Sydney FC has Dwight Yorke, but in Socceroo Archie Thompson, Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick believes he just may have the best striker in the A-League.

Few could doubt Merrick's assessment after Thompson's brilliant showing against Sydney FC in an enthralling 1-1 draw in front of a record crowd of 25,208 at Aussie Stadium.

Thompson completed a superb performance when he scored the Victory's equaliser midway through the second half to rule out Yorke's first half goal in the final game of the opening round of the inaugural competition.

Such was the quality of the performance, Merrick admitted his side probably should have beaten the competition favourites on their home patch.

"We created enough scoring opportunities to come away with three points, but ... if you would have said to me before the game that we were going to come up here and play the top team, that had hardly lost a game, and come away with a draw, I'd have taken that as well," Merrick said.

Thompson had at least a half-dozen scoring chances in the opening 70 minutes only to be thwarted by the woodwork, good keeping and some last-ditch defence.

In the 73rd minute he finally got the goal he richly deserved, heading home a Carl Recchia cross.

"I would say Archie's one of the best players I've ever worked with," Merrick said.

"He's totally uncoachable, as long as I can get Archie facing the right direction we're all happy, but he's electric.

"He should be in Europe, he knows that, he came back for family reasons, and that's a huge bonus for us, and we're just very lucky to have one of the best strikers in the league."

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