Final execution costs Phoenix
The introduction of marquee striker Gary Hooper cannot come soon enough.
Wellington Phoenix created enough chances to beat A-League champions Sydney FC but came away with nothing from a hugely encouraging performance at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday night.
The Sky Blues claimed a 2-1 win after scoring twice from setpiece but really it was only a moment of brilliance from returning Socceroos defender Rhyan Grant that separated the two sides.
Grant, who missed Sydney’s season opener as he was on international duty, popped up with the match-winner with 13 minutes to go by flicking a Brandon O’Neill free-kick above Stefan Marinovic’s reach. The ball clipped the underside of the crossbar on its way in.
‘‘I’m not happy about conceding goals in set-pieces but sometimes it happens, it’s part of the game,’’ Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay said.
‘‘It’s a dead ball situation, players lose focus sometimes but a dead ball situation is when you need to be most focused. For me it’s disappointing to concede that way and lose that way but it’s something we will work on.’’
But with 23 shots apiece, the Phoenix will rue their many nearmisses, even if they did finish the match with 10 players following Liberato Cacace’s late brain explosion.
Cacace was sent off for an ugly lunge on Anthony Caceres in the 79th minute. The left-back caught his opponent below the knee with his studs and will now serve a one-game suspension against Perth Glory this weekend, opening the door for the inexperienced Walter Scott to debut against his former club.
‘‘Young players, they make mistakes but we all learn from our mistakes and move on.’’
Sydney were all over the Phoenix in the opening stages of the match and were deserving of their early lead. O’Neill broke the deadlock in the 17th minute when his second-chance effort took heavy deflection off David Ball and wrong-footed Marinovic following a corner-kick.
However, the Phoenix responded extremely well in Talay’s return to Sydney, where he was an assistant last season, and looked the better side for most parts.
After a lacklustre season opener against Western United last week, the unchanged Phoenix played with plenty of vigour and came close to scoring on multiple occasions. They had eight shots on target to Sydney’s seven but were let down by poor finishing and some impressive goalkeeping.
Midfielder Ulises Davila, who put in a much improved performance, found a breakthrough in the 69th minute when he shifted the ball to his left, beat his marker Luke Brattan and laced a low shot into the bottom right corner.
‘‘I thought we had them on the ropes, we equalised and obviously the send off hurt us, going down to 10 men. But I’m very proud of the boys, very proud of the performance. We came here against last season’s champions and put in a performance like that so I’m very proud,’’ Talay said.
But despite their positivity, pushing Sydney hard in search of a winner, the Phoenix were cruelly denied their first point of the season by Grant’s moment of brilliance.
The Phoenix had a shout for a penalty turned down in the second half. Cacace fell in a challenge with Ryan McGowan but the Video Assistant Referee upheld Jonathan Barreiro’s onfield decision.
Despite losing Cacace for round three, the Phoenix will be boosted by the availability of new signing Hooper, whose goalscoring record suggests he can provide the finishing touch they have missed in the opening two games.