Somehow, Despite Everything, The Wellington Phoenix Are Finals-Bound
The Wellington Phoenix have a finals game on Saturday. Away against Western United at 9.45pm NZT which, all things considered, is about the best match-up they could have possibly asked for as the sixth placed team. The Nix may have been up and down and all over the place this season but they’ve managed to beat Western United in all three meetings (twice in the ALM, once in the FFA Cup).
This is the third time in four years that the Phoenix have made the A-League Finals although they haven’t actually won a postseason game since an 85th minute Paul Ifill penalty took them past Sydney FC for a 3-2 win way back in 2012. It’s been a wee while.
The Complete List of Wellington Phoenix Finals Games:
21/02/2010 (H) – Drew 1-1 with Perth Glory (won 4-2 on pens)
7/03/2010 (H) – Won 3-1 vs Newcastle Jets (aet)
13/03/2010 (A) – Lost 4-2 to Sydney FC
18/02/2011 (A) – Lost 1-0 to Adelaide United
30/03/2012 (H) – Won 3-2 vs Sydney FC
7/04/2012 (A) – Lost 3-2 to Perth Glory (aet)
3/05/2015 (H) – Lost 2-0 vs Melbourne City
3/05/2019 (A) – Lost 3-1 to Melbourne Victory
22/08/2020 (N) – Lost 1-0 to Perth Glory
This club has gone a decade without a finals win and has never won a finals game outside of Aotearoa. They’ve got an incredible opportunity to tear up both of those stats this weekend, particularly with Clayton Lewis returning to give them a functional midfield again... but this article isn’t about looking forward. It’s about turning around in the other direction and looking back with momentary gratitude at what this club has achieved simply by even making the finals at all.
Just some of these obstacles that the 2021-22 Wellington Phoenix have had to overcome would have left many teams shrugging and accepting their wooden spoon. Let alone all of them combined. Many a sporting campaign has been derailed by injuries in the past but try dealing with an injury list like this team has had whilst also getting just two home games all season. It’s actually remarkable. What Ufuk Talay and his coaching staff have achieved here is on another level.
Chances are, a sixth placed finish probably won’t lead to the kind of recognition that Talay and the Phoenix deserve (unless they make a finals run), so let’s spell it all out for prosperity here instead.
Stranded In Oz
The obvious one first up. Since the season began, the Wellington Phoenix have only spent a few days in Aotearoa. Instead for the second season running various covid and travel restrictions have forced the Nix to base themselves permanently in another country playing ‘home’ games at neutral venues (more on that in a sec) and living away from friends and family – with one of the toughest aspects being the permanent impermanence of not knowing how long that reality would last.
They did this first for the ALM Bubble two seasons back and were terrible. Having been on a four-game win streak when the pandemic struck the team only won one of their remaining six games after the long hiatus before losing 1-0 to Perth in the finals. Then they did it again for the overwhelming majority of the next season for which they were much more organised, more aware of what they were getting into. Still a rough task that most other teams didn’t have to deal with but one which the lads were mostly able to cope with as they fell one point shy of making the finals.
This third instance has presumably been an improvement again. Players have been through it once so they knew they could do it again. Plus for imports and Aussie players it’s not actually such a big deal in the first place. If anything it’s the management and corporate side for which this was the biggest blow, being separated once again from the home fan base and having to struggle to find more sponsorship cash amidst tiny gate receipts. This team played ‘home’ games in what were effectively closed-door crowds due to those ongoing matchday costs. They got around 45k cumulative attendance across their 13 homes games... 33k of that came from the Wellington and Auckland games alone. Like, we all know it’s hard for the players but damn this club has been brutalised on the financial side. Big ups to the accounts folk.
No Home Advantage
Then there’s the on-field ramifications of having to play all those games overseas. Prior to the pando, the Nix had won eight of their last nine home games (and drawn the other). Sparse returns meant that rose up to nine wins and two draws in New Zealand-hosted games before they got smoked by Central Coast Mariners a few weeks back in Wellington. In the Mark Rudan season, the Phoenix took 29 points from home games and 14 points in away games. It stands to reason that a team from a different country than all the other teams is going to have a slightly bigger home advantage and a slightly bigger away disadvantage. Well, that home advantage has not existed for two seasons outside of a pair of late-term matches in each. Last season saw a win and a draw in those games. This season saw a loss and a win.
They had away games and they had neutral venue games masquerading as home games. Of those thirteen ‘home’ games they played at eight different stadiums: WIN Stadium (4), Leichardt Oval (3), Campbelltown, Nestrata Jubilee, Central Coast Stadium, PointsBet Stadium, Sky Stadium, and Eden Park. The two grounds that they played multiple ‘home’ games at are an hour and a half’s drive apart. None of that really screams home-field advantage, does it?
