Ernie! Victory at Last vs Newcastle
Wildcard's Word:
They did it! By God, they finally did it! In the same week that the Chicago Cubs ended a 108 year title drought in Major League Baseball, the Wellington Phoenix broke a losing streak that was almost as long – or at least it felt that way – when they beat the Newcastle Jets 2-0 on Saturday night.
Folks were free to say and write whatever they want about the reasons for the start to this season – and we sure have – but the fact is this was a must-win game. After the torturous beginnings we’ve suffered, a home game against Newcastle came with no more excuses. If you take this back to the end of last season, it was eight A-League defeats on the trot. Enough was enough, mate.
And Ernie knew it because he finally resorted to some drastic measures. With Parky and Doyle out injured, Louis Fenton came in at left back as roughly the last man standing meaning that Jacob Tratt held his spot at right back despite a pretty underwhelming start there. But that wasn’t the drastic measure, nope that’d be Roly Poly Bonevacia being dropped to the bench for the first time in his Phoenix career. He’d started every game in his first two seasons and change except for one that he missed through suspension. Here though, he was riding the pine as Alex Rodriguez finally got a run in the middle next to Vinnie Lia. Other than that it was as expected.
Ohmygod I only just found out that Louis Fenton’s full name is Louis Ferenc Puskas Fenton. I never knew. Wow.
Poor Roly, if it’d been up to me then I’d have dropped Finkler and put Roly forward in his place but then maybe there’s a reason that Mr Merrick is the manager and not me because Professor Fink responded with his best game in a Nix jersey by far. The tricks and the flicks, he was all over it. Dropping in to get the ball, holding off defenders and all sorts. Plus there was a fairly relevant change in shape with Roddy holding besides Lia, allowing more of a shield in front of the defence but also giving us another more traditional midfield option when it came to establishing possession at the back. Someone else looking for the simple pass.
Which dragged Fink back having to come looking for it more but that was good, that worked a treat. Especially because it allowed Krishna and Kosta to push inwards in that space and link together a lot more and that was pretty crucial in how we scored both goals. As you might expect from a team that was yet to score from open play all season, the Nix took a little while to settle in but once they did they soon began to take a bit of control.
First a few crunching tackles from the likes of Nigel Boogaard held them at bay until 20 minutes in when Kosta Barbarouses got a lil space down the left flank. The Nix have this annoying habit of always cutting back. They beat a defender towards the line then cut inside and allow the defender to recover rather than attacking the space behind them. Generally it’s a case of staying on the right foot, especially when Fenton is playing at right back (coz the cut-back works a charm if you’ve got an overlapping fullback who can cross first time). Except that this time Kosta, while he did cut inside, he did so at such pace and absolutely carpeted that muppet Cowburn. Kosta had him the palm of his hand all night. The shot was saved by Jack Duncan but Krishna prodded in from close range and the Nix had their first lead of the season.
Possible complaints over offsides there, which the Newcastle twitter account was sure to make a deal of. But they were being pests all game so who cares. We paid our dues with the flag against Sydney and this is what they mean when they talk about luck evening out.
The first 35 mins of this one were superb. Both strikers looked really threatening, Fink was getting his fingerprints on everything and the Roddy/Lia thing worked fantastically. Newcastle strung some good stuff together at the back but barely got the ball into our attacking third and to be honest there were a couple times that a risky ball to the keeper was very nearly picked off - which came about from the pressure at the top, Roy/Kosta not giving dudes a moment's rest. As Dura said afterwards, the press was spot on and it all grew from there.
Oh and the Jets’ rough tackling almost got them in trouble when Boogaard thumped Krishna (running onto a sumptuous reverse flick through a defender’s legs from Prof. Fink) but no penalty was whistled. The side angle seemed to show he won the ball, so no dramas.
The last ten minutes of the half, despite what you’ll read or assume from the overall trend of the game, was mostly all Newcastle. The Jets finally got a few things going and Morten Nordstrand began to look like the player that torched the Nix last season – he scored twice against us in a 3-2 come-from-behind Jets win in February. Yet… Mossy still didn’t have much work to do. Neither did Dura or Rossi, really. Just the odd bit of man-marking defence and a few clearances but the defence was really well structured for once and shielded better than it has been all season. Look, I’ll say it again, Lia gives 100% every time but he’s not exactly Claude Makelele or N’Golo Kante. The tandem with Rodriguez was a lot better.
And as the Jets pushed forward, the Nix strikers stayed busy on the shoulders of the defence and that was how the second goal arrived. From a counter attack no less. Kosta picked up the ball and somehow managed to draw in three defenders before an outside of the boot pass released Krishna and he slammed it home. Duncan got a hand to it but not enough of one. 2-0 up and away we go.
Side note: Jacob Tratt’s still a dodgy defender at times but going forward and on the ball he was really good here. Even borrowed a few moves from the Finkler textbook. Not all of them worked but so it goes. As long as you don't expose him to tricky wingers then he goes okay - hey maybe there's Muscat->midfield potential about this one?
With that, the second half wasn’t the most exciting. It kinda suffered from how much fun the first was and in a way the damage had been done – though I thought Ernie could’ve gone to the bench much sooner. The game settled into a rhythm where there weren’t too many chances and when you’re only 2-0 up, 60 minutes in is way too soon to start settling. Roly was the ideal spark plug to introduce but he wouldn’t enter things until the 80th min. But thanks to a bit of Rossi and some more solid footy, the Nix never leaked that one goal that would’ve blown it all open.
