Wellington Phoenix: two wins in a row

Wellington Phoenix impressed against Adelaiade played away from home to grab a very important win at Coopers Stadiuim. The Kiwi side played a very entertaining football to deny Adelaide United continuing in their good form in the league.

Ufuk Talay made some changes in the starting eleven, placing Reno Piscopo alongside Ulises Davila and Jaushua Sotirio behing the central striker David Ball. The usual starter Callum McCowatt made his way from the bench in the second half of the game.

Piscopo seemed a good choice since the first minute of the game, when he headed the ball to make Adelaide United’s Paul Izzo to make a wonderful save. Jaushua Sotirio was always a dangerous choice when picked up by Phoenix midfielders – he suffered a foul outside the box that was first awarded as a penalty, the call was later corrected by VAR.

Adelaide had dangerous moves in attack, especially through the full back Michael Maria. The both outstading midfielders of the Australian side – Riley McGree and James Troisi – were well marked by Nix defense and could not create much opportunities for their team.

A lively first half did not seem any of the team to find the nets – but in the second half three goals would put numbers in the scoreboard. The first goal of the match is already one of the goal of the season contenders: Adelaide United striker Nikola Mileusnic shot lobbed the Phoenix goalkeeper to find the top corner – a shot few goalkeepers in the world could prevent for finding the net – a stupendous goal to put the home side upfront.

But I did not take much for Phoenix to find an equalizer: in the first minutes after the introduction of the marquee striker Gary Hooper in place of Matti Steinmann, Jaushua Sotirio made a fantastic run and crossed to the box to find David Ball. The Englishman made no mistake to find the nets and score his first goal for Nix.

The equalizer was deserved for the Phoenix – the team played good football during the entire 90 minutes and to be down by 1-0 did not match the reality of the game.

Just minutes later of Ball levelling the score, Liberato Cacace made a fantastic run to the penalty box and was pushed by George Blackwood. The wonderkid play ended up with a penalty kick awarded to his side. Ulises Davila presented himself to take the penalty and suceeded, scoring his 5th goal in the league.

Adelaide United could not create much pressure to Phoenix to find another goal – indeed the New Zealanders were very dangerous when counter-attacking. The pace of David Ball and Jaushua Sotirio and quality of Gary Hooper introduced in the second half created much problems for the Adelaide defense.

After a very harsh start of the season with four defeats in a row, Wellington Phoenix is now three matches in a row without a defeat and left the bottom of the ladder to be just three points away from the playoff qualification zone.

Phoenix will now play their next match against Western Sydney Wanderers – a special night awaits the football fans at Eden Park in Auckland to welcome the sole full professional football team in Oceania in the most populated city in the country.