At least neutral venues meant no advantage either way... but that wasn’t really the case against Sydney teams. The Nix played an away game in Kogarah vs Sydney FC and a home game in Kogarah vs Adelaide within two months of each other. Although that’s not as good as the time a few weeks back that the Nix beat Brisbane Roar at Moreton Daily Stadium in an away game a couple days before the Warriors in the NRL beat Brisbane Broncos at Moreton Daily Stadium in what for them was a home game.
Two large slices of irony pie here: one is that when the Nix finally did get back to Wellington to play the Central Coast Mariners at Sky Stadium... they lost 4-0. Granted they did ride the wave of a keen Auckland crowd a week later for a frantic 1-0 win over Western Sydney which was nice. The other irony is that there obviously must still be a benefit to playing neutrally rather than away because the Nix’s home record was actually the third best in the comp this season despite most of them not even being true home games. Won 8, drew 2, lost 3 with 19 goals scored and 20 conceded (ten of those goals were conceded in two games, a 6-0 loss to Melbourne City and that 4-0 loss to Central Coast). Their away record was a commendably middling seventh with 13 points from 13 games.
Empty Visa Spots
Between the hectic nature of relocating for another season and the precarious nature of the club’s finances, filling out the import slots in their squad proved tricky. David Ball was already under contract and Gary Hooper had agreed to return really early in preparations... but then Steven Taylor abruptly retired less than two months before the first game and made things even more awkward.
Long story short, the Nix were not able to sign any more imports before the transfer window closed. Your visa players are supposed to be among the very best in your squad but the Nix just had empty seats where Ulises Davila and Steven Taylor used to sit. David Ball and Gary Hooper were the extent of their foreigners for the first six games and Hooper ended up being injured for two of those fixtures. Related fact: the Nix only took four points from those six games and were at that stage sitting last on the table.
Then in came Gael Sandoval who scored within twenty minutes of his debut and the Nix immediately ripped off a three-game winning streak and went seven games unbeaten to completely resurrect their season. In the third of those wins we also got a debut for Scott Wootton who subsequently played all but eight minutes of the remaining 18 matches. There were your Davila and Taylor replacements. Later than the coach would have liked however no sooner had they arrived than the Wellington Phoenix began getting positive results. An instant impact. Just goes to show the handicap they were dealing with beforehand.
Having said that, Gary Hooper’s injury troubles have meant that after starting the first four games, he’s only started three more since. Dude has played fewer minutes than Callan Elliot, James McGarry, and Finn Surman. He’s missed so much time that they’ve effectively been back down to three imports for a lot of the time – and let it be known that they’re actually allowed five. There’s still an empty visa spot even now, which they didn’t use last year either.
Multiple Covid Outbreaks
Not once but twice did the club have to deal with the ‘rona sweeping through the squad. The first, occurring around the new year, was the worst outbreak and led to several postponements of games. Which kinda had a convenient twist as those were games they’d have initially had to play before Sandoval & Wootton arrived. But obviously there’s a separate toll to deal with. These are fit, healthy athletes so long-term effects were highly unlikely but if you’re having to take a week off from training and if games are being postponed then that’s going to have an effect on match fitness at the very least. There were fewer cases in the second outbreak, which mostly seemed to spread between the young fellas, though curiously one unnamed player managed to catch it twice. No luck involved there, stink bro.
Oh yeah and who can forget the back to back wins against Perth and Brisbane which assistant coach Giancarlo ‘Chief’ Italiano took charge of FTER Ufuk Talay himself got virus? That Next Man Up mentality even applied to the technical area.
All The Injuries
This is where things reached a tipping point. Dealing with all of the above was enough, but once key players started get hurt left, right, and centre we were on the verge of cursed territory. Yes, injuries are a part of the game. Can’t expect to avoid them, just one of them things. Sometimes entire seasons can be derailed by injuries. It happens. But those unlucky seasons are rare and when one arrives in conjunction with the rest of what the Nix were up against... mate, come on.
There had been little niggles all the way through as you’d expect. Sam Sutton missed the first three games. Gary Hooper had a knock or two. Oli Sail went off hurt in a loss to Sydney and then missed the next two. But it was around the mid-point of the campaign that it all began to converge. Reno Piscopo missed four games with a calf injury. Young lad Oskar van Hattum missed a month or two around the same time. Just as Piscopo neared a return, Jaushua Sotirio picked up a hamstring complaint.