Once Roly came on he did so for Fink and immediately you could see the difference in having him further forward. He almost scored straight away drifting into the box but couldn’t quite get his foot around the shot – still, you get this dude in and around the penalty area and things happen. Somehow there must be a way to get him and Fink in the same team… like dropping Wee Mac maybe? As good as damn near everyone was in this game, McGlinchey was the one example of a guy who drifted by. He was anonymous for long stretches, partly coz the game took place on the opposite flank a lot to be fair. Also partly because left wing/forward isn’t a great position for him and he’s marginalised by a formation that encourages Krishna and Kosta to drift all over. Kosta popped up on that left several times to great effect – remember the first goal? Wee Mac did not.
The problem is that McGlinchey, Bonevacia and Finkler arguably are all players wanting to play in the same position. Roly cutting in and shooting from the left though… that sounds enticing. A lot of this fall on Ernie too, rather than Wee Mac. What exactly is Mickey’s role anyway? Especially if we’re leaning away from the diamond midfield now with the tandem holders thang.
Then the other two subs were just time wasters, Hamish Watson and Alex Rufer each coming on in injury time – although Rufer almost put Watto through with a lobbed pass on possibly his first touch but Watson is a little bit of a slowpoke. Eh, damage was done. The Nix broke the losing streak and in doing so they also broke an 18 game streak without a clean sheet. So… good for the laundry bills.
Everybody now: exhale. The Nix are off the mark. Quite a way to mark the 250th A-League game for this legend, and against the team it all started for too:
(Vinniesta also played his 200th)
Now let’s see how they do it next week in Central Coast without all the All Whites.
Diggity Doc's Digest:
It was quite do-or-die for Ernie! and the Nix, although you could feel that another stuttering display wouldn't go down well with fans and key decision-makers. The thing with the current version of the Wellington Phoenix is that despite the Nix fizzing the footy around with sharp, short and nifty passes continuously probing around Newcastle's defence in the opening stanza, you never really knew if they were going to be able to actually score a goal.
All the signs of the Nix being too good for Newcastle were there, although these are the same signs that had previously made watching the Nix so frustrating. For every beautiful back-heel pass, there was a wild cross sent into the box or even a cross that was close to being smack-bang on the money only for no one to be there. We seem to be walking a fine line with the Nix where many of the aspects of their play that could lead to success, also make them bloody frustrating.
Take Jacob Tratt for example, Jacob Tratt who must have been given a cuddle by Ernie! during the week because he was oozing with confidence all game. With the Nix bossing possession and territory as they tend to do, Tratt was afforded the luxury of playing well inside the opposition half and provided many moments where I either applauded a nice touch or run forward, or smacked my lappy out of frustration from something dumb that Tratty did.
For the record, I had no dramas with Tratt steaming forward to put pressure on the Jets goalie after Tratt was still up-field after a set-piece. Tratt was out of position when Newcastle attacked, sure, but Alex Rodriguez had a chance to hold on to the ball and allow the Nix to set themselves again, instead he gave the ball away.
I like Tratt, I like that he tries. He's far from being, umm, polished but that's how we like them. There's scope for Tratt to break into cult-hero status with some of his attacking movements and you always need some silliness to offset brilliance, don't ya?
Making any major judgements on the Nix from this game though is tricky as Newcastle weren't so flash. They crumbled under pressure with the Nix pressing higher up the field and passed the ball to Casper and subsequently a Nix player far too often when coming out of their defence, allowing the Nix to keep piling on the pressure in the first half especially.
The key takeaway here - apart from Tratt's weirdness - was that we saw how the combination between Kosta and Roy could flourish. The speed of both allowed the Nix to creep up on Newcastle's defenders and it'll be interesting to see if this is forms part of their defensive strategy moving forward, however their combination in attack is what should really excite Nix fans.
When they are attacking as a duo, defenders need to pay attention to the lad with the ball because their initial intention is to always take the defender on. The other then has the speed to get into a dangerous space and as we saw for Roy Krishna's goal, defenders were caught in-between fighting off the threat of Kosta which left Krishna open. Krishna's first goal also showed how dangerous this duo can be, as it was Kosta who showed a clear intention to take on his defender, dipping in-field and getting a shot on target.
Roy and Kosta are great when the Nix are move forward, whether counter-attacking or when the Nix have strung passes together and we saw cheeky runs in behind that came thanks to the play-making ability of Mr Finkler and Michael McGlinchey as well as the speed of Roy and Kosta.
They aren't big lads though and as has been the case in recent times, crossing the ball into the box is kinda a non-threat. 12.5% crossing accuracy from 24 crosses (vs 46.2% from 13 crosses from Newcastle), which could point to poor delivery from the flanks, whether that's because there's no real target in the box or not is the question.
Hey, we won. Yey!
Who Are Ya!? - Krishna scored the goals but Krishna always scores goals if he gets the service. And that service came this time via Kosta Barbarouses. There are a number of player of the day candidates but Kosta stands slightly above for his two assists and generally constant menace. Man, he was sharp. Faded a bit in the second 45 but then they all did. This was the player that we thought we were getting. Great stuff.
Undercover Brother - How about Alex Rodriguez, filling out that midfield. Not a dude who is likely to get too many plaudits given how well those playmakers ahead of him did but don't forget who laid the platform. And Dura will be thanking Roddy and Lia for a pretty uneventful night on his 250th behind them too.
Chin Up, Son - Roly Bonevacia might have had the perfect response to his benching if he'd scored that shot (or if he'd come on earlier and got more of a run). But while he was the scapegoat for the crap start, he wasn't the one to blame. And lucky for him he'll be back amongst the starters in Central Coast with teh All Whites all gone. He could use the wake-up call too, for sure.