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29Apr22
A Little Bit Of Everything
by Jeremy Ruane
Melbourne Victory guaranteed themselves a home game in the upcoming Isuzu Ute A-League play-offs at AAMI Park on 29 April, overcoming Wellington Phoenix 3-1 in a wild encounter which had a little bit of everything contained within.
Slushy conditions greeted the players as the rain tumbled from on high, but Melbourne made light of them in a scintillating opening ten minutes, during which they could have had the game wrapped up quite comfortably.
They certainly started in explosive fashion, opening the scoring in superb style inside two minutes. Nick Pennington's error was pounced on by Jake Brimmer, who threaded a super pass through for Marco Rojas to exploit.
The some-time All Whites striker feinted superbly at pace to wrong-foot a defender before slipping a delicious pass into the stride of Nick D'Agostino, who, in sweeping the ball wide of Oliver Sail, nutmegged the covering figure of Scott Wootton - a brilliant finish!
One wasn't enough for Melbourne - they kept on coming. Brimmer's persistence earned possession for Rai Marchon, who picked out Rojas with a pass. His low cross for D'Agostino was well anticipated by Wootton, who slid in to divert the danger at the expense of a corner.
This was taken short, with Rojas weaving his way in-field before unleashing a curling effort from the edge of the penalty area which skimmed the crossbar, a feat Brimmer repeated seconds later as Wellington's midfield went missing in action, affording the Melbourne man the freedom of AAMI Park as a result.
In the ninth minute, D'Agostino invited Josh Brillante to let fly, a deflected effort which landed on the roof of Sail's net with the 'keeper beaten. Cue a Wellington counter-attack, Reno Piscopo leading the way before over-hitting a pass to Gael Sandoval, who did well to retrieve it.
The Mexican duly chipped a pass to Ben Old, in space in the penalty area, but he was unable to make the most of the opening, a statement which applied equally to Piscopo in the nineteenth minute, as he squandered the chance to draw Wellington level from the penalty spot.
After Sail had parried Brimmer's free-kick to safety, Sutton combined with Piscopo in the eighteenth minute. The latter's cross struck the arm of Brillante in the area, an event which didn't escape the attention of the Video Assistant Referee, who duly invited referee Shaun Evans to view the incident.
After doing so, to the penalty spot he pointed, granting Piscopo the chance to level the scores. Melbourne goalkeeper Ivan Kelava had his own ideas on that score, however, and produced a solid save to deny the playmaker.
The ball was still in play, however, and once it came into Sutton's possession, the wing-back delivered a cross towards Piscopo which Leigh Broxham contested, leading with his elbow … the all-seeing eyes of VAR presented Mr Evans with another case to consider, and after what seemed an eternity, he eventually pointed to the penalty spot again.
Suffice to say, Melbourne weren't best pleased with the verdicts forced upon them by technology, with coach Tony Popovic unleashing his fury in the aftermath of Wellington's equaliser, Sandoval having drilled home the penalty in the 25th minute. Needless to say, Mr Evans was adding the coach's name to his growing list of offenders in fairly short order.
Before the interval, Sail did well to keep out Ben Folami's low drive on the challenging wet surface, while Brillante and Brimmer saw shots blocked and Jason Geria headed wide from a corner, to which Sutton responded by rattling a post in first half stoppage time.
The early stages of the second half saw Sail twice keep Melbourne at bay, smothering another twenty-yarder from Folami before turning Brimmer's piledriver to safety. These efforts sandwiched a Pennington attempt to give Wellington a 49th minute lead - his twenty-five yarder was deflected to safety.
If Melbourne thought they'd had their fill of VAR for one night, they were about to get the rudest of shocks - its intervention on the hour was complexity personified, and took a full seven minutes to resolve!
