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Auckland Hit Wellington For Six In "Demolition Derby"
by Jeremy Ruane
Isuzu Ute A-League leaders Auckland FC added new meaning to the term "demolition derby" on February 22 as they wiped the floor with Wellington Phoenix in the latest "Kiwi Classico" at GoMedia Mt. Smart Stadium, thrashing their Isuzu Ute A-League rivals 6-1 in front of 27,009 fans, a record attendance for a regular season fixture in the competition on this side of the Tasman.
Wellington began on the front foot, a deft flick from debutant Francisco Geraldes inviting Corban Piper to latch onto the ball, only for Nando Pijnaker to mow him down just outside the penalty area - a booking after just 98 seconds. Hideki Ishige's resulting free-kick was tipped over the bar by Alex Paulsen.
Auckland responded through Guillermo May in the seventh minute, a beautifully weighted ball forward which would have rewarded Neyder Moreno's angled cross-field run off the left flank had Albie Kelly-Heald not grabbed it just in front of the Colombian.
Four minutes later, Francis de Vries and Felipe Gallegos combined to reward Moreno's run. His cross, targeting May, deflected off a retreating defender, much to the relief of Kelly-Heald, who was next called into action in the eighteenth minute to paw out a delicious de Vries corner, which was dropping in just under the crossbar.
A teasing Moreno cross, which Isaac Hughes headed nervously across the face of his goal and just past the far post, was the source of the opening. The Colombian then had a goal ruled out by referee Ben Abraham, who ruled that the winger had nudged Tim Payne out of the way before heading home Gallegos' angled delivery to the far post in the 22nd minute.
Wellington responded through Costa Barbarouses, who flicked a Fin Roa-Conchie cross narrowly past the near post. But after de Vries had retorted via some great work on the left, weaving through two challenges before whipping in a cross which arced just beyond Logan Rogerson on the far post, Auckland blew Wellington off the park with three goals in a nine-minute burst which silenced the travelling faithful.
The first goal, in the 31st minute, came via a de Vries corner. Kelly-Heald punched it out, but May fired a snapshot goalwards which appeared to strike an arm. The ball rebounded kindly for Moreno, who was rewarded for following in with the chance to ram it home from ten yards - 1-0.
Five minutes later, Auckland doubled their lead. Moreno sent May to the by-line, where he checked and laid the ball back to de Vries. His cross picked out Max Mata, whose header ricocheted off Hughes but broke kindly for Moreno, who thundered home a fifteen-yarder, the ball grazing the hip of Rogerson en route to the corner of the net.
Both these goals were scored in front of "The Port", and if they weren't going nuts after this quickfire double, they certainly were five minutes before half-time when Rogerson headed home a Felipe Gallegos cross from close range. There was more than a hint of offside about it, but the Video Assistant Referee deemed that Lukas Kelly-Heald was keeping the winger onside - 3-0.
A shellshocked Wellington looked to respond just before the interval through Geraldes, who was played in by Barbarouses but saw his shot blocked by Tommy Smith to bring to an end a half of football boasting a scoreline few would have forecast at this stage of the contest.
Wellington rang the changes at half-time, with a belated introduction for Alex Rufer among them, a substitution which had more than a whiff of "after the horse has bolted" about it. Nathan Walker and Luke Brooke-Smith were also introduced to the fray, and the latter made a huge contribution to proceedings just four minutes after the resumption of play.
Latching onto a loose ball, Brooke-Smith found Barbarouses, whose cross picked out Walker. His shot prompted a fine parried save by Paulsen, but
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Brooke-Smith was on hand to fire home the rebound, becoming the youngest-ever Wellington Phoenix goalscorer in A-League history in the process - there are still 104 days to go until he turns seventeen!
That gave the visitors hope, and further attempts by Scott Wootton - a header over the bar - and Geraldes - a clever lobbed effort which the back-pedalling figure of Paulsen pawed over his crossbar in the 58th minute - gave Wellington's fans reason to cheer.
Two minutes later, those cheers were replaced by roars of joy from "The Port", as Auckland restored their three-goal lead. Brooke-Smith did well to rob Rogerson of possession inside his own penalty area, then undid all his good work with a cross-field pass which found Moreno lurking twenty-five yards from goal.
An unerring finish into the bottom corner swiftly followed, and the first hat-trick in Auckland FC's history was celebrated in raucous fashion, as was the fact they now led their arch-rivals 4-1, with half-an-hour still to play.
Now it was Auckland's turn to ring the changes, with Moreno one of the players dragged - celebrate a hat-trick one minute, get substituted the next. He's a hard taskmaster, is Auckland coach Steve Corica!
One of the newcomers, Marlee Francois, went desperately close to curling home a fifth goal in the 65th minute after a de Vries cross invited May to link with half-time substitute Jesse Randall, who himself fired past the near post soon after.
In between these efforts, Corban Piper lashed a snapshot straight at Paulsen, but the writing was on the wall for Wellington, as the motivation of scoring a fifth goal in the "Kiwi Classico" was clearly evident in Auckland's attack-minded play, something the visitors have shown very little of in this campaign.
Francois rattled the stanchion with a stunning twenty-five yard strike, while Jake Brimmer spurned a glorious opportunity from directly in front of goal fifteen minutes from time, directing his twenty-five yard free-kick over the wall but straight at Kelly-Heald, for whom this was a comfortable save.
Ten minutes from time, Auckland went nap, Louis Verstraete winning the ball well before inviting Rogerson to let fly from twenty-five yards, a shot which screamed into the far corner of the net to the unbridled delight of the natives.
And still they kept on pressing, May doing everything but score to cap off an eye-catching personal display, while Smith's downward header was smothered well by Kelly-Heald as the defender looked to head home a de Vries corner.
With the last kick of the game, Auckland made it 6-1. Callan Elliot fed Randall, who worked a one-two with May before rifling the ball home into the far corner of the net to put a king-sized exclamation mark on this "demolition derby", a result which Wellington's fans will never be allowed to forget by their counterparts from the undisputed home of football in New Zealand.
To add insult to injury for the visitors, this scoreline equals Wellington's third heaviest defeat in their history, having also endured 6-1 defeats at the hands of Adelaide United in 2008 and Melbourne Victory in 2016. Only a 7-1 drubbing by Sydney FC in 2013 and a 6-0 hiding at the hands of Melbourne City three years ago surpass it.
Auckland: Paulsen; Sakai, Smith, Pijnaker (booked, 2 (Elliot, 62)), de Vries; Rogerson, Brimmer (Howieson, 81 (booked, 84)), Gallegos (Verstraete, 62), Moreno (Francois, 62); Mata (Randall, 46), May
Wellington: A. Kelly-Heald; Payne (Supyk, 87), Hughes (booked, 88), Wootton, L. Kelly-Heald (Brooke-Smith, 46); Ishige (Walker, 46), Sheridan, Roa-Conchie (Rufer, 46), Piper (Rojas, 73); Barbarouses, Geraldes
Referee: Ben Abraham
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