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03Nov19
The Elephant In The Room Rears Its Ugly Head
by Jeremy Ruane
The scoreboard will show that Melbourne City downed Wellington Phoenix 3-2 in front of 6,440 fans at AAMI Park in their Hyundai A-League clash on November 3, but what it doesn't reveal is the influence the elephant in the room had on proceedings.
Yes, the menace that is the Video Assistant Referee intruded on this fixture and directly influenced its outcome with one of the most diabolical decisions yet made since its introduction to the A-League, about which, more shortly.
City dominated possession in the early stages of the contest, finally firing a shot in anger in the eleventh minute. Stefan Marinovic was equal to Craig Noone's effort, then looked on sixty seconds later as Rostyn Griffiths' snapshot sizzled over the bar following the intervention of Denis Genreau.
Wellington responded with their first attack of note in the eighteenth minute, Rene Piscopo and David Ball combining on the left to create an opening for Gary Hooper, who was thwarted in the area by Curtis Good's timely tackle.
Scott Jamieson cleared over his own crossbar soon afterwards as Ball created further havoc down the left for Wellington, who opened the scoring in the 24th minute from the resulting corner. Luke De Vere flicked the delivery onto the far post, where Hooper swooped to head home from close range.
Within minutes, the visitors threatened a second goal, with Dean Bouzanis denying the charging figure of Ball just shy of the half-hour mark, which was when City drew level.
It was a super headed equaliser by Connor Metcalfe on the far post, where he was picked out by a cross from the overlapping figure of Scott Galloway, who himself fired Melbourne in front four minutes later with a twenty-five yard screamer, albeit one made possible by Wellington's failure to challenge his run in-field - all in black said "After you", and Galloway said "Thanks very much" in no uncertain terms!
Four minutes into the second half, Moudi Najjar just failed to make contact via an overhead kick following Noone's flicked header, while Noone himself was foiled shortly afterwards by Marinovic, who blocked his piledriver after Jamieson and Metcalfe had teamed up on the left.
On the hour, Walter Scott picked out Ball with a cross which the striker failed to cleanly connect with. Bouzanis was untroubled by the attempt, and duly started a counter-attack, the final act of which ultimately decided the fate of the match.
Noone's cross struck the retreating figure of Louis Fenton in the area, and rookie referee Ben Abraham - this was his first A-League game - instantly pointed to the penalty spot, convinced that the Wellington fullback had handled the ball.
It was at this point that the VAR came into play, under the influence of another rookie appointment - to that role at least - in Craig Zetter. Incidentally, why so many rookie officials in a Wellington Phoenix fixture? All seems a little bit too coincidental …
I digress. Mr Zetter duly looked at the footage, and saw Noone's cross strike Fenton on the midriff before ricocheting onto his arm and to safety. No penalty, overturning a clear and obvious area … at least, that should have been the verdict reached.
Instead, "Decision upheld" was the outcome applied. The penalty stood, and Wellington's players were absolutely furious as a result. Fenton in particular was apoplectic at the call, and let the world and his wife know it in no uncertain terms in a televised post-match interview.
Noone duly despatched the penalty into the top corner of Marinovic's net - 3-1 - to which
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Wellington responded via a Ulises Davila corner in the 65th minute. The delivery to the far post deceived the hitherto aerially imperious figure of Bouzanis, and invited De Vere to head the sphere back across goal, where Alex Rufer, flying in to turn the ball home, only just failed to make contact with it.
That proved to be a rare raid by the visiting team, who were clearly distracted by the incorrect awarding of the penalty against them. City duly adopted counter-attacking tactics, and were rewarded with a number of opportunities over the course of the final half-hour.
The first saw substitute Adrian Luna latch onto a long ball out of defence, one which found Marinovic well out of goal and Wellington's defence off-guard. A first-time lob would surely have seen Luna celebrating a fourth City goal, but he over-elaborated upon receipt of the ball, and instantly lost the opportunity.
After Marinovic had dashed out to save at the feet of substitute Ramy Najjarine as he looked to latch onto Genreau's through ball, the home team went very close to increasing their advantage sixteen minutes from time.
Metcalfe picked out Lachlan Wales, whose cross for Luna ricocheted off Scott and landed in between De Vere and Marinovic. Neither reacted swiftly, De Vere only doing so when Luna appeared on the scene.
The defender's clearance found its way to Griffiths, who unleashed a ferocious drive which Steven Taylor rebuffed with a headed clearance about which the "old school" defender appeared to know very little.
Five minutes later, Matti Steinmann floored an opponent - not for the first time in the match - with an overly robust challenge which another referee would surely have deemed bookable. The resulting twenty-five yard free-kick from Luna was saved to his right by Marinovic, who, from the resulting corner, tipped a close-range effort over the bar from the same player.
Three minutes from time, City squandered a gilt-edged chance for a fourth goal. Griffiths and Luna combined with the overlapping figure of Josh Brillante, whose tantalising cross set up a goal on a plate for young substitute Stefan Colakovski, who will still be replaying in his head his miss with the goal at his mercy in a year's time!
Seconds later, Genreau sent Luna dashing through on goal, only for the striker to be denied once again by Marinovic, whose efforts saved Wellington from a hiding. He kept out an effort from Jamieson before the final whistle, after Colakovski and Najjarine had combined to engineer the opening.
Throughout the final half-hour of play, Wellington hadn't been without their opportunities, but executing the final ball to carve out a goalscoring chance seemed to be beyond them.
That was until deep in stoppage time, when the charging figure of Ball finally found a team-mate on the far post with his low cross. Youngster Ben Waine tucked home his first A-League goal to make it 3-2 to City, bringing into even sharper focus the clear injustice done to Wellington by the match officials via the incorrect VAR call.
Melbourne: Bouzanis; Galloway (booked, 50), Good, Griffiths, Jamieson; Genreau (booked, 45), Brillante, Metcalfe (Colakovski, 78); Wales, Najjar (booked, 28) (Luna, 54), Noone (booked, 43) (Najjarine, 67)
Wellington: Marinovic; Fenton, Taylor, De Vere, Scott; Davila, Steinmann, Rufer (Waine, 78), Piscopo (McCowatt, 46); Ball, Hooper (Sotirio, 46)
Referee: Ben Abraham
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