The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home
09Oct22 | 16Oct22 | 22Oct22 | 30Oct22 | 06Nov22 | 13Nov22 | 10Dec22 | 17Dec22 | 24Dec22 | 02Jan23 | 07Jan23 | 14Jan23 | 22Jan23 | 28Jan23 | 03Feb23 | 12Feb23 | 17Feb23 | 24Feb23 | 04Mar23 | 12Mar23 | 17Mar23 | 01Apr23 | 10Apr23 | 16Apr23 | 21Apr23 | 29Apr23 | 05May23
30Oct22
Wellington Fight Back To Hold Champions
by Jeremy Ruane
Reigning Isuzu Ute A-League champions Melbourne City dropped their first points of the 2022-23 campaign on October 30, Wellington Phoenix fighting back to hold them to a 2-2 draw after trailing by two goals for the majority of a match watched by 6,208 fans at AAMI Park.
The visitors enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and could have gone ahead in the fourth minute of play. Yan Sasse and David Ball combined in attack, with the latter's shot ricocheting off a defender into the stride of Sam Sutton, who was up in support of the raid.
His twelve yard first-time volley flashed narrowly over the crossbar - a real scare for City, who responded via a tame Jordan Bos shot after Jamie Maclaren and Matthew Leckie had led a break down the left.
Back came Wellington, Clayton Lewis threading a pass through for Ben Waine, who couldn't shrug off the attentions of Thomas Lam, but still managed to unleash an eighth minute shot which was smothered by Thomas Glover, who was relieved to see Waine drill a low drive past both himself and the near post soon afterwards after Lewis' super pass played in the youngster.
When Lewis was next involved, on the quarter hour, it led to the game's opening goal. He failed to control a pass from Tim Payne, allowing Marco Tilio to pounce on his error and take on Scott Wootton before letting fly.
Payne, flying across from the right in response to Lewis' error, threw himself in the way of the shot, the ball striking his outstretched arm before rebounding back to Tilio, who let fly with a second attempt.
This one was turned away by Oliver Sail, but referee Adam Kersey immediately blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot, before booking Payne for denying a goalscoring opportunity. There was no denying Jamie Maclaren from twelve yards, however, the league's leading marksman sending Sail the wrong way to open the scoring, to the delight of the City faithful.
The goal allowed City to settle down and take charge of proceedings, their pressing game drawing errors from a Wellington side which, by and large, defended well against the title-holders. But when they erred, the alarm bells were ringing.
Sasse, in the 22nd minute, for instance, gifted possession to Tilio, who instantly fed Maclaren. His low cross for Leckie was only prevented from reaching its intended target by the retreating figure of Lewis, who averted the danger.
Seconds later, Lam picked out Bos - an impressive performance - on the left, from where he found Maclaren with a pass which invited a first-time shot from the striker. Wootton did just enough to deflect it to safety.
There was no stopping City, however, and in the 34th minute they doubled their lead. Another Sasse error was pounced on by Leckie this time, and he took the ball on before delivering a deliciously weighted angled pass into the inside right channel for Tilio to volley home into the top far corner - a fine strike.
Having been beaten all ends up by that goal, Sail then suffered some friendly fire three minutes later, as both he and Callan Elliot collided in their efforts to prevent a teasing Valon Berisha pass from reaching its intended target. The 'keeper copped quite a bang to the head for his efforts, but was able to continue after treatment.
Elliot had greater success breaking up a City raid in the shadows of the half-time whistle, and did well to turn defence into attack by picking out Sutton with his clearing pass. His low cross, intended for Waine, was well cut out by Taras Gomulka, who combined with Aiden O'Neill and Curtis Good for the benefit of Callum Talbot, whose low cross was too far ahead of Maclaren for him to capitalise upon, as the half drew to a close.
City's dominance continued into the second spell, with Maclaren shooting straight at Sail after being played in by Berisha in the 51st minute. But after this the tide began to turn Wellington's way, with Sutton inspiring them initially.
