Just eight rounds in and Maribor are already pulling away from the rest of the pack. The seven goals served up in the Viola’s 5:2 win against a Celje side that looked promising earlier on demonstrated that it’s not only the Premiership and Serie A getting in on the high-scoring action. Particularly worthy of a mention was Dejan Mezga’s 82nd minute howitzer (coming straight outta Sensible World of Soccer, circa 1995), which can be found here at about 2:36 into the highlights. The drubbing of Celje, who are having a difficult start to this season, shows just how quickly Maribor have got into their stride, the heavy loss to Olimpija notwithstanding.
The players that form the foundation of the squad have stayed pretty much the same over the past couple of seasons, giving them a familiarity and stability that doesn’t seem to exist elsewhere. By the conclusion of this coming weekend’s round everyone in the Prva Liga will have met each of the other nine teams once, and Maribor are by far the most convincing title challengers. A record of six wins, one draw and one loss is a hell of a statement of intent coming up to the end of the first quarter of the 2011/12 programme.
Domžale have picked up the slack and the top of the table is beginning to have a familiar look to it. The Ravbarji have retaken second place from Olimpija following a straight-forward 2:1 win over bottom of the table Nafta, in a match that promised more goals – Dejan Zadnikar showing Dejan Mezga how it’s really done somewhere around the 40 second mark here. Just when Olimpija were beginning to look like this season’s credible opposition, they managed to capitulate on their away trip to Prekmurje and newly-promoted Mura 05. Although Dare Vršič managed to provide Olimpija’s second in a 4:2 defeat with a header he really shouldn’t have been able to get away with. Excellent timing or poor defending? I’ll give Dare the benefit of the doubt, it’s at 2:20 here.
Elsewhere, Koper recorded their first win of the campaign, a 30 victory away to Triglav Kranj lifting them out of the gutter at Nafta’s expense, and Gorica failed to take advantage of Olimpija’s tumble by losing themselves, 1:0 away to Rudar Velenje.
Thursday sees Maribor travel to Bruges for their first Europa League group stage fixture, more on that nearer the time.
Goli Gol (the Naked Goal) 