However it was the ACL injury to Alex Rufer, followed by the ankle injury to Josh Laws, and then the ankle knock suffered by Clayton Lewis that really threatened to wreck things. The captain out long term. The central midfield combination that had started every single game to that point. An ever-present centre-back who was also the next best midfield option. All going down in consecutive weeks. Lewis didn’t return until the last game of the regulars while Laws and Rufer remain sidelined – Rufer likely to miss a chunk of next season too.
It doesn’t rain, it pours. So at that same time Gary Hooper’s existing injury yarns took a major set-back while this was also around the window when Oli Sail, Ben Waine, Ben Old, and Tim Payne all missed time for All Whites duty. Plus David Ball served a one-game suspension in the middle of it all for yellow card accumulation – the only suspension the Nix had all term. Ball, of course, was skipping trainings, spending his weeks in a moon-boot, and requiring pain-killers in order to play through a toe injury towards the end of the campaign.
Somehow, incredibly, in a show of resilience that reflects the entire team’s seasonal efforts, David Ball only missed two games with that busted two and they were both restings in which he could have played had it been necessary. Ball’s 23 starts out of 26 matches was matched only by Tim Payne (a rare man who avoided the injury bug) and Oli Sail. Gael Sandoval and Sam Sutton made 19/26 starts. Scott Wootton made 18 starts.
The Phoenix used 25 players this season and 19 of them made at least seven starts. Numerous different elevens, constantly having to change combinations. At one stage they even changed formations with Uffie reluctantly swapping to a back three in order to better serve the defence with a makeshift midfield ahead of them. Guys were playing out of position. Young players were thrust into the spotlight. None of which tends to serve a football team particularly well when chasing results for a finals berth. Yet here we are.
All The Hidings
It’d be a lie to say that there weren’t times when it all caught up with them, when the long list of absentees in particular was too much to overcome. Six times this team was beaten by at least four goals. That had never happened before across Ufuk Talay’s first two terms in charge yet it happened SIX times in 2021-22. Four 4-0s plus a 5-0 and a 6-0 defeat. They only lost 11 times all up and six were by 4+ goals. When things went bad they went really bad.
A lot of that was down to their tactical shortcomings. As a counter-attacking team, they struggled to play from behind when the opposition could afford to be more cautious at the back with a lead to protect. The sheer number of injuries often left them with limited options on the bench and without the personnel needed to play in a different style. Hence why they lost all 11 games in which they conceded the first goal, yet were undefeated (12 wins & 3 draws) when they scored the first goal. That whole trend was detailed more in this piece from a few weeks back, by the way.
Two of those big defeats came in the first six games when they were down on imports before Sandoval and Wootton arrived. One came almost pre-scheduled in the game when Ball was suspended, the injury bug was beginning to take hold, and three dudes were away with the All Whites. The 6-0 and 5-0 losses came consecutively at a time when the team were having to play a lot of midweek games to make up for the covid postponements of earlier. Then the other one was the Wellington homecoming.
Here are the starting XIs from the six hidings...
0-4 vs Newcastle (G4):
Sail | Elliot, Payne, Laws, McGarry | Rufer, Lewis | Piscopo, Old | Ball, Hooper
0-4 vs Adelaide (G6):
Paulsen | Elliot, Payne, Laws, McGarry | Rufer, Lewis | Ball, Old | Waine, Sotirio
0-4 vs Newcastle (G15):
Paulsen | Fenton, Wootton, Payne, McGarry | Laws, Pennington | Sutton, Sandoval | Sotirio, Hooper
0-6 vs Melbourne City (G18):
Sail | Fenton, Surman, Wootton, McGarry | Pennington, Sutton | Sandoval, Old | Ball, Waine
0-5 vs Central Coast (G19):
Sail | Elliot, Payne, Wootton, Fenton | Sutton, Pennington | Sandoval, Old | Waine, Ball
0-4 vs Central Coast (G22) :
Sail | Fenton, Surman, Wootton, Payne, McGarry | Pennington, Sandoval | Ball, Sotirio, Piscopo
There is not a single player who started all six of those games. Curiously though James McGarry did start five of them and he’s only made ten starts all up this term – half of them being hidings. Ball and Payne also started five of them but that doesn’t mean much as they start every game they’re healthy and available for.
This idea isn’t about how often the team has gotten smoked though. It’s about the resilience that they’ve shown in the face of that. Take a quick peek at all the points made in this article and think how easy it would be to allow that dark energy to seep in after each and every one of these losses. How easy it would be for heads to drop and for standards to follow them. Instead on four of the six occasions that they’ve lost by 4+ goals this Phoenix team has amazingly managed to win the very next match. Instant responses. Immediate amends. Ideally you wouldn’t be getting thrashed in the first place... but it does take something special to be able to bounce back so emphatically as often as they have. Hence why they’re preparing for a finals game right now.
