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200425
Coach And Captain Bid Wellington Farewell
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix concluded their Ninja A-League Women's season in dramatic fashion on a rain-soaked Easter Sunday at Jerry Collins Stadium, their 1-1 draw with Western United denying the visitors a home quarter-final in the play-offs phase of the season.
Wellington's hopes of making the top six were dashed last weekend, and that prompted the club to announce that coach Paul Temple would be parting ways after the conclusion of the team's final game of the season.
What they didn't know, nor anyone else for that matter, was that this match would also be the professional football swansong for captain Annalie Longo, who announced the fact following the final whistle, although a pre-match post on her Instagram account suggested something of this nature was afoot.
Any hopes Wellington held of giving the departing duo a fairytale finale were dashed by a Western side hell-bent on securing a fourth-placed finish in the league, which would give them home advantage in next week's quarter-final.
They started strongly, Isabel Dehakiz surging through midfield in the sixth minute before linking with Chloe Berryhill (nee Logarzo) and Adriana Taranto, whose teasing cross to the far post found Dehakiz surging in to meet it. She hit the post from close range, with the rebound being hooked off the line by the retreating Alivia Kelly.
Two minutes later, Taranto was charging through three opponents inside the penalty area before the teak-tough Mackenzie Barry put an uncompromising stop to that little escapade. But United kept pressing, Grace Maher's teasing cross-shot being turned round the post by Carolina Vilao on the quarter-hour, before Catherine Zimmerman sent a delicious cross zooming across the six-yard box two minutes later - no one in green was on hand to do it justice.
Wellington finally got a sniff of goal in the nineteenth minute, a poor Maher clearance gifting the ball to Emma Main, whose first time shot was well dealt with by Alyssa Dall'Oste in the slippery conditions, which were to get worse thanks to a couple of heavy showers as the game wore on.
Maher's bid to make amends for her blemish saw Vilao grab her twenty-five yarder in the 26th minute, to which Wellington responded seven minutes later through the combined efforts of Maya McCutcheon and Kelly. Their through ball invited Olivia Fergusson to swoop, but the retreating figure of Sasha Grove - she had a fine game - thwarted the striker on the edge of the penalty area.
Seconds later, Berryhill had a goal ruled out by the offside flag, Grove having engineered the opening with a lung-busting run down the left to deliver another low cross across the face of goal.
After Manaia Elliott had gone close following a raid featuring Fergusson and Main, Vilao ensured the scoreline would remain 0-0 at the interval with a trio of saves. She kept out a Zimmerman drive at the second attempt in the 41st minute, before producing a fine double-save in the wet two minutes later to keep out Dehakiz's free-kick and Julia Sardo's twenty-five yard follow-up attempt.
Some fancy footwork by Wellington's goalkeeper early in the second spell saw her dribble between Zimmerman and Taranto before slipping the ball to Elliott, while in the fiftieth minute, Lara Wall - a great debut season - and half-time substitute Mebae Tanaka combined on the left, the latter beating an opponent to the by-line before forcing Dall'Oste to keep out her acute-angled shot at the near post.
Elliott produced a vital clearance to prevent
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Zimmerman from latching onto Dehakiz's ball over the top in the 53rd minute, then featured at the other end of the park eleven minutes later, her corner being cleared to Tanaka, who did Zimmerman a treat before delivering a cross to the far post.
Barry headed the ball back across goal towards where Grace Jale was flying in, but she was two strides away from making contact, and too close to the upright to contemplate flinging herself at the ball in a likely vain attempt to head it home, given injury was the more likely outcome, particularly in the inclement conditions.
Fifteen minutes from time, the deadlock was broken. Half-time substitute Aimee Medwin delivered a corner to the far post where Sara Eggesvik soared above all-comers to send the ball flying back across and goal and into the top far corner of the net - 1-0 United.
That was the cue for Longo to signal to the bench that her time was nigh, and twenty years and ten days after making her Three Kings United first team debut, at Western Springs on 10 April 2005 in the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League, she took her final bow in club football - a hoped-for Football Ferns farewell hasn't yet been ruled out.
Within thirty seconds of their captain's departure, Wellington drew level with ten minutes remaining. Elliott motored down the right before fizzing in a low cross on the greasy surface which Main, sliding in between Dall'Oste and Claudia Mihocic, deftly steered home into the far corner of the net - 1-1.
That set up a grandstand finish, one which featured a debut for Wellington's goalkeeping substitute Brooke Neary. Maher tested her initially, the goalkeeper dealing well with a twenty-five yarder, then kept out a long-range effort from Zimmerman after Taranto had hit the bar with a twenty-five yard free-kick.
Prior to this, in the 87th minute, there was absolute mayhem in Western's goalmouth, with referee Beth Rattray ruling that Dall'Oste had been fouled when dealing with an Elliott cross. Before she could blow her whistle, Barry had rammed the rebound against the crossbar, then followed in to head the ball goalwards, drawing a save by a Western defender, whose indiscretion had been saved by the referee's whistle - without that, the red card was in play.
Alyssa Whinham, Longo's heiress apparent as the twinkle-toed tyro of the Wellington midfield, produced a final cameo of her undoubted talent deep in stoppage time. Latching onto a loose ball, she swept past two opponents, lost then regained control of the ball then jinked past two more opponents before unleashing a dipping twenty-yard chip which Dall'Oste, back-pedalling, tipped over the bar.
Elliott's resulting corner saw Dall'Oste keep out Olivia Ingham's header, the final act of the season for Wellington, for whom this 1-1 draw arrested a run of four consecutive defeats. It was the nine reversals endured in their last thirteen games which ultimately dashed their play-off hopes, however, prompting Temple's departure for pastures new, while Western prepare for a trip to Adelaide United in next week's quarter-final.
Wellington: Vilao (Neary, 85); Kelly (Tanaka, 46), Jaber (booked, 70), Barry, Wall; Longo (Ingham, 78), McCutcheon (booked, 63 (Brazendale, 65)), Jale; Main, Fergusson (Whinham, 65), Elliott
Western: Dall'Oste; Sardo, Mihocic, Maher, Grove; Dehakiz, Berryhill (Medwin, 46 (Heida, 89)), Eggesvik (Murillo, 78); A. Taranto, Zimmerman, M. Taranto (booked, 63 (De Domizio, 68))
Referee: Beth Rattray
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