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City All But End Wellington's Play-Off Hopes
by Jeremy Ruane
Melbourne City all but ended Wellington Phoenix's Isuzu Ute A-League play-off hopes on 28 February, eking out a 1-0 win in an uninspiring encounter at Sky Stadium to further bolster their own hopes of a top-six finish.
The visitors were the superior side throughout the encounter, but Wellington were much improved from the side which capitulated in the Kiwi derby with Auckland FC six days ago, no doubt bolstered by the return to the starting line-up of Alex Rufer, who was a prominent figure in the early stages of this match as he broke up numerous Melbourne attacks.
Concerted City pressure finally found an opening in the thirteenth minute, Aziz Behich's delicious cross being guided narrowly past the far post by the head of Marco Tilio, who should have at least forced a save from Albie Kelly-Heald from the position he was in.
Two minutes later, Tilio looked to make amends, a charging run in off the left resulting in a low cross to Andreas Kuen which the influential midfielder flicked on to Kavian Rahmani. His shot was blocked by Tim Payne.
Wellington needed to win, of course, but quite frankly, they've forgotten how to. They've become so focused on playing to not lose in recent weeks - more often than not unsuccessfully, it must be said - that, now that they have no option but to play to win, the concept of attack-minded football seems to be beyond them.
The addition of Portuguese playmaker Francisco Geraldes is intended to help resolve that situation, and his first chance to do so in this match materialised in the eighteenth minute, when he unleashed Costa Barbarouses through the inside left channel with a peach of a pass, before racing forward for the return. It duly arrived, but Geraldes' shot was of the high, wide and far from handsome variety.
After Isaac Hughes blocked a Kuen drive, Rahmani and Kuen combined to present Behich with a shooting chance on the half-hour, the outcome of which was a corner. Kuen's delivery picked out Kai Trewin, whose header flashed across the face of goal and narrowly past the far post.
City complacency in defence presented Matt Sheridan with the chance to break the deadlock in the 36th minute, but let's just say it was a defender's shot - that tells you all you need to know about its quality and accuracy!
Kelly-Heald was finally called into action two minutes later, denying Nathaniel Atkinson at the near post after a blocked Tilio shot ricocheted to the adventurous fullback. Tilio then sent a shot sailing over the bar from twenty yards after being set up by Zane Schreiber, after which Wellington almost gifted City the lead right on half-time.
Both Scott Wootton and Hughes failed to clear their lines, much to the delight of Rahmani, whose lofted pass invited Max Caputo to flick the ball past the approaching figure of Kelly-Heald. In keeping with his all-round performance, however, he failed to make contact - a case of "Caputo Kaput!", if you will!
City came out all guns blazing at the start of the second half, with Kelly-Heald forced to turn Tilio's twenty-five yard grasscutter round the post just three minutes after the resumption of play.
Three minutes later, the player who loves scoring against Wellington broke the deadlock, capping off a fine move in doing so. It arose from a poorly executed one-two twixt Payne and Paulo Retre, onto which Trewin quickly pounced, immediately feeding
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Kuen.
He angled the ball across the park for Tilio to stride onto, and from fifteen yards, he thundered a fifteen yard drive beyond Kelly-Heald and into the far corner of the net to silence the vocal locals, whose non-stop chanting had provided the soundtrack to the game thus far.
Not satisfied with their one-goal advantage, Melbourne went after a second. Kuen's measured cross was headed over the bar from twelve yards by Matthew Leckie in the 58th minute, to which Wellington responded via Wootton, who sent a looping header over the bar after Corban Piper and Hughes had played the ball on following Geraldes' initial free-kick.
Twenty minutes from time, the hitherto untested Patrick Beach pulled off a brilliant save to maintain Melbourne's lead. Payne and Piper worked a one-two on the right which saw the overlapping fullback deliver a cross to the near post, just beyond the incoming figure of Barbarouses.
Luke Brooke-Smith latched onto the ball and saw his shot blocked, the rebound from which fell to Sam Sutton. His tantalising cross to the far post picked out Piper, whose thumping downward header had "Goal!" written all over it until Beach plunged to his right to pull off a stunning reflex save to keep City's noses in front.
After that scare, the visitors opted for caution, knowing that they had the lead and the defensive wherewithal to snuff out any attacks Wellington might mount in search of an equaliser. As a result, the final twenty minutes of play was decidedly scrappy, and only came to life in stoppage time when Melbourne looked to bag a second goal.
Harry Politidis sent a shot flashing past the far post after working a one-two with fellow substitute Ben Mazzeo, who himself went for goal soon after, cutting in off the right and unleashing a twenty-yarder which Kelly-Heald was forced to turn around his near post.
Melbourne got the ball in the net soon afterwards, Lawrence Wong's fine work to get to the by-line culminating in a cross which ricocheted off both Sheridan and Hughes before hitting the net. Alas for City, their celebrations were cut short by an offside call against Mazzeo, whose sluggish retreat didn't escape the all-seeing eyes of the Video Assistant Referee.
Wellington went all out for a late equaliser, but when Brooke-Smith's shot sizzled past the post deep in stoppage time, referee Tim Danaskos decided enough was enough, much to the delight of the travelling team, for whom this was a very welcome three points.
Not so for the home team, however, who remain nine points off the top six spots, but now with just eight games remaining - when you're chasing things at this stage of the season, and need more than a point a game to realise your ambitions, the prospects of achieving them are very slim indeed. That's Wellington's reality in 2025 - a far cry from last season's campaign, which took them to the brink of the Grand Final.
Wellington: A. Kelly-Heald; Payne (L. Kelly-Heald, 87), Hughes, Wootton, Sutton; Retre (Piper, 69), Geraldes (Rojas, 72), Rufer (booked, 70 (Ishige, 87)), Walker (Brooke-Smith, 59), Sheridan; Barbarouses
Melbourne: Beach; Atkinson, Ferreyra, Souprayen, Behich; Schreiber (Leckie, 46), Trewin (booked, 76), Kuen (Wong, 88); Tilio, Caputo (Mazzeo, 88), Rahmani (Politidis, 71)
Referee: Tim Danaskos
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