A concerted Melbourne attack, including a foul by
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Marchan which referee Evans overlooked, culminated in Fenton clearly handling the ball in the area to thwart a cross. Once more, Mr Evans was looking elsewhere at precisely the wrong moment, but he did see Brimmer's bid to convert the rebound parried by Sail, with D'Agostino following in to tuck home Melbourne's second goal - 2-1 after 61 minutes.
Before play kicked off again, however, the VAR had a wee word in Mr Evans' ear, prompting him to come pitchside once more to view the things he didn't see. Eventually, D'Agostino's second goal of the game was ruled out, with Melbourne instead being awarded a penalty for Fenton's handball. Brimmer sent Sail the wrong way from the spot - 2-1 Melbourne after 68 minutes, with the spot-kick the only ball kicked in anger in between the home team's goal celebrations …
Nineteen minutes from time, Melbourne pressed again via Chris Ikonomidis, who was effectively rugby-tackled by Finn Surman. Referee Evans allowed play to continue, as the ball broke for Jason Davidson, who pulled the ball back for D'Agostino.
As his shot hit the side-netting, Mr Evans blew his whistle to halt play so he could book Surman. Wellington coach Ufuk Talay complained - when doesn't he? - and he, too, found his way into the official's notebook - not often you see both coaches getting booked in a match!
A disallowed goal was the next box to be ticked - Ben Waine the player denied as Wellington sought an equaliser, while the young striker directed a header over the bar from six yards fifteen minutes from time upon being picked out by Sandoval's free-kick.
Wellington continued to press, Piscopo and Sutton combining on the left, with the fullback's cross zooming across the bows of the incoming figure of Waine as the striker slid in, endeavouring in vain to turn the ball home.
Melbourne responded to this pressure by scoring a quite superb goal twelve minutes from time. Davidson brought the ball out of defence before feeding Brimmer. The fullback continued his forward run as the midfielder charged on, and was rewarded by a return pass into his stride which allowed the overlapping player to work a one-two with Marchan before whipping in a first-time cross to the far post, where Rojas was ghosting in unmarked to head home - a marvellous goal!
And they weren't satisfied with three! Five minutes after Melbourne clinched victory, Roderick Miranda played an extremely risky ball across the face of his own goal to Broxham, with Waine a couple of strides away from turning it home. Broxham promptly fed Davidson, who ran half the length of the field before inviting Ikonomidis to finish the task, only for the substitute to be thwarted by Sail at his near post.
Two minutes later, Davidson once more led the charge, this time involving Rojas and Brimmer, at whose feet Sail saved yet again. Another Davidson-inspired raid soon afterwards featured Ikonomidis and Brimmer before substitute Nishan Velupillay sent the ball flying past the post.
Despite the scoreline, Waine hadn't given up hope of halving the deficit, and in stoppage time Wellington's "wunderkind" forced his way through Melbourne's rearguard, holding off Broxham superbly before letting fly from an acute angle with a shot Kelava was forced to tip over the bar.
The resulting corner came to nought from Wellington's perspective, but Melbourne were intent on adding to their tally before the final whistle. With the last chance of the game, they very nearly did so, Sail smothering a D'Agostino drive after substitutes Stefan Nigro, Jay Barnett and Ikonomidis had combined on the left.
3-1 was the victors' lot, however, a win which assured Melbourne of a home semi-final in the play-off series, while leaving Wellington waiting on other results to see if they'll be joining their conquerors in the next phase of this season's A-League.
Melbourne: Kelava; Geria, Broxham (booked, 23), Miranda, Davidson (Nigro, 90); Brillante, Brimmer (Barnett, 90), Marchan; Rojas (booked, 53) (Velupillay, 86), D'Agostino (booked, 39), Folami (Ikonomidis, 54)
Wellington: Sail; Surman (booked, 71) (Hooper, 75), Wootton (booked, 13), Payne; Fenton (Van Hattum, 87), Pennington (booked, 77) (McGarry, 84), Sandoval (Bidois, 87), Sutton; Old (Manuel, 87), Waine, Piscopo
Referee: Shaun Evans
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