Not so long ago it was easy to see parallels between the Wellington Phoenix and New Zealand Breakers. Both were losing games early in the season as a new coach wrangled a largely new squad with new priorities that had signalled a significant shift in the club’s perspective. But these days those parallels are just dots in the distance seen through the rearview mirror. The Breakers were once the blueprint for Kiwi teams in Aussie comps but that was a little while ago now and it’s just interesting to see how this Nix team is coming together compared to how the Breakers are crumbling... since these two really did start their respective seasons in a similar place. This comparison probably deserves a much deeper dive though so I’ll put that one back in my pocket, just ponder it a sec.

The Phoenix were trash in the first half against Western Sydney. They were pretty thoroughly the second best team as they struggled to deal with WSW flowing forward but this is a defence that knows how to scrap it out so that wasn’t so much a problem as the infuriating way they kept giving the ball away so easily having worked as hard as they did to win it in the first place. Just dumb passes, too impatient, poor decisions... dunno why but things were like ten percent off.

But thanks to the continuing shot-stopping excellence of Stefan Marinovic the Nix were able to get through to the half at evens and then came out of the break and immediately scored. Jaushua Sotirio of all people. My yarn about him so far has been what a tidy and energetic player he seems to be right up until he gets into the penalty area and then, like some kind of mojo-zapping forcefield, his left foot becomes his right foot and he loses all control. As if both to prove and disprove that theory, his goal came with a beautiful lobbed finish (almost overhit it but almost is good enough) struck from juuust outside the penalty area as he ran onto David Ball’s flick on from Big Stef’s big boot. Against his old team too. Well in, son.

And thus began a significantly better second half performance. They leaked a goal to Nicolai Müller in the 64th minute but responded well to that setback, same as they responded well to the first half performance, and after Callum McCowatt and Gary Hooper were chucked on off the bench the Nix swung things back in their favour and won a very late penalty for a VAR handball. Up stepped Ulises Davila to take care of business as he continues to do. A sumptuous penalty from him and that’s four games in a row that he’s scored in – tying a record shared by Jeremy Brockie and Roy Krishna. He can break it next Saturday night away to Melbourne Victory.

Nothing special about the way the Nix played here, not at all... and that’s why it was so important. It was a trend of the early stages of the season that the Nix had to work so hard and play so well to get their rewards but here they won a game in which they didn’t even play that well. Sign of a good team and all that... and with three wins (and four unbeaten) in a row they’re suddenly right up in the mix again. That early losing streak is but a hazy memory now. The Ufuk Talay Era is taking shape.

This was another quality showing from the gaffer too. He’s had a few of those lately, never shaking things up drastically but constantly making little tweaks along the way this season which have had positive effects. The players seem to enjoy playing for him and he knows how to alter a game in his team’s favour. Chris Greenacre spoke at half-time about making a couple little adjustments. Jaushua Sotirio spoke afterwards of looking to take the WSW defence for pace. And that’s basically how they scored that goal. David Ball dropped deeper in order to flex his link-up ability and create space for Sotirio to run into and it led to the opener. Clever thinking to take advantage of a mismatch and there you go.

As for the second goal... there was immediate fury from the Wanderers players and their manager went as far as to use the word ‘conspiracy’ (which is weird considering some of the calls the Nix have had the last two years from VAR... maybe they really do level out over time? Or maybe Louis Fenton drew so much attention to the issue that refs are conscious of not wanting to stiff the Nix now, if so he’s even more of a hero than it seemed at the time). Clearly Pirmin Schwegler didn’t have much chance with it so I can understand why they’re upset. But, like, Davila had a shot which was blocked from hitting the target by a dangling hand. Whether it’s intentional or not it stopped a goal scoring opportunity and a penalty feels like a fair result of that. Booking Schwegler for a complete accident that had already been punished was a lot less fair but then we all know the handball rules are bonkers. I wouldn’t have any issue with that spottie being given against the Nix, you can’t be denying shots with your hand even if it was pretty incidental. No dramas there.

Tell ya who had a great game here too and that’s David Ball. Jeez he was good, dropping in and around and keeping that ball moving in attack. He only had one decent chance to score and he ballooned it so perhaps he won’t get as much credit as he deserves here but his workrate was through the roof and he was able to be effective in a few different areas, from playing off the shoulder of the defence to dropping deep and also getting wide. That kind of flexibility is huge for the team considering there’s the significant matter of fitting Gary Hooper into the team still to solve. Hooper’s a more traditional nine and recently the Nix have been more into a 4-2-3-1 shape that only fits one such fella, but Ball should have done enough here to prove that he can play deeper if necessary, or we just evolve back into that 4-2-2-2 thing. Point is that there are options as long as Davie Ball’s in form like this... no coincidence his best game in a Nix jersey came the week after he scored his first goal. Getting that big old mental hurdle out of the way.

Also gotta shout out Cam Devlin who was chucked into a tricky situation when Alex Rufer was unable to run off a knock late in the first half. Devlin has been used mostly as an attacking mid off the bench (and in preseason) so far and he’s a bit of a wee fella so replacing Rufer in central mid for fifty mins was a tough one. I wondered if Tim Payne might move there and someone like Liam McGing come on at right back... Sam Sutton was on the bench too after another fine performance for the WeeNix last week. But Devlin fitted in beautifully. He’s not one who’s afraid to get physical and with good technique on the ball as well he basically just did what he needed to do. Didn’t get caught out positionally and he got scrappy when he needed to. Solid work from him and he might get a chance to back it up next week too if Rufer isn’t available. It didn’t look great as he limped off but Uffie didn’t seem too concerned afterwards, he’ll have an MRI today or tomorrow and assess the damage. That might just be Uffie’s natural demeanour though, he doesn’t give a lot away. Fingers crossed – Rufer’s played really well the last couple games.

Also wondering if Callum McCowatt might have played his way back into the starters after a fine cameo which helped pile on the pressure that led to the winning goal. He jumped on and within about a minute had already drawn two saves out of the keeper. This after Reno Piscopo was a bit underwhelming following a good one last week. Turning into danger too often, not really bringing that final product... it might well be that we see McCowatt and Piscopo (and Waine and Devlin) shuffling in and out over and over as the season progresses and that’s not a terrible thing at all, keeping all them young fellas hungry and motivated and relatively fresh.

Which leads in to my last idea about that game which is one that’s been lingering for a while now and again you can contrast it with what a depressing mess the Breakers have become, playing uninspired defence and having a whinge about the refs without noticing the correlation between those two things, because even on their dodgy days the Nix are still out there battling, full buy-in from the players, and growing into an increasingly entertaining style of footy with Ulises Davila able to flick the switch in transition like very few others can in this league... the Phoenix are just a fun team to watch.

And they’re full of fun players to watch. Steven Taylor putting his body on the line and leading the way. Libby Cacace knuckling down like a guy with fifteen years experience in the A-League. Stefan Marinovic throwing himself around. Ulises Davila pulling strings. Alex Rufer going hundies in the midfield. Emerging stars like McCowatt, Piscopo, Waine, and Devlin. They’re just a really enjoyable team. And if they can string together results like the last few weeks it’ll be an enjoyable season too but even if they don’t, that first part is still something not to take for granted.

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