Coach eyes ‘fairytale’ final series
Allowing himself to dream, Wellington Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano says a match-up with Sydney FC and mentor Ufuk Talay would be his “fairytale” A-league Men grand final.
However, the first-season senior coach says the semifinal challenge against Melbourne Victory that has fallen to his side will be formidable, not least because of Wellington’s woeful record at AAMI Park.
In 36 visits to the Melbourne ground, the Phoenix have picked up just three wins.
Their 37th trip will come on Sunday in the first leg of a home-andaway duel with Tony Popovic’s side that will decide whether Wellington reach their first grand final.
“Going to AAMI Park is going to be a real test because we never win there,” Italiano told AAP.
“Haven’t won there in such a long time that it’s almost like a mindset thing, it’s almost like a hoodoo, right?
“But you have to break those hoodoos in order to be a champion team.
“That’s one thing I always tell our players — you need to look forward to the challenges.”
Wellington haven’t won at AAMI Park for more than seven years, a bleak 20-game run that includes two finals and a 16-day spell in 2022 when they lost to all three Melbourne-based clubs there.
Wellington’s last goalscorer in an AAMI Park win was Shane Smeltz — now 42.
“Victory will be a tough game,” Italiano said, speaking before Popovic’s side emerged from their elimination final via a penalty shootout triumph over Melbourne City.
“They are formidable.” Wellington have had the last week off, during which time the Central Coast Mariners played their catch-up game against Adelaide United and sealed the premiership with a 2-0 win.
That result consigned Wellington to second place.
Despite holding out little hope of claiming the Premiers’ Plate, the Phoenix gathered together to watch the Mariners-adelaide clash on the off-chance it ended the club’s trophy drought.
“The boys understood once we lost at Mariners a while back that our destiny wasn’t in our own hands,” Italiano said.
On Friday, they had an intra-club match to maintain conditioning, with star forward Oskar Zawada playing 45 minutes as he charts a course to full fitness.
Italiano, Talay’s assistant coach for four years before succeeding him in Wellington last year, has emerged as an exciting prospect in his first season in charge.
As he waited to learn his elimination final opponents, Italiano suggested a match-up with his former boss on the last day of the season would be his dream.
“There’s a part of me that, if we believe in fairytales, would love to play Sydney FC in a grand final,” he said.
“That would be great. It would be in Wellington and it’d be crowning.
“I’d love to win, but there’s a part of me that wouldn’t be upset either if he won — he deserves it as well.”
● Victory will be without influential midfielder Zine´ dine Machach for the semifinal series against the Phoenix.
Machach has been given a twogame ban after being sent off in their win over Melbourne City at the weekend. The Frenchman was given a straight red card for violent conduct in the 37th minute of the first round play-off game, after kicking out at City winger Leo Natel.
The A-league Match Review Panel (MRP) concluded Machach had committed the offence of “assault on a player (e.g. violent conduct when not challenging for the ball) or against any other person other than a Match Official, including an attempted assault”.
The 28-year-old French national has scored seven goals so far this season and is also near the top of the league’s assist category.