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14Dec24
Macarthur Hand Wellington Back-To-Back Losses
by Jeremy Ruane
Macarthur Bulls handed Wellington Phoenix back-to-back losses in the Isuzu Ute A-League on December 14, overcoming the home team 2-1 at a windswept Sky Stadium to climb into the top six on the back of a three-match unbeaten run.
Mile Sterjovski's charges were afforded the perfect start by Isaac Hughes, who completely misjudged an angled cross from Kealey Adamson, handling the ball in the penalty area before it reached Marin Jakolis, who made a pig's ear of his chance to open the scoring from ten yards.
Macarthur's players were already appealing for a penalty, however, and debutant referee Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh eventually gave it on the advice of his assistant. Valere Germain duly stepped up to take the spot-kick, but saw his effort parried by Josh Oluwayemi. Fortunately for Macarthur's captain, the ball rebounded back to him, and he buried it in the opposite corner to open the scoring in the seventh minute.
That put paid to Wellington's usual game plan, whereby they look to score first then shut up shop and play to not lose. Now they had to come out and play attacking football, a situation aided by the presence in attack of Marco Rojas, making his first start of the season.
He it was who engineered Wellington's first attack of the match, a lobbed pass which Costa Barbarouses just failed to properly connect with in the fourteenth minute. Macarthur responded two minutes later via the outstanding Jake Hollman, whose defence-splitting pass put Jed Drew through on goal. Oluwayemi dashed off his line to deny the speedster the chance to shoot.
The visitors continued to threaten, Scott Wootton forced into a vital interception to prevent Jakolis' cross from reaching Daniel De Silva in the seventeenth minute. Soon after, De Silva and Jakolis combined with Germain, whose cross to the far post was delivered by Hollman, rather than in front of him.
Wellington weathered the storm, and proceeded to lay siege to the Macarthur goal during the final twenty minutes of the half. Paulo Retre released Tim Payne down the right, where he linked with Rojas.
His shot was blocked by Oliver Jones at the expense of a corner, which was taken by Hideki Ishige, whose delivery was partially cleared. The ball came back to the Japanese attacker, who fired in a wicked cross with which Barbarouses just failed to connect on the far post.
In the 32nd minute, Barbarouses and Rojas combined for the benefit of Kazuki Nagasawa, who lifted the ball across to the unmarked Payne. From ten yards, he fair hammered the ball at goal, only for Filip Kurto to pull off a stunning save to keep Macarthur in front.
Soon after, Retre picked out Barbarouses on halfway, from where he set sail downfield with Rojas in support. The latter continued his run as Barbarouses played a pass towards him, but the timing of the pass was off, and Rojas was unable to do anything with it as he was offside.
From the resulting goal kick, Alex Rufer picked out Payne with an angled pass which the fullback touched inside to Rojas. He delivered a lovely angled pass into the stride of Ishige, whose first-time shot struck the base of the near post in the 39th minute.
Rufer quickly gained possession from the resulting goal-kick, and sent Payne powering to the by-line, from where he delivered a cross to the near post area. Ishige was arriving on cue, but directed his shot straight at Kurto, who looked on with relief seconds later as Tomislav Uskok's brave defensive work prevented Barbarouses from sliding in the equaliser on the far post, where Payne had delivered a gem of a cross from the right.
A Wellington equaliser seemed inevitable, however, and in the shadows of the half-time whistle, it materialised. Nagasawa fed Barbarouses, who
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worked a one-two with Rojas - a brilliant return pass - before battering the ball beyond Kurto and into the top near corner.
Before the half-time whistle, Kurto saved at the feet of Rojas as he looked to latch onto Payne's low cross. After the interval, it was Macarthur who were playing into the wind, and they made good use of the opportunity, enjoying much the better of the first twenty minutes.
Ishige had to beat a hasty retreat to cut out a Drew cross intended for Germain soon after play resumed, while in the 54th minute, Oluyawemi turned a De Silva shot round the post after Ivan Vujica and Jakolis had teamed up on the left.
Wellington launched an instant counter-attack, with Barbarouses racing downfield before playing the ball across towards Rojas. Alas for the home team, Hollman was beating a hasty retreat, and his intervention snuffed out the prospect of Wellington taking the lead.
Back came Macarthur, Hollman directing operations. He teamed up with Jakolis, who delivered a delightful cross to the far post where Drew was arriving on cue. To the amazement of all-comers, he steered an angled shot between the lunging Sam Sutton and Oluyawemi, only for the ball to roll inches past the opposite upright - it was desperately close to breaking the deadlock.
Germain and substitute Dean Bosnjak saw shots blocked in the next five minutes, to which Wellington responded with a 64th minute raid led by Sutton. He spread the ball wide to Barbarouses, whose cross, intended for Payne, was cut out by the retreating figure of Vujica.
Seconds later, Payne got the better of Vujica before setting up Barbarouses, whose shot was blocked by Adamson. The ball broke to Rufer, who switched the point of attack to Sutton on the left flank.
His cross was a gem, right into the heart of the goal area. Lunging in to meet it was Barbarouses, and when he connected with the ball it looked a goal for all money … that was until Kurto produced a quite magnificent save at point-blank range to maintain parity on the scoreboard, with Barbarouses ending up in the back of the net without the ball for company, much to his disbelief.
That saved proved critical, as fifteen minutes from time, Macarthur regained the lead with a fine team goal. Hollman, inevitably, was involved at the outset, winning the ball in midfield before spreading play wide to Walter Scott.
He brought Jakolis into play, and he, in turn, linked up with substitute Ariath Piol. He took on the defence before bringing Jakolis back into play, and his pull-back was rammed into the roof of the net by another Bosnjak - 2-1 Macarthur, and Wellington suddenly had it all to do.
They lay siege to the visitors' goal, but, tellingly, rarely troubled Kurto in the time remaining. Barbarouses and Ishige combined for the benefit of Stefan Colakovski, but the retreating figure of Scott thwarted his goalscoring plans, while Luke Brattan, influential throughout, was instrumental in limiting the home team's prospects during this phase of proceedings.
Soon after, fine work by Rufer presented Mohamed Al-Taay with a chance, but he fired wide from twenty-five yards. Numerous Ishige corners entered and, with intervention by visiting players, departed Macarthur's penalty area in the time remaining, time which ran out for Wellington, whose inability to turn things around after going behind on the scoreboard has already seen them lose three games this season, a rot they need to stop.
Wellington: Oluwayemi; Payne, Wootton, Hughes, Sutton (Sheridan, 68); Retre (Walker, 83), Rufer, Nagasawa (Al-Taay, 68); Rojas (Colakovski, 68), Barbaraouses, Ishige
Melbourne: Kurto; Adamson (booked, 86), Uskok, Jones, Vujica (Scott, 71); Brattan, De Silva (Piol, 59), Hollman; D
Referee: Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh
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