It Was Back To Winning Ways For The Welly Nix vs Newcastle... But Barely
Sometimes you play quite well and still lose. Other times you don’t and still win. Sometimes those two things happen in consecutive games. If the Wellington Phoenix needed to show a response to their frustrating 1-0 defeat in Brisbane last week then we only really got it in fits and starts against the Newcastle Jets, certainly not to the level that we know this team is capable of, but more than anything they just needed to get the win considering they’re on a bye next week and away in Perth the week after. This was the last of their January foursome against the bottom four teams and fixtures take a turn for the tougher from this point on (nothing to be afraid of but you wanna bank the points you’re expected to) – Perth Glory (A), Melbourne City (H in Auckland), Western United (H), Sydney (A)... that’s what February has to offer. So, yeah, there’s plenty of scope for improvement from that game but winning always buys you time and three more points to the tally sweetens the taste plenty.
There were two changes to last week’s team, both anticipated. David Ball returned to the starting lineup at the expense of Jaushua Sotirio and with Matti Steinmann out suspended that meant a debut for Brandon Wilson in the midfield. Supposedly Uffie coulda chucked in 18 year old Sam Sutton there but that would have been risky, his other options were Tim Payne or Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi but tinkering with a successful back four would have been silly and TAHW is the utility guy on the bench so Wilson was always the likely guy, even if he was very shot on match fitness. Note that Alex Rufer snuck back onto the bench though after his injury layoff. He’d missed the previous six games but would make his comeback as a second half sub here. As for Sotirio, Ball had to play after last week’s struggles in front of goals (mostly) without him so it was a toss up between McCowatt and Sotirio and McCowatt had been playing better the last couple games. One thinks that once Reno Piscopo is back in town, which he will be next game, he’d get the gig ahead of either of them... the Aussie U23s just won their third-placed playoff to qualify for the Olympics and Reno was great throughout.
Back at home, Wilson wasn’t great. He wasn’t terrible either, he just didn’t quite assert himself in the right ways. From what I’ve seen of him so far (which is about 50-odd minutes for the reserves plus this) he’s a fella that doesn’t mind a tactical foul or two and he moves the ball around nicely but despite a lot of touches he wasn’t massively prominent in this game. Cam Devlin was all over the place with his energy in another outstanding game from him but Wilson looked like he was playing within himself, keeping it simple and safe. Which to be fair is what Steinmann usually does but Steinmann is, well... better at it. As you’d expect from an import.
Actually Steinmann’s reputation probably rose more than anyone’s (except possibly Stefan Marinovic) during this game by virtue of him not even being there. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and there are some players whose influence is so steady and subtle that you don’t realise how important they are to the team until they ain’t actually there. With Rufer back healthy again and Steinmann back next game and Devlin playing excellent and a by week to sort it all out there’s an interesting decision to be made in the midfield for the Perth game. At a guess? Devlin and Steinmann might now be the top choice.
The Newcastle Jets sacked Ernie Merrick a couple weeks ago and are on a horrid run of results but they looked pretty bloody useful here under caretaker boss Craig Deans. Meanwhile, in a strange coincidence, the guy poised to be their next proper manager is Carl Robinson who was Big Stef’s manager at Vancouver Whitecaps and it was in the same offseason that Robbo got the flick that Marinovic was also let go. Robinson is Welsh but played the end of his career in the MLS hence how he ended up there. And it was that unexpected dumping for Marinovic that opened up the doors of possibility for a keeper as talented as Marinovic to find his way to the Wellington Phoenix. The fates do enjoy a twist in the tale, after all.
Yeah anyway the Jets lined up with a back three and suffocated space for the Nix lads to get to work. There was room down the flanks in behind the wingbacks, sure, but as soon as guys like McCowatt or Davila or Cacace or Payne got near the penalty area they were swamped or there was nobody open to continue to move. A bit of a concern there because it was the same thing that stymied the Nix last week in Brisbane too. A back three, no overcommitting, midfield doing a lot of work in tracking back. It wasn’t uncommon to see them with eight guys in and around the penalty area.
