Signs Of Progress As The Welly Nix Finally Get Their First Point On The Board
It’s not a win but it’s not a loss either. If it weren’t for the pressure of the last four weeks then a draw away to Melbourne Victory would be an undeniably good result. Those four defeats in a row to start the campaign can’t be ignored... but a winless streak is better than a losing streak and the Nix now get the bye week to work on some things with their first point finally on the board.
Was this a massive step forwards? Not really. It was a significant improvement on the disappointments of last week (and the first half versus Perth) but we’re still looking at a team that needs a lot more time to figure things out. Combinations are coming together slowly and everything’s kinda hampered by everything else, that’s the nature of such a drastic rebuild (and Talay’s rebuild is a bigger one than Rudan’s was – Rudes still had Andy Durante’s incomparable veteran leadership and Roy Krishna’s ability to bail everyone out with goals on top of goals). What’s important though is that this young and unfamiliar team finally got something to show for the progress they’ve made so far, something to give them confidence and a base to launch from.
The pattern of this game was clear after about five minutes. The Melbourne Victory were going to thoroughly dominate possession and the Wellington Phoenix were going to sit deep and absorb it and then try to hit on the counter. We got a bit lucky with an early penalty – the correct call but still fortunate because it wasn’t really a forced defensive error – which allowed the Nix to play that way, especially away from home, and then for the remaining eighty-five minutes and change it was nails-chewed-down-to-the-bone time. Which, yeah, not the most comfortable Sunday evening ever and if that’s what it takes to earn every point this season then you’d better get used to watching games through your fingers from the foetal position on the floor in front of the telly... but to get things underway for the Nix, this was a valuable point.
Because while they weren’t able to hold on the whole way for three points, they still did enough to get something from a game in which they spent more time defending than David Dome spent on the phone to league officials last week. That’s the kind of lesson you can only learn through experience. It’s also the kind of performance that brings a team closer together, having gone through the trenches together like that. Games like this were something the Nix got pretty good at under Mark Rudan too, in fact it was a very similar result (1-1 draw at home versus Perth, ending with ten men, unable to hold a 1-0 lead but still getting a point with their backs against the wall) that kickstarted things a year ago. Six days later they beat Sydney 3-1 away from home and you know the rest. And that Perth draw was their sixth game of the season so Uffie’s Nix are actually a week ahead of schedule... sort of but not really. You get the point though, this is a potential launching pad. After the bye the Nix are home to the winless Brisbane Roar in a game they really, really need to take three points from before going away to Adelaide United and then home to Western Sydney.
Uffie made four changes to last week’s side, with Callum McCowatt coming back in for Reno Piscopo and Gary Hooper unavailable with a muscle injury allowing Jaushua Sotirio to come back into the starting team. Look, Hoops is injury prone. This is what we signed. If he wasn’t injury prone then he’d still be playing Championship in England and the Wellington Phoenix would never have been on his radar so you have to take the bitter with the sweet. He’s expected to be good to go after the bye week. The other two changes were at fullback where Walter Scott dropped out for Liberato Cacace with Libby having served his suspension and Louis Fenton’s shoulder injury from last week, though not as bad as first feared, was enough to keep him out with Tim Payne replacing him in the line-up just as he replaced him in the All Whites squad.
One game is hard to judge from and it might have been more about what the Victory were or weren’t doing but those wide defensive areas have been a weakness all season yet they were pretty comfortable here. Obviously Cacace is an improvement on anybody at the club at left-back but Tim Payne really held his own too. This was his kind of game, to be fair. He wasn’t getting dribbled at and could therefore hold his position and be the tough guy that he is. I did wonder a few times whether if Fenton wasn’t the incumbent would Payne perhaps even be the better option but I’m leaning towards no on that one. It’s a conversation though. Payne is better in the air and in the challenge. Fenton gives you more speed and plenty more on attack... although Payne’s long passing game is a treat to behold (which also makes him a set piece option and there was one deep free kick near the end which was immaculate). Yeah, probably depends on the matchup. The Victory just wanted to cut inside at any opportunity so I suspect Payne would have had a much tougher time last week against Lachie Wales and Craig Noone.
