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10Nov19
Wellington Earn First Point With Help From VAR
by Jeremy Ruane
A week after having their hopes of a first win of the season dashed by Video Assistant Referee rulings, Wellington Phoenix earned their first point of the Hyundai A-League season at AAMI Park on 10 November, with their goal in a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory materialising thanks in large part to the intervention of the technological intrusion which is proving itself so disruptive to football the world over.
The majority of 15,014 fans weren't best pleased with the latest VAR decision, which came just minutes into this encounter, following Callum McCowatt's second minute corner.
The ball struck the arm of Ola Toivonen at the near post, and while referee Adam Kersey waved play on - the ball fell to Ulises Davila, whose shot was saved by Lawrence Thomas - the VAR thought otherwise upon closer inspection, and when the next break in play came, drew the referee's attention to the incident.
The official duly viewed the evidence for himself, and decided that, yes, there had been an indiscretion which merited a penalty - this was over two minutes after the corner had been taken!
Suffice to say, Melbourne weren't best pleased, and were even less so soon afterwards, Davila sending Thomas the wrong way from twelve yards to open the scoring for Wellington in the fifth minute.
Red rag to a bull … Melbourne very swiftly set about redressing the balance. Toivonen fired a free-kick from the edge of the area inches over the bar in the eleventh minute, while Adama Traore twenty-five yard volleyed missile was deflected over the bar two minutes later.
The resulting Jakob Poulsen corner picked out James Donachie, whose header was saved on the line by Stefan Marinovic, the first of a number of saves he would produce to keep the home team at bay.
It wasn't all one-way traffic, however. In the nineteenth minute, only Traore's timely tackle thwarted Davila in the act of shooting after Liberato Cacace had made in-roads on the left flank.
Generally, however, it was a rearguard action by the Wellingtonians, who were led superbly by Steven Taylor. By and large, they frustrated Melbourne, with the 4-4-2 tactics employed by both teams largely seeing the teams cancel each other out.
The home team managed to engineer some openings, however, with Kenny Athiu's powerful 22nd minute run eventually seeing Poulsen and Toivonen brought into play, with the latter curling an attempt just past the far post.
Twelve minutes later, Leigh Broxham sent a cross fizzing across the bows of the incoming figure of Poulsen, while three minutes later, Elvis Kamsoba's lively interventions culminated in Poulsen steering a shot towards the far post which Marinovic pawed away to safety.
Just as they started the first half, so they started the second - Wellington in the ascendancy. This time, Jaushua Sotirio's rampaging counter-attacking run into Melbourne's half saw him slip a pass into the stride of David Ball, who evaded a tackle before shooting tamely at Thomas.
Ball had picked up a booking in the first half, and was fortunate to escape similar punishment in the
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54th minute when he felled Migjen Basha from behind on the edge of Wellington's penalty area - referee Kersey gave the retreating striker the benefit of the doubt.
Toivonen's free-kick and subsequent attempt to fire home the rebound were both dealt with decisively by the defensive wall, which should have been called upon again three minutes later. This time, Toivonen went down under Rufer's challenge, but the referee waved play on.
Seconds later, Toivonen was in again, this time picked out by Kamsoba's scrumptious cross from the left. The striker's glancing header directed the ball agonisingly past Marinovic's left-hand post.
With all the attacking pressure they were mounting, Melbourne were susceptible to being hit on the counter-attack by Wellington, and in the 64th minute, that's exactly what happened.
Ball's pressure forced Thomas Deng to under-hit a back-pass, and the striker was onto the blunder in an instant. Before Ball had the chance to capitalise on the opening, however, Thomas, who was patrolling the area beyond his penalty area, was on the scene in an instant and cleared the sphere to safety, only to be tripped by Ball in the aftermath - the striker was dicing with danger, but again got away with it.
More Melbourne pressure ensued, and this time it gained its reward. In the 66th minute, a hurried Wellington clearance cannoned off Athiu straight into the stride of Toivonen, who cleverly jinked his way past two opponents before deftly flicking the ball beyond Marinovic and into the far corner of the net - 1-1, at last, as far as the home team and their fans were concerned.
Unperturbed, Melbourne kept pressing - they haven't won at home so far this season, and saw the visit of the competition's cellar dwellers as the ideal opportunity to right that particular wrong.
Broxham sent a piledriver powering past the post in the 68th minute, while ten minutes later, a lovely move featuring Poulsen, Storm Roux - he had a good attack-oriented game - and Kamsoba combined to pick out Toivonen, who was brilliantly denied by Marinovic.
In the dying minutes, Wellington mounted a late assault on Melbourne's goal in an effort to clinch their first win of the campaign. An Alex Rufer free-kick was punched off the head of Taylor by Thomas, who, seconds later, produced a superb safe to thwart the nephew of All Whites legend Wynton Rufer, following Sotirio's break on the left flank.
Cue desperation stations for Melbourne, but try as they might, there was just no way through Wellington's rearguard. The closest they came to scoring again was in the 89th minute, when Roux, Kamsoba and Donachie combined with Poulsen, whose angled drive was turned away by Marinovic in the 89th minute, thus ensuring the visitors a point from their latest visit to Melbourne.
Melbourne: Thomas; Roux (booked, 84), Domachie, Deng, Traore; Poulsen, Broxham (booked, 45), Basha (Lesiotis, 90), Kamsoba; Athiu (booked, 69) (Dobras, 85), Toivonen
Wellington: Marinovic; Payne, Taylor (booked, 20), Devere, Cacace; Davila (Hudson-Wihongi, 79), Rufer , Steinmann, McCowatt (Devlin, 76); Ball (booked, 32) (Waine, 68), Sotirio
Referee: Adam Kersey
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