Galloway, Paracki happy with debuts
The Wellington Phoenix’s first game of the season was tailor-made for Goran Paracki.
The combative Croatian defensive midfielder was in his element in the 1-1 draw against Adelaide United on Sunday as a dour midfield struggle played out at Westpac Stadium.
The 30-year-old’s face lit up did when asked yesterday about the battle for ascendancy in the middle of the pitch.
‘‘Yeah, I like it when the game happens in the middle, when I’m constantly on the ball and constantly in some tackles. For midfielders, it was a good game.’’
The Phoenix ended up with 46.5 per cent of possession by the end of the game, which Paracki said was a stat they would ideally like to turn around.
‘‘I hope in the future we will have the ball more, like we want to play.’’
Still, there was enough in their first match under coach Darije Kalezic to suggest they should be a tough side to break down.
They have also been pretty hard on themselves, if right back Scott Galloway was anything to go by.
He was another making his Phoenix debut on Sunday after 78 A-League games for the Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners, and said it was his fault they conceded in the 10th minute to a Johan Absalonsen header.
‘‘I put my hand up for it. We worked on during the week that their wide players look to come across to the front post, that was my man to follow, he got there in front of me and there wasn’t much I could do. I’ve just got to be better there.’’
Outside of that, it was a solid start for Galloway in Wellington.
He got up and down the right flank well and looked comfortable defending against Absalonsen, a player with 15 years’ experience in the Danish Superliga.
‘‘I was happy, but it’s the first game, there are still many things to come and a lot to improve on as well.’’
Galloway was impressed by 18-year-old goalkeeper Keegan Smith, who performed adequately in his A-League debut after beating out professionals Lewis Italiano and Oliver Sail to the starting job.
‘‘For an 18-year-old in goal playing his first A-League game I thought he did very well. He kept his head, he was vocal, credit to him completely. He pulled off an unbelievable save that kept us a point, he can hold his head proud, he did really well.’’
The Phoenix have Sydney FC away this Sunday. Another point from that game would be a top result given Sydney have lost just once since the start of last season.