That all helped towards a strong defensive effort. As did another excellent performance from Stefan Marinovic, who has made 26 saves in five games which is way out in front of the rest of the league’s goalies. Mark Birighitti (CCM) is second with 19 saves, albeit in one game less. There’s a bit of a worry there too because to make that many saves he has to be facing that many shots on target but for a guy coming in to replace the Goalkeeper of the Year from last season there has been zero drop off. There are other aspects of his game which hold him back a little – specifically his distribution which can be all over the place – but as a shot stopper there’s nobody better in this competition (maybe one or two equal but none better). He’s had a great start to the season and just in time to fend off the threat of Michael Woud to his All Whites Number One status... for now at least.
Umm, not a lot to say about the central defence. I’ve liked what they’ve offered so far and both Steven Taylor and Luke DeVere are nicely suited to a bit of backs to the wall defending anyway. Stevie T especially. Didn’t like the way they both got sent in the same direction by Ola Toivonen for the equaliser but you do have to admit it was coming, one way or another. Toivonen had already missed an open header. And while I do hear the pushback on Matti Steinmann (pace is clearly not his strong suit and he is playing in a pretty specific defensive role which largely keeps him from influencing the attack at all apart from being a support option, although I will say Alex Rufer has offset some of that by pushing further forward), he and Alex Rufer spent so much time defending right in front of the backline that there’s not much to say there either. They did what they had to do... aided nicely by the Victory’s strange lack of tempo in attack. The Victory got into good areas, they made the right passes... but it was all so slow that the Phoenix defence was usually able to recover. With Marco Kurz still whipping this lot into shape it’s crazy to think how much has changed since these two teams met in the playoffs just last season.
One funky thing Talay did here was getting the top four to rotate like a wheel in and out of possession, specifically to allow Davila to stay forward in the front two while Sotirio dropped in when the Nix were defending. Sotirio is a little sketchy up top sometimes but he works his arse off, you can’t deny that. He’s going to do more to prevent an opposition team building things up than Davila is able to and that was a sneaky wee tweak from Uffie that helped tighten things up for the Nix (as was chucking Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi into a back three towards the end to make sure his team didn’t leave empty handed). Then when the counter attack was on, Davila would hold off a little to get involved in the build up as Sotirio and McCowatt (and of course Ball) surged past him.
Davila is a great example of trusting the journey’s path here. He was awful in the first game of the season and has steadily emerged since then as the Nix’s most reliable attacking outlet. He was really good again here, ducking past defenders and picking out runners on the break, looking even more effective from being able to play more through the middle. It’s just that once again we were missing that Roy Krishna figure to make it count. It’s not a coincidence that David Ball’s best moments have come in and around the penalty area because that’s his style. But this wasn’t a game where the Nix could play that way. Ball was better than last week but I doubt we see the best of him until he’s got Gary Hooper leading the line beside him and allowing Ball to be that complimentary dude.
In the meantime I have to wonder how close we are to Ben Waine starting. He’s looked sharp every time he’s come off the bench so far and if you’re good enough then you’re old enough. He’s got the pace to be able to play in the open field like Sotirio does but he’s got a little more of that striker’s instinct in the box too. Sotirio did alright here. Ball did alright here. McCowatt and Davila both looked like they could make things happen. But once again the Nix were short on that clinical essence in attack, scoring from a fifth minute penalty and then not again. This isn’t about individual performances so much as finding the formula of players that works. Ben Waine isn’t going away with the All Whites this week so he’ll be chipping away at training. It might not be long before he gets a crack as a starter.
(And on the subject of youth grads making moves... peep at young Sam Sutton sneaking onto the bench here – if you didn’t see his blinder of a free kick for the ressies last week then please rectify that post haste).
So, yes, problems do remain. Of course they do. But this point buys the Nix some time. Nobody’s expecting a team this fresh to be pushing for the top four and repeating in sixth place would be a big success. It might be that we end up having to accept that this is a transitional year and that wouldn’t be a disaster either. But for now we just need to keep seeing progression and being able to get a point away from home without playing at their best, even if it was against a misfiring Melbourne Victory, is definite progression.
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