The fullback's teasing 53rd minute cross saw both Sasse and the well-performed Ben Old - his best game in a Wellington shirt - go for the headed
|
finish, but between them they directed the ball over the bar.
Four minutes later, Sutton released substitute Bozhidar Kraev - part of an attack-minded triple change made by Wellington coach Ufuk Talay two minutes earlier - down the left, from where he pulled the ball back into Old's stride. His shot took a deflection on its way through to Glover.
Kraev's thumping header, from a Lewis free-kick, was ruled out by the offside flag in the 64th minute, while three minutes later the Bulgarian was picked out by Nicholas Pennington. One opponent later, Kraev squared the ball to fellow substitute Oskar Zawada, whose shot at full stretch crept inches past the far post.
City attempted to arrest the way the game was going by a combination of foul means - crude challenges and time-wasting tactics - and fair, the latter approach seeing them introducing a couple of substitutes of their own. Initially this had an impact in the form of a 74th minute penalty claim as Wootton slid in on Maclaren after the ball had gone.
A lengthy Video Assistant Referee review - these really need to be limited to a maximum of sixty seconds - finally decided that the striker was already in the air anticipating the tackle, thus not in control of the ball, therefore no penalty.
A corner was the outcome, with Berisha's delivery picking out substitute Andrew Nabbout, lurking beyond all-comers on the far post, a position from which he directed a header narrowly past the upright.
Back came Wellington, Zawada chasing a long ball down the left in the 77th minute, with Glover all at sea positionally. Lam was on hand to clear the danger on this occasion, but the visitors' momentum was irresistible, and they duly got a foothold in the game two minutes later.
Lewis' corner was flicked on by Kraev into the danger zone, where the ball was cleared to the edge of the penalty area. Lurking in the vicinity was Sutton, who unleashed a twenty yard screamer on the volley which Glover got his hands to, but found too hot to handle. Over the line the ball went - 2-1, game well and truly on.
Wellington now had the bit between their teeth, and City knew it. It was one-way traffic towards the home team's goal in the final ten minutes, with Steven Ugarkovic being denied the chance to do justice to Old's fine work by Richard Van der Venne's timely tackle five minutes from time.
The resulting Lewis corner picked out Ugarkovic, who couldn't direct his close-range header on target. But Wellington finally got their due reward as the game entered stoppage time. Ugarkovic - not a bad substitute to be able to call upon - surged forward before splitting the midfield with a pass for Old.
His angled lay-off allowed Costa Barbarouses to stride onto the sphere and hit a first-time shot which completely deceived Glover, who could only look on in despair as the ball rolled into the net by the far post - 2-2.
The scorer of the equaliser soon found himself at the centre of unwanted Melbourne attention, the victim of a nasty cut next to his eye. Lam's errant elbow was the source of Barbarouses' distress, and referee Adam Kersey took a dim view of the incident - it was Lam's second booking, so City were reduced to ten for the duration.
There wasn't that much time remaining - just enough for a potential late winner for Wellington, in fact. And they very nearly nicked it, Lewis working a one-two with Kraev before stinging the gloves of Glover, who grabbed the ball at the second attempt to confirm a point for the home side, who squandered a two-goal lead against a Wellington side drawing its third game of this fledgling A-League campaign.
Melbourne: Glover; Gomulka (booked, 40) (Van der Venne, 69), Lam (booked, 63, 90 - sent off), Good; Talbot (booked, 77), Berisha, O'Neill (booked, 41), Bos; Tilio (Nabbout, 72), Maclaren, Leckie
Wellington: Sail; Elliot (booked, 83), Wootton, Payne (booked, 15), Sutton; Old (Laws, 90), Pennington (booked, 50) (Ugarkovic, 85), Lewis, Sasse (Barabarouses, 55); Waine (Zawada, 55), Ball (Kraev, 55)
Referee: Adam Kersey
|