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Barbarouses Haunts Old Club
by Jeremy Ruane
Costa Barbarouses crowned a selfless personal performance with the only goal of the game at Allianz Stadium on November 24, as he led Wellington Phoenix to a 1-0 win over his former club, Melbourne Victory, in front of 3478 fans at this neutral venue, which hosted all six Isuzu Ute A-League fifth round matches across the weekend.
The playing surface reflected this excessive use at times, with players stumbling on rough patches of ground when you least expected them to, occasionally contributing to the breakdown of an attack.
Melbourne Victory was easily the better side during the first half of this encounter in particular, but for all their possession and territorial advantage, they didn't create much in the way of goalscoring opportunities.
Their first raid, within two minutes of the commencement of play, saw Clerismario Santos Rodrigues getting in on the right before fizzing a low cross into the near post, where Jordi Valdon was arriving on cue. So, too, was Wellington defender Matt Sheridan, whose intervention proved crucial.
Wellington fired the first shot of note in the match, and their only attempt in the half in the thirteenth minute, a dipping Paulo Retre volley which flew narrowly past the right-hand post of Melbourne's diving goalkeeper, Jack Duncan.
This apart, Melbourne was in the ascendancy, and they carved Wellington open in the nineteenth minute with a super five-man move. Jason Geria, Zinedine Machach, Valdon and Daniel Arzani, with a scintillating defence-splitting pass, combined to get overlapping fullback Kasey Bos in on the left, from where he whipped in a low, first-time cross which whizzed across the bows of the incoming Nikolaos Vergos - he only needed to touch it to score!
Instead, it remained 0-0, a situation which continued for quite some considerable time. Seconds after Alex Rufer had been thwarted by Melbourne defenders, Machach led a 23rd minute raid with a thundering sixty yard run downfield before working a one-two with Arzani. Alas for the midfielder, he slipped on shooting, affording Josh Oluwayemi a far easier save than looked likely two seconds earlier.
The remaining two shots of note in the first half were both fired by Arzani, the first a 24th minute effort which deflected off Rufer and arced narrowly past the far post. The second, fourteen minutes later, was the result of Oluwayemi blocking a low cross from Santos Rodrigues with his leg. The rebound fell perfectly into the stride of Arzani, whose goalbound shot was cleared off the line by Sheridan.
The second spell saw Melbourne again in the ascendancy early doors, Arzani's angled cross arcing just over the head of Vergos, with Oluwayemi grabbing the ball at the second attempt. Wellington responded via Retre's charging run in the 54th minute, with Nathan Walker the beneficiary of his team-mate's forward thrust. Alas for the teenager, his shot was deflected to safety.
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Barbarouses, who had done an awful lot of running to date for little reward, led a Wellington raid in the 61st minute, ably supported by Kazuki Nagasawa and the overlapping Hideki Ishige, whose shot was blocked by the retreating Brendan Hamill.
Melbourne retorted immediately, earning a free-kick some twenty-five yards from goal. Arzani's delivery picked out the unmarked Roderick Miranda, who contrived to head over the bar from four yards when scoring seemed to be the only option open to him.
Machach fired a twenty-yarder narrowly past the post after working a one-two with Arzani soon afterwards, before the latter somehow avoided a yellow card for simulation after diving between Ishige and Corban Piper in a bid to earn a penalty. So theatrical was his fall that he'd likely have failed an audition for "Swan Lake"!
The turgid nature of the contest changed in the 82nd minute when Wellington broke the deadlock. Ishige picked out Stefan Colokovski on the right, and he slipped a pass into the stride of fellow substitute Marco Rojas.
Inside he powered on an angled run towards the penalty area, with Barbarouses lurking to his left. A measured pass duly arrived at the feet of the former Melbourne Victory striker, who lashed a first-time drive across the diving figure of Duncan and into the far corner of the net from fifteen yards before racing off to celebrate with the Wellington fans behind the goal.
That prompted Melbourne to change their tactics, with Bruno Fornaroli entering the fray and making a near-instant impact via an 89th minute free-kick, a twenty-five yard strike which drew a brilliant reflex save from Oluwayemi, who flew to his left to keep out the top-corner-bound shot.
In stoppage time, another Fornaroli free-kick created problems in Wellington's goalmouth. This attempt hit the defensive wall and ricocheted skywards, dropping kindly for Ryan Teague, who snatched at the ball, directing it past the far angle with Oluwayemi beaten.
Soon after, the final whistle confirmed that Melbourne had been beaten for the first time this season, but despite the result, it must be said that Wellington Phoenix are a very hard watch - they're the Everton of the A-League!
Entertaining they most definitely are not! It's very difficult to be inspired by Wellington's attritional style of football, to such an extent that this writer thoroughly recommends watching their matches to insomniacs - a near-instant cure awaits! They do mind-numbingly dull and boring very well indeed! Yet they finished this game on top of the table, albeit temporarily … go figure!
Melbourne: Duncan; Geria, Hamill, Miranda, Bos (booked, 30); Valdon (Monge, 85), Teague, Machach; Santos Rodrigues (Fornaroli, 85), Vergos (Reec, 68), Arzani (Piscopo, 76)
Wellington: Oluwayemi; Sheridan, Wootton, Hughes; Van Hattum (Piper, 46), Retre, Rufer (booked, 62), Nagasawa (Colakovski, 68), Walker (Rojas, 68); Barbarouses, Ishige (Al-Taay, 90)
Referee: Casey Reibelt
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