Ernie! Bad Pitch, Good Game #SaveTheNix
My Saturday night viewing of the Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Victory didn't get off to a good start...
What's up with that pitch?
Wait, who's who? One team's wearing grey and the other team is wearing white.
This is pissing me off.
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I was frustrated. I just wanted to watch a dark-shirted team against a team of lighter shirts on a nicely grassed field and I got none of that.
My frustration swiftly turned to joy as the Phoenix flicked the switch, as only they can. After the Sydney Excursion, in which the Phoenix defended admirably across two games but couldn't quite combine this with sizzling attacking play, the Nix came back to Aotearoa needing to showcase their attacking talent. Despite the poor turf, we were treated to another little taster of what the Phoenix can do when they are in a certain mood.
A better connection between the attacking trio of Roy Krishna, Michael McGlinchey and Roly Bonevacia was needed and that's exactly what we got. Krishna showed off his pace on a few occasions, none more so than when he glided his way through the middle of the field before setting up Roly's goal while Roly and McGlinchey played off Krishna nicely. While the poor state of the pitch was the focus of some people, spend too much time worrying about the pitch and you would have missed many moments of brilliance from mainly Roly but also Krishna.
Krishna displayed some nifty footwork to set up Roly, while Roly was at his trickiest best as he perfectly executed what must now be known as the 'Roly-Poly Spin' numerous times. Slide the ball into the middle of the field and Roly will brush defenders off with ease, all with the dip of a shoulder and the 'Roly-Poly Spin'. It's like clockwork and every time Roly does this spin, or is one-on-one with a defender, it gets the crowd excited; Roly is the best creative mid-fielder in the A-League.
Each wheel of this cog is as important as the other though. Krishna offers the pace, Roly offers the pizzazz and McGlinchey offers the steady hand. I have no issues with not really noticing McGlinchey on the field as he's at his best when he gets the ball and quickly shovels the ball on to Roly or Krishna.
While we saw crystal clear examples of attacking impetus, the fact of the matter is that the Phoenix spent a lot of this game defending. This is far from a bad thing though as the Nix are quite good defensively, as well as the Victory not quite being at their best with the ball at their feet. Part of my enthusiasm for this game was the amount of intriguing match-ups across the park, headlined by Victory's wingers (Kosta Barbarouses and Fahid Ben Khalfallah) up against the Nix babies in Louis Fenton and Michael Doyle.
Fenton and Doyle certainly held their own. They did their job and earned a few brownie points for ensuring that two of the most potent attacking threats in the A-League were limited to two shots on target.
Ben Sigmund returned to play a few trash minutes at the end of the game, signalling his return to fitness and this will give Ernie! a few funky decisions to make. The Nix are away to Brisbane this weekend and you would assume that Sigmund will slot in at centre-back, pushing Manny Muscat to the left. Whether Fenton retains his place on the right or not will be interesting; despite looking fragile, Fenton won 83.3 percent of his 'Duels' which was the highest of any player on the pitch to play substantial minutes. Fenton offers a certain level of energy and enthusiasm and was once again heavily involved in both attack and defence.
Sometimes I really appreciate Vince Lia, sometimes he's a bit meh. I can't ignore the combination that he shares with Albert Riera especially and also Alex Rodriquez in the Phoenix's midfield though. Riera and Lia were instrumental in stopping the Victory as one of them maintained a position sitting in front of the back-four while the other and Rodriquez hounded attackers out wider. Most importantly, Riera and Lia share a great understanding with each other and their two centre-backs as they were (and have been) great at slotting in to centre-back in Durante or Muscat found themselves out of position. Instead of leaving a hole at centre-back, Riera or Lia just slides back to fill that void.
Games like this, even though it wasn't a dominant performance from the Phoenix get you excited about their title credentials. First and definitely foremost, the Phoenix are tough to break down without 'parking the bus' as they are well organised and have a team full of players who rip in, never easing up. Throw in some of the hottest attacking talent in the A-League who are still figuring a few things out plus depth (don't sleep on this) - as guys like Doyle, Justin Gulley and Jeffrey Sarpong have all contributed/gained experience - and we have the foundations of a good team.
One week at a time though and an away trip to Brisbane provides another tricky excursion for the Phoenix.