Milestone match for Durante
At a glance
As a general rule, sportspeople don’t enjoy getting stopped in the street by fans.
But Wellington Phoenix captain Andrew Durante has welcomed it at the early stages of this season as it marks a change from the fan apathy which slowly developed over the past few seasons.
‘‘I’ve been here a long time, I sense the buzz is back,’’ Durante said yesterday as he prepares to run out for his 250th game in Phoenix colours today.
‘‘People are really optimistic about what we can achieve this year. People are starting to come up to you again on the street and say ‘good luck, you guys are doing great, we’re proud of you’. That hasn’t happened for a little while. It’s nice, it makes a difference for us as well and hopefully we can keep making people proud and stay at the top of the ladder.’’
That buzz even extended to a neighbour’s child showing up on Durante’s doorstep on Wednesday for Halloween trick-or-treating as Andrew Durante, wearing full Phoenix kit complete with a fake beard similar to the one Durante has sported during his career.
Durante, like many in the squad What: A-League, round three
Where and when: Westpac Stadium, Wellington, today 7.35pm
TAB: Wellington $2.50, Western Sydney $2.50, draw $3.50
Phoenix: Filip Kurto, Mandi, Ryan Lowry, Dylan Fox, Mitch Nichols, Nathan Burns, David Williams, Liberato Cacace, Alex Rufer, Michal Kopzcynski, Louis Fenton, Sarpreet Singh, Tom Doyle, Oliver Sail, Roy Krishna, Andrew Durante (c), Max Burgess, Steven Taylor
Wanderers: Danijel Nizic, Josh Risdon, Brendan Hamill (c), Nick Fitzgerald, Jordan O’Doherty, Oriol Riera, Alex Baumjohann, Bruce Kamau, Ruon Tongyik, Tass Mourdoukouas, Jaushua Sotirio, Keanu Baccus, Vedran Janjetovic, Tarek Elrich, Rashid Mahazi, Raul Llorente, Roly Bonevacia, Abraham Majok
returning from last season’s horror show, appears revitalised under new coach Mark Rudan.
The 36-year-old’s contract this season included work in the commercial side of the club.
It was expected his playing minutes might be limited, with young centre back Dylan Fox coming to prominence last season, but Durante has won his spot in the centre of three centre backs, alongside Steven Taylor and Tom Doyle.
‘‘I’m really used to it, the All Whites played it a lot and that was my position in the All Whites, in the middle of a three, especially when Winston Reid wasn’t around,’’ Durante said.
‘‘It’s a position where you need to be a really strong organiser, and I guess that’s where my strengths come into it.
‘‘I think you’ve seen from the first two games how organised we have been, how vocal our backline has been and the two holding midfielders.
‘‘I think we’ve been extremely well drilled and stuck to the gameplan extremely well defensively.’’
Today’s match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington against the Western Sydney Wanderers will be Durante’s 290th in the A-League after starting his career with 40 matches for the Newcastle Jets.
With his place seemingly secure and his body holding up well, Durante looks odds-on to become the first player to reach 300 A-League caps.
Rudan was able to name an unchanged squad for the third time in a row to start the season, but said they might ‘‘try something a little bit different’’ against the Wanderers.
Australian media reported during the week the Phoenix had failed in an attempt to sign former Italy star Giuseppe Rossi, but Rudan said there was ‘‘nothing to talk about there, it’s done and dusted’’.
Wanderers assistant coach Jean-Paul de Marigny will be patrolling the sideline today with head coach Markus Babbel suspended after he was sent off for protesting a decision in last week’s Sydney derby.
De Marigny was in the running to be the next Phoenix coach at the end of last season when he was a Melbourne Victory assistant, but the club ended talks with him after he was suspended for four matches following an on-field clash with Sydney FC player David Carney during the finals series. The ban was served during the FFA Cup.