Youth & Inexperience
The thing about having a bunch of players out injured is that it truly tests your depth and not that many sporting teams can handle dipping too deeply into that depth without it affecting their competitiveness. For the Phoenix, they were already in a position where they were expecting to lean on several academy graduates. Ben Waine and Sam Sutton had earned bigger roles and new contracts. Alex Paulsen and Ben Old were given pro deals before the campaign began.
Then just as they were about to fly out to Aussie, Kurtis Mogg and George Ott were added to the wider squad. And after they’d been there for a short time, Oskar van Hattum, Jackson Manuel, and Finn Surman were called over as squad as further cover. Midway through the term we saw Henry Gray added as goalkeeping depth while Riley Bidois and Luis Toomey were both eventually flown over too.
Add them to older academy grads like Louis Fenton (yes, I’m counting him), James McGarry, and Callan Elliot and this was a team with a massive homegrown contingent. Every one of those players made at least one matchday squad and many of them went a whole lot further than that. Waine is the team’s top scorer across all competitions. Ben Old took the field in all but three games. Sam Sutton has emerged as the first choice left-back. Finn Surman has impressed with a run of starts at the back. Finn Surman made his debut in the 4-0 loss to Adelaide, one week after Alex Paulsen and Oskar van Hattum had gotten ALM debuts. Jackson Manuel, George Ott, and Riley Bidois would all join them in making A-League debuts before the end of things while Kurtis Mogg got a club debut in the FFA Cup. That’s SEVEN academy grads who were blooded this season alone. Six of them in the ALM.
Add it all together and 31.8% of total minutes for the Nix in 21-22 were given to players who came through the Phoenix Academy. That’s not including guys like Alex Rufer and Oli Sail either, who played WeeNix but were signed from other senior clubs in Aotearoa rather than being developed by the Phoenix. Every single starting eleven this term had at least one academy grad in it. Every single match also featured at least one academy grad being subbed on. There was not a game in which at least four academy grads didn’t feature. There have been three occasions in which nine separate academy grads took the pitch.
Now, there is a bit of a trend that suggests the more of them that played, the worse the results. Each of the six hidings included between 3-6 academy players in the starting eleven. Those three games with nine grads involved were all defeats. The four games in which there was only one in the eleven saw two wins and two draws. You get the idea.
Those are normal areas though. Outside of the likes of Waine, Sutton, etc, if Talay was dipping that deep into the bag then it meant that key players were unavailable. Key players who’d ordinarily be starting, leading to an expected drop-off no matter who replaces them. Then the young fellas would have to come in and try to perform in an understrength team. It’s a reflection of the injuries rather than anything else.
What matters here is that rather than find some journeymen Aussies, Ufuk Talay trusted the lads that the club is producing and backed them to do a job. Obviously a team with a large chunk of guys aged 21 and under is going to struggle. So it proved. But it’s all experience gained, it’s all accelerated development, it’s all a positive reflection of a club that trusts its own coaching systems from top to bottom and is willing to put its money where its mouth is on that matter. No bluffing. Back the youth.
The fact that they were able to blood that many youngsters and still make the finals though? One more reason why this campaign was so goddamned impressive.
A Concluding Bow
There are many players who deserve huge raps for getting the team this far - no matter what happens against Western United – but the man who deserves more praise than anyone else is the coach. What Ufuk Talay has achieved here is astounding. After all, it’s the coach’s job to motivate the players from week to week. It’s the coach’s job to pick the team. It’s the coach’s job to ensure that everybody knows their role, including those having to do a job in unfamiliar positions. It’s the coach’s job to help guide and develop youth players. It’s the coach’s job to keep everyone focused on the end goal.
Great teams have strong leadership groups that spread those burdens of responsibility around. Great coaches tend to have strong assistance from the rest of their staff too. No doubt both of those things are true in this team’s case as well... but Ufuk Talay still gets headline status here. Who cares about Tony Popovic restoring Melbourne Victory to contender status. Who cares about Patrick Kisborbo leading Melbourne City to the Premiership. Who cares about Nick Montgomery and his surging Central Coast Mariners team. Nobody, repeat: nobody, has done a better job of A-League coaching than Ufuk Talay has this season. To finish sixth despite all this? No doubt about it.
If you rate the yarns on TNC, support us on Patreon so we can afford to stay alive and writing
Also whack an ad to say cheers, sign up to our most excellent Substack mailer, and tell a mate about us
Keep cool but care