in the first half we had most of our first 11 players, which was pretty impressive, so I’d say there’s a lot of confidence going into next Wednesday’s game,” Merrick said.

“Our first half was very good with Danny Allsopp causing a lot of problems alongside Adrian Caceres and Nick Ward up front.

“We obviously missed Archie as the twin striker with Danny, but Adrian and Nick played a more attacking role and both did a terrific job.

“There was a lot of good direction in the midfield with Leigh Broxham, Steven Pace, Billy Celeski and Matthew Kemp, and the backline of Kevin Muscat, Rodrigo Vargas and Sebastian Ryall didn’t change and they did really well.

“When the younger, less experienced players came on in the second half it was a bit scrappy, but there were some impressive patches of attacking play from Kaz Patafta, Nathan Elasi and Leandro Love.”

Victory will return to Melbourne this evening and train several times before next Wednesday’s match against Gamba, which is currently one point ahead of Victory in Group G following its 4-3 win over Korea Republic’s Chunnam Dragons on Match Day 2.

Tickets for the match are available from any Ticketmaster outlet, by calling 136 100 or through ticketmaster.com.au.

Adelaide United 2 (Pantelis 23', Mullen 82')
Melbourne Victory 2 (Caceres 6', Allsopp 45')
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide