A “soft goal” has further dented the Wellington Phoenix’s hopes of qualifying for the Isuzu UTE A-League finals for a fourth straight season.
The Phoenix have been beaten 1-0 by Melbourne City at Sky Stadium in Wellington, with Socceroos winger Marco Tilio scoring the match-winner early in the second half.
It’s the Nix’s third straight defeat and leaves them nine points off the top six with eight matches remaining.
Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano was “really gutted” to have conceded in the fashion they did.
“We gave them the goal,” Italiano told media post-match. “It’s a soft goal to give.
“We set up their transition. It was a poor passage of play between two players, and I think that it’s going to be very hard to win games if you keep giving goals away.
“I’ll have to look at it again properly, but once the ball shifted to one side all our players were on the opposite side.
“Even if we were trying to break on that side, we should have released it early.
“It’s been a running thing this season. Unfortunately, we’ve been conceding some of those soft goals.”
Italiano reserved special praise for the Yellow Fever, who did their best to lift the players following the 6-1 derby defeat.
“I thought it was great, I could hear them sing all the time.
“I’ve said it for a long time, our fans are the best. Even the ones that put up the nice sign for me today.
“This club is built on the hard times. I still remember COVID. I came here six years ago and went through the phase of ‘Phoenix Out’ and so on. I’ve heard all the crap.
“Again, our supporter base; the Yellow Fever, the Little Corner of Yellow, they’re good loyal fans. They want the best for the club, no different to us and the rest of the coaching staff, and it’s good to hear them sing.”
Giancarlo Italiano made four changes to the XI which started last week’s defeat with captain Alex Rufer, fellow midfielder Paulo Retre, fullback Sam Sutton and winger Nathan Walker returning to the line-up. Corban Piper, Hideki Ishige and Lukas Kelly-Heald moved to the bench.
It was a cagey opening to the match with most of the game played in between the two penalty areas.
City had the first shot in anger in the 15th minute, but Tim Payne produced a crucial sliding block to deny Kavian Rahmani from testing Alby Kelly-Heald in Wellington’s goal.
Chico Geraldes sprayed a volley wide of target soon after, having slipped Kosta Barbarouses in behind the visitors’ defence.
The Phoenix had a good spell after the half hour mark. It started when Scott Wootton found Payne with a pinpoint diagonal ball and the All Whites fullback beat his opposite Aziz Behich and drove in a cross that deflected out for a corner.
The Nix pressed high up the pitch and pinned City inside their own half for a few minutes after the corner and forced a few errors as they attempted to play out from the back.
Matt Sheridan pounced on a wayward pass in the 36th minute but he was unable to test City goalkeeper Patrick Beach with his first-time effort from outside the box.
The visitors had the final chance of the first half but Andreas Kuen skied his shot well over the bar.
City made a fast start to the second half and Marco Tilio called Alby Kelly-Heald into action three minutes after halftime. Kelly-Heald did well to turn Tilio’s powerful low shot around his right post.
He was unable to stop Tilio’s next effort just three minutes later. The Phoenix gave away possession inside their half and the Socceroos winger punished them as he stepped on to a pass in behind and slotted home.
Italiano made a double substitution soon after going behind, bringing on Luke Brooke-Smith and Corban Piper in place of Walker and Retre.
The changes brought more energy to the Nix and they started to make it increasingly difficult for City to play out from the back.
The substitutes both came close to drawing Wellington level in the 68th minute. Brooke-Smith had a goal-bound shot blocked in the visitors’ box and then Sutton hung up a cross to the back post which Piper headed goalward, only to be denied by a stunning reflex save from City goalkeeper Patrick Beach.
Marco Rojas entered the match a handful of minutes later in place of Geraldes and he had a few moments when he caused City problems by running at defenders, but the Phoenix struggled to produce the final ball to open up their defence.
Italiano made a further double change with three minutes remaining in the 90, with Hideki Ishige and Lukas Kelly-Heald coming on in place of Alex Rufer and Tim Payne.
They had little time to make an impact and the visitors professional saw out the remainder of the match to seal the three points.
The Wellington Phoenix are back on the road for their next couple of matches, starting with Western United at Ironbark Fields on Saturday week.
Wellington Phoenix: 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 4. Scott WOOTTON, 6. Tim PAYNE (18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD 87th), 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE (3. Corban PIPER 59th), 12. Francisco GERALDES (21. Marco ROJAS 72nd), 14. Alex RUFER (c) (9. Hideki ISHIGE 87th), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 19. Sam SUTTON, 27. Matthew SHERIDAN, 41. Nathan WALKER (29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH 59th)
Unused substitutes: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA.
Melbourne City: 33. Patrick BEACH (gk), 13. Nathaniel ATKINSON, 16. Aziz BEHICH (c), 17. Max CAPUTO (46. Benjamin MAZZEO 88th), 19. Zane SCHREIBER (7. Mathew LECKIE 46th), 22. German FERREYRA, 23. Marco TILIO, 26. Samuel SOUPRAYEN, 27. Kai TREWIN, 30. Andreas KUEN (41. Lawrence WONG 88th), 47. Kavian RAHMANI (38. Harry POLITIDIS 70th).
Unused substitutes: 40. James NIEUWENHUIZEN (gk), 2. Callum TALBOT, 39. Emin DURAKOVIC.
Goals:
23. Marco TILIO (Melbourne City) – 51st
Cards:
14. Alex RUFER (Wellington Phoenix) – yellow – 69th
27. Kai TREWIN (Melbourne City) – yellow – 76th
