Rudan tips Phoenix for top six

Michael Boxall on facing Zlatan Ibrahimovic

‘‘If you keep his mouth shut then the battle is half won with him.’’

He squared off against Ibrahimovic on three occasions and had decent success, scoring the same amount of goals as the Swede – one.

‘‘He’s a truly generational player,’’ he said.

‘‘Some of the games that I watched him he scored some of the best goals you could ever see, like the overheard versus England, and then you’re up against him. He’s a fair bit older now but we were able to stop him scoring in most of the games we were up against him and I don’t think too many defenders around the world can say that.

‘‘Even though he’s old he’s still got a lot of talent and he’s still a very difficult player to mark so I’m not too disappointed he’s moved on.’’

Boxall said Ibrahimovic is the ultimate confidence player who loves to get under the skin of his opponents.

‘‘If you get into him and get him off his game – because he likes to try and bully other players – so if you stop him from doing that then he’s got no foot to stand on when it comes to talking s... and I enjoy that kind of challenge, I love getting into those types of players and if you keep his mouth shut then the battle is half won with him.’’

But while he was happy with his performances against Ibrahimovic, it was LA Galaxy who had the last laugh this season, knocking the higher seeded Minnesota out in the first round of the MLS playoffs by winning 2-1.

A massive NBA fan growing up, Boxall has enjoyed the chance to attend regular Minnesota Timberwolves

matches, his club’s owner dishing out courtside tickets to the players whenever he doesn’t attend himself.

‘‘I got to sit courtside versus LeBron when they played last year. That was pretty cool,’’ he said.

But he said the bitterly cold winter does provide its challenges, playing a game in 2018 in -15 degree temperatures, which is why he has escaped back to New Zealand for Christmas to train alongside his brother Nikko Boxall, who plays professional football for Danish second-tier club Viborg.

‘‘The MLS off-season is very long so it gives us a good five or six weeks back in New Zealand to catch up with family and get away from -10 or -15 weather. We played Atlanta at home two seasons ago in -15 and it’s not pleasant at all.

‘‘But it’s just one of those things you have to push through and I’d prefer to play in something like -5 than 35-plus in Honiara.’’

Mark Rudan has gone on the charm offensive ahead of today’s reunion with Wellington Phoenix.

The Western United coach, who left the Phoenix midway through a twoyear contract, had lauded his former club, tipping them to finish inside the top-six.

The Phoenix have improved significantly since suffering a 1-0 defeat to the third-place Western in the opening round of the A-League season and head into today’s match in Ballarat riding a six-game unbeaten streak.

Given he recommended Ufuk Talay as his successor when he controversially upped sticks to join expansion club Western, Rudan said he was pleased to see his ‘‘good friend’’ find success in his first season as a head coach.

‘‘They’re playing some good football and I’m very proud of Uffie as well,’’ Rudan said. ‘‘He’s a good friend and I helped him get the job over there, it’s important that the club is in good hands because it’s a very, very good club and they’re doing really, really well.

‘‘For me the way they’re playing now, they’re a finals contender if not a finals team and I certainly think they’ll be playing finals football at the end of the season.

‘‘There’s a lot to like about them. We understand it’s going to be a tough encounter tomorrow, it is always is. Wellington Phoenix have had a good run, they’re unbeaten in six so it’ll be tough.’’

Although Rudan said Western took confidence from their first-up result, a sole strike from Besart Berisha punishing the Phoenix in their worst performance of the season, he said both teams have evolved since then.

‘‘Of course you can. Don’t forget we’re still a new team, people tend to forget that we’ve not been in the competition for a long time, we had to put a whole squad together, a new training base and to get off with a win showed from the first ever game showed how much homework that we did, knowing what Wellington Phoenix did in preseason.

‘‘We know that Uffie has brought the Sydney FC system over to Wellington and you’ve still got to try and find solutions against that shape and they way they play, and we certainly did that, so you can take a lot away from it.’’

‘‘For me the way they’re playing now, they’re a finals contender if not a finals team.’’

Mark Rudan on the Wellington Phoenix

stay on 15, enticing a drive and an edge from a full, fast one.

Williamson looked in control, gliding, ducking and weaving, until his blood rush against Pattinson which was pouched by Paine. The intensity against the world’s best pace attack is such that slight misjudgements are punished. With that, New Zealand’s hopes nosedived.

It was tough toil for the Black Caps for whom Neil Wagner shone, taking 4-83 to give him 40 wickets from 10 test innings this year.

Australia resumed with their noses in front, and any faint New Zealand hopes of winning a first test in Melbourne in four attempts soon wafted over the Great Southern Stand. Having snared four day one wickets after winning the toss – two fewer than needed for a good day – it was always tenuous.

It got downright ugly at times, and reached a low point when Blundell was thrown the ball by Williamson after lunch with Australia 336-5. Blundell was a batsman/ offspinner in the New Zealand under-19s but gave the spin away to take up wicketkeeping.

His introduction showed how poorly Mitchell Santner had bowled, and Williamson’s continued reluctance to use his own handy offspin to quell the run rate and give the hard-toiling pacemen a rest.

Former skipper Brendon McCullum was unimpressed in the radio box. ‘‘It’s just staggering. The game is still in the balance, to me it was a submissive move [to bowl Blundell].’’

The barometer of New Zealand’s performance rose and fell with Wagner on day two when the mercury remained in the pleasant mid20s.

The lion-hearted left-armer produced something from nothing to remove Steve Smith (85) when the former skipper was odds-on to raise his fifth century in as many MCG tests.

Wagner, charging in, fired one at Smith’s nostrils and he lobbed one to Henry Nicholls who leapt and snaffled it in his fingertips, a wonderful catch.

Either side of the Blundell experiment, with Santner unable to string any kind of spell together, Head and his skipper Paine added 150 to ensure Australia couldn’t lose.

Santner’s 0-82 off 20 overs ensured he won’t play in Sydney, and extended his wicketless Australian stint to 61 overs. It also magnified the folly of leaving out Todd Astle, much better performed in first-class cricket.

The quicks didn’t really hunt as a pack on a flat surface and they were left bereft of wicket-taking options. Trent Boult was handy and occasionally hostile while Tim Southee looked down on pace before snaring three bonus wickets at the end.

Wagner, again, broke the partnership, trapping Paine (79) in front, around the wicket to New Zealand’s first DRS challenge of the innings in the 150th over.