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10Dec22
Wollongong Stalemate For Wellington And Wests
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers fought out an at times sterile and at times hostile 1-1 Isuzu Ute A-League draw in front of 2502 fans at WIN Stadium on 10 December, with the New Zealand-based club choosing this match as one to host in Wollongong as a way of saying thankyou to the locals for their hospitality while Wellington was forced to base themselves in Australia because of last season's Covid concerns.
There's no love lost between these clubs, particularly given Wests' gaffer, Mark Rudan, has previously held the same position at Wellington - that alone guarantees an edge whenever these teams clash.
It didn't take long for that edge to gravitate to the pitch, most notably whenever the paths of Tim Payne and Wests' skipper Marcelo Guedes crossed at set-pieces. Frankly, the pair carried on like amorous lovers - they couldn't keep their hands off each other! - whenever corners and free-kicks near goal were in vogue, with both players doing their level best to negate the threat posed by their opposite, by fair means or foul.
It came to a head after the final whistle when Wellington captain Oli Sail came charging in to let Guedes know what he thought of his silly carry-on in no uncertain terms, prompting a post-match gathering of the clans which wasn't the sort of thing one expects to see on a football pitch, to such an extent that it would not surprise in the slightest if both clubs find themselves mentioned in despatches by league management sometime this week.
As well as the silly stuff, there were a fair few moments of noteworthy action in this tussle, with Bozhidar Kraev the first to raise his head above the parapet in the sixth minute. Wellington's Bulgarian unleashed overlapping fullback Lucas Mauragis down the left to the by-line - the home team made great in-roads down this flank in the first half - from where his cross was punched out by Wests' goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas into the stride of Kraev.
His shot was parried by the quickly recovering goalkeeper, who was relieved to see the low drive struck by Clayton Lewis, who was following in, fizz narrowly past the far post as the home team began brightly.
After Sail's gloves had been stung by Ramy Najjarine's thirty yard free-kick, Thomas produced a fabulous save on the quarter hour to maintain parity on the scoreboard. Steven Ugarkovic's corner was flicked on at the near post by Oskar Zawada, and perfectly placed to meet it on the far post was Scott Wootton.
Four yards out, it seemed the defender simply couldn't miss this headed opportunity, and sure enough it looked in for all money. Thomas, however, had other ideas, and flew across his goal to produce a stunning one-handed save, pawing the ball around the upright to the undisguised delight of his team-mates and the Wests fans who made up the majority of the paltry crowd.
That Thomas completely missed Lewis' resulting inswinging corner came as quite a surprise, given the heroics he'd just performed, but his team-mates helped him out this time round, and slowly but surely began to get the upper hand in this battle of wills.
Brandon Borrello's 24th minute cross picked out the head of Sulejman Krpic, who forced Sail into a scrambled save round his near post, the same upright past which Borrello battered a fifteen yarder eight minutes later, after Yeni N'Gbakoto and Calum Nieuwenhof combined to create the opportunity.
Wellington responded via Lewis, whose whipped cross flew across the bows of the incoming figure of Callan Elliot in the 34th minute, before the midfielder presented Zawada with a shooting chance five minutes before half-time, with the striker's effort proving too hot for Thomas to handle. Once more, Guedes and Tomislav Mrcela were on hand to mop up.
The second half began with the hitherto anonymous Yan Sasse - arguably one of Wellington's worst-ever acquisitions, based on the evidence seen to date - combining with David Ball and Zawada to open the door for Kraev, who thrashed a shot on the run past the post.
Wests responded via a Nieuwenhof cross which picked out Krpic lurking beyond the far post. He headed the ball inside to N'Gbakoto, whose 57th minute bid to break the deadlock was thwarted by the combined efforts of Payne and Sail.
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Four minutes later, the scoreboard operator was finally called into action as Wellington opened the scoring. Lewis and freshly introduced substitute Costa Barbarouses combined with Elliot on the right, the fullback returning the ball to the move's orchestrator.
Lewis checked inside and delivered an inviting cross to the far post, where Kraev, who had made a clever curving run which saw him get in beyond the last defender, timing his leap to perfection to direct an angled downward header beyond the diving figure of Thomas and into the corner of the net.
Wests responded immediately with a couple of substitutions, introducing Milos Ninkovic and Oliver Bozanic to the fray. They immediately set about turning the game around, as from then on, there was only one team in the contest, and they weren't sporting yellow in their attire.
Borrello and Bozanic teamed up on the right to present N'Gbakoto with a chance which was deflected past the post in the 67th minute. The resulting corner culminated in Sail tipping Guedes' looping header over the bar, while the goalkeeper was well placed to keep out Borrello's deflected volley soon afterwards.
Sixteen minutes from time, Bozanic delivered a delightfully angled pass into the stride of Najjarine, who got in behind Elliot as a result. Sail dashed out to the edge of his penalty area to avert the danger in unorthodox but effective fashion, while he reverted to more routine means to punch out Nieuwenhof's cross then save Gabriel Cleur's resulting shot three minutes later.
Western Sydney finally got the equaliser their performance fully merited eleven minutes from time. N'Gbakoto was responsible for their set-pieces throughout proceedings, and with the sideshow of Payne and Guedes - Punch and Judy? It is pantomime season, after all! - causing distraction aplenty in the goalmouth, his free-kick from the left flank flew untouched past all-comers before bouncing into the top far corner of the net - 1-1.
Wests now had their tails up, and sensed there was more than one point up for grabs here. But Wellington's ire was roused by the equaliser, and they, too, went in search of a winner. They were first to threaten in a lively closing stanza, Sail releasing Kraev down the left, from where he found the ever-lively Ben Waine darting in behind the defence. The substitute's low angled drive was well smothered by Thomas.
Back came second-placed Wests, Daniel Wilmering - on for the injured Ninkovic - and Adama Traore combining on the left, with the former's cross being blocked by Wootton. Krpic, following up, saw his shot blocked by Sail, who then turned a Borrello bullet round the post.
Sail stood tall - not exactly a challenge for the lanky goalkeeper - again soon afterwards, keeping out a N'Gbakoto effort at the second attempt after the goalscorer had been picked out by Borrello's cross from the right.
Wellington responded via substitute Ben Old, who pulled a shot wide of the far post, before slicing a volleyed attempt so badly that it went out for a throw-in! In between times, Wests had gone close to notching the winner, an Elliot error inviting Wilmering and N'Gbakoto to set up Nieuwenhof for a shot.
Payne flung himself at the ball and succeeded in defusing the situation, in much the same manner Traore did at the other end of the park in stoppage time to prevent Barbarouses from latching onto more creativity from Kraev, easily one of the best recruits Wellington coach Ufuk Talay has unearthed.
The draw leaves Wellington in ninth place with almost a quarter of the season played. They'll be looking to improve on that when they take on third-placed Adelaide United at Sky Stadium on Saturday, a match which has 'draw' written all over it, given Wellington have drawn four of their matches so far and Adelaide three.
Wellington: Sail; Elliot, Wootton, Payne, Mauragis; Sasse (Barbarouses, 58), Ugarkovic (booked, 90), Lewis (Pennington, 73), Kraev (booked, 85); Ball (booked, 78) (Old, 82), Zawada (Waine, 82)
West. Syd.: Thomas; Cleur, Mrcela, Guedes, Traore; Borrello, Amalfitano (Bozanic, 62), Nieuwenhof, Najjarine (Ninkovic, 62 (Wilmering, 80)); Krpic, N'Gbakoto (booked, 45) (Blair, 90)
Referee: Lachlan Keevers
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