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24Feb24
An Object Lesson In The "Art" Of Playing To Not Lose
by Jeremy Ruane
Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix won the Isuzu Ute A-League few fans at HBF Park on 24 February, producing a scoreless draw which was an object lesson in the "art" of playing to not lose, despite the encouragement offered by an enthusiastic 8,232-strong crowd.
Both teams enjoyed their fair share of possession, but whichever team had the ball at their feet, their opponents made it their prime objective to defend en masse, i.e. with eleven men behind the ball.
It was a stark contrast to the teams' clash at this venue six weeks ago, a match which Wellington won by the odd goal in seven in a hugely entertaining encounter. This time around, Riley Warland's first minute raid and subsequent shot - it flew inches beyond both Alex Paulsen and the far post - hinted that things may have carried on from where they left off in January, but sadly, that effort proved to be a false dawn.
Instead, chances were at a premium, the next one coming in the eleventh minute as Paulsen parried a Josh Rawlins cross, with Adam Taggart unable to capitalise on the rebound. Wellington stormed straight down the other end, only for Fin Conchie's deflected shot to deceive Oli Sail but be cleared by the retreating figure of Rawlins.
After Taggart had headed narrowly across the face of goal in the eighteenth minute, Alex Rufer just failed to get on the end of a Lukas Kelly-Heald cross at the other end of the ground, before the fullback set up a cross-shot from Ben Old which failed to trouble Sail.
Before the half-hour mark, Scott Wootton headed past the post following a Tim Payne corner, while Wellington's fullback saw his pass on the half-hour cut out by Giordano Colli, who promptly played in Taggart. Sadly for Perth's co-captain, Rufer and Isaac Hughes had read the situation perfectly, so were able to step in to deny the local hero on this occasion.
Taggart and David Ball had shots blocked in the minutes before half-time, while Payne concluded a wonderful 41st minute run in off the right by drilling a shot past the near post from the edge of the penalty area. And with the last act of note in the half, Paulsen denied Taggart's deflected shot to ensure the teams would head to the dressing rooms
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with nothing to show for their effort.
Perth dominated proceedings after the interval, but it was Wellington who fired the first noteworthy shot in anger in the half, Bozhidar Kraev's shot being blocked by Darryl Lachman in the 62nd minute.
Wellington responded through Oskar Zawada, whose shot was blocked by Aleksandar Susnjar, with the rebound being lashed over the bar by Youstin Salas in the 64th minute. Two minutes later, the visitors went desperately close to breaking the deadlock, Ben Old battering a shot against Sail's left-hand post after being played in by Zawada's measured pass.
That was as close as either team would get to breaking the deadlock, with Taggart firing past the upright as he looked to turn home the rebound from a blocked David Williams shot, to which Wellington responded via Payne, whose cross just missed Kraev's head in the 72nd minute.
Another Williams shot ten minutes later was directed straight at Paulsen, while Rufer was denied by Rawlins' fine tackle in the dying minutes, and Sail dived to his right to deny Zawada as he headed Kraev's cross goalwards, moments before a gathering of the clans brought the game to a close, Susnjar's tackle on Zawada earning the ire of the Polish striker's Wellington team-mates at the conclusion of a game which was frustrating fare for all on the park, never mind those watching.
It's contests such as this one which undermine football's description of being "the beautiful game", for this was anything but - a war of attrition which saw defences dominating proceedings to such an extent that the final whistle of referee Daniel Elder couldn't come soon enough long before it was due to be blown.
Perth: Sail; Rawlins (booked, 77 (Gorman, 90)), Lachman, Susnjar (booked, 90), Warland; Bennie (Anasmo, 69), Muir (booked, 38 (Ostler, 61)), Colli (booked, 57), Kamau (booked, 78); Colakovski (Williams, 61), Taggart
Wellington: Paulsen; Surman, Wootton, Hughes; Payne, Al-Taay (Kraev, 61), Conchie (Salas, 54), Rufer, Kelly-Heald; Ball (Zawada, 61 (booked, 90)), Old
Referee: Daniel Elder
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