But the Jets also consolidated possession quite well. Far from merely sitting deep and soaking it up, they were able to hit on the break a few times and were also comfortable enough to pass back and around and annoy the home crowd. It was a clever gameplan. Any conversation about the Phoenix being underwhelming, particularly in that first half, has to keep in mind that context of how well the Jets were doing despite their recent struggles. And despite Lachlan Jackson going off injured in the first half – getting waxed so bad by Callum McCowatt that he blew out his knee, ouch. Best wishes and all that.
Having said all that, Ufuk Talay would be the first to tell you that you have to take your chances when you’re on top or else it doesn’t add up to much. I’m not gonna say that Jason Hoffman’s miss was a complete sitter because Marinovic was getting across there to close him down... but geez to balloon it like that was a shocker. A massive let off for the Nix too because they could not have argued one bit had they been trailing at home to the bottom team at half-time. They were lucky not to be.
Then the fun stuff. Needing to switch up the dynamic a bit, Uffie made an early change with Sotirio replacing McCowatt about five minutes into the second half. McCowatt had done okay but Sotirio’s pace offered something else that the Phoenix weren’t getting with Gary Hooper up top and David Ball not at a hundy percent beside him. Ulises Davila is a wizard with the ball at his feet but the only space was out wide and he needed somebody who could break the lines a bit. Which is exactly what Joshy Boy did, so soon after getting subbed on that I, with my double-screening of the Blackcaps at the same time, didn’t even realise he’d come on until he scored. Great ball from Davila too. And although it was a close one, the VAR declined to interfere over inconclusive offside evidence.
That should have been enough for the Phoenix to step it up and take some control but they were their own worst enemies in defence. Luke DeVere had a couple shanked clearances/blocks while some of the passing was rank average which just invited more pressure upon themselves and meant they couldn’t reshape, stuck in desperation mode where more errors followed. The goal they conceded was the worst example of that. Completely avoidable. Several chances to clear that ball gone begging. And this time it fell to Abdiel Arroyo who was the one guy up front for these dudes who looked like he’d actually put the ball in the net if the right chance fell to him. It did and he did. But then the Nix scored again as Ulises Davila cracked the offside trap from an Alex Rufer shot which was deflected heavily. Hooper was offside but Davila was not and the composure he showed to deliver his tenth of the season already... magnifico.
Two and a half minutes between conceding and retaking the lead. After that it was just a matter of making sure they didn’t cock it up at the back again and, mate, that was when Big Stef put his big boy’s gloves on. Ideally you don’t want you goalie to have to make that many saves late on in a game which you’re winning by a single goal (at home against the bottom team) but it’s a whole lot better than him not making those saves. A couple were standard blocks that look harder than they really were because of the power or the distance or whatever but were more or less straight at him. Not this one though. That 95th minute one was something special...
And the celebrations, what a guy! Here I thought that Stevie T was the master hype man in the squad but apparently the captain’s gotta defer in this debate because those fist pumps from Big Stef coulda punched a hole in the fabric of the time/space continuum. Right back to when he got released by Vancouver, hopefully. Knock over a desk or bust a hole in some picture frames just to make a preternatural point.
Not that heroic shot stopping is anything out of the ordinary for Marinovic, in fact it’s kind of his thing. The biggest strength of his game and he’s been doing this all year popping up with the odd highlight reel stunner. Getting him to the Phoenix was a fortune of circumstance which more than made up for losing Filip Kurto and I haven’t watched enough of other teams to say whether he’s in the running to win Goalkeeper of the Year like FK did but that’s an irrelevant argument. Awards come and go and don’t always make sense. He literally saved two points at the end there, preserving a valuable victory which was far from secure, what a relief. Cheers for that one, Stef. Appreciate it. Enjoy the week off.
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