I need Ramadan to be over so the manoushe place I go to can reopen - Hume City 1 South Melbourne 1

So here we are, at last. Some grounds are naturally wider than others, some narrower. We've been using narrower field for some time now in order to make use of Max Mikkola's long throws, but we are now at the stage - finally - where teams are happy to widen their own fields in order to diminish our over-reliance on our one reliable-ish weapon. Or maybe other teams had been doing it earlier, too, but I hadn't been paying attention.

The Danish guy started, and after seven games I think I can proffer a verdict. I don't think anyone expected him to be the messiah, and he's not. He has neither the strength, height, and gut effort of Harrison Sawyer; nor does he have the tricky mix speed and guile of Ajak Riak. We've wrung a couple of goals out of him from relatively limited opportunities, and chances are that he'll pinch another few if he remains out there. 

But the worst thing about the Dane isn't necessarily his skill (potentially dubious) or fitness (confirmed dubious) - it's that he's completely unsuited to playing under either of the two main Esteban modes. Moller's no good on the long ball when we sit deep, and he doesn't have the speed or fitness to make an impact when we press. He seems like a touch/close in player, a forward who can lay off passes for other forwards or midfielders coming through the middle. 

Unfortunately, that kind of style is almost non-existent under Esteban. It's like Esteban coaches basketball or handball rather soccer, there's so little midfield action. And yet, there were actually some moments on Friday where we did successfully go through the middle (goodness knows how that happened), but then didn't lay off the ball for the shooter, who was occasionally the Dane. Can you play Bonada (when he returns from injury) and Moller in the same team? Absolutely you can. Will we? Probably not.

But enough about the game. Most amusing on the night (in a very limited comedy field) was the atmosphere, or rather the lack of it for most of the night. After the eleventy billion that went to the game at BT Connor (and scores more who streamed on YouTube), and the boisterous vibe from the home fans at George Andrews, Westmeadows was dead. Where were all my young bloods? Where was the drumming? Did the cheques fail to clear? Or were they all at an iftar? Then after the equaliser some persons realised that they were at a football match.

But that still didn't compare to drama of the security running (OK, more like jogging, but still) all the way to the other side of the ground where few fans were, making it seem like there was some drastic emergency, only for rumour to spread that they just wanted to tell someone to pipe down, because they could be heard too clearly over the top of the commentary. All those times (at least twice) where security at Hume were completely useless when we were being attacked by underworld adjacent characters with no intervention from "official" security, and this is what gets them hyped into action? Classic Victorian soccer, always aiming at the low-hanging fruit.

Next game
Dandenong City at home on Monday night.

Dockerty Cup news
For the fourth time since 2017, we've been drawn against Eastern Lions, this time as the away side.  Though the game is listed for Lions' Gardiners Creek Reserve home on Easter Saturday, that venue is apparently having its field resown, so who knows for sure if this match will actually take place there. Lions are currently bottom of VPL1 (the tier below us), winless after seven matches. They weren't doing much better ladder-wise last year when we met them in the cup, yet they still almost pushed us to extra time when we decided we wanted to be smart and rest everybody towards the end of the game.

Being paired up against Lions also means that 2025 is another season where we haven't been drawn (yet) against a side that's been lower than the Victorian second tier. That's a streak that goes back to 2019, when we played against Doveton, who were then in the third tier. 2019 is also the last season that we played against a Victorian opponent in the cup that we've never played before (Doveton, and then Langwarrin). The winner of this fixture will play away to the winner of the Bentleigh Greens and Caroline Springs George Cross match - so even progress from the fourth round into the fifth won't provide much novelty, except for a possible trip to the City Vista ground.

Final thought
Everyone thought it was Quintas getting another yellow last Friday, but good on assistant coach Leigh Minopoulos, whose collection of a yellow card on the bench last week is the moral/cosmic equivalent of getting someone else to get your demerit points for you.