Rudan rues cup loss
Sky Mark Rudan is disappointed his side will miss out on another quality pre-season match.
But that was as far as the Wellington Phoenix’s coach’s disappointment stretched after losing 1-0 to Victorian National Premier League team Bentleigh Greens in the FFA Cup round of 32 on Tuesday night.
‘‘I wasn’t as disappointed as you may think I was,’’ he said.
‘‘The result, perhaps, was disappointing, but some of the things we’ve been working on looked OK. Other stuff didn’t look OK, that’s where we’re at at the moment. It’s fairly early in terms of our development.’’
A win would have meant a round of 16 tie in Australia at the end of August, with expenses paid by Football Federation Australia.
That could have been leveraged into another camp, like the 10-day one on the Gold Coast in the leadup to Tuesday’s loss, and more games against quality opposition.
Instead, the Phoenix will have to fund their own trip to Australia and organise their own friendlies if they want more quality games before the season starts on October 21.
‘‘The only disappointing thing for us is we don’t get another strong game now.
‘‘If you wanted to get something out of the game there were two things: the ability to get another solid game and no injuries. It becomes a bit of a long grind now in pre-season, so that’s where we’re at.’’
Rudan said they did have further matches planned in Australia before the season begins.
‘‘We’d like to come back over here and play some solid games. It’s difficult back home to get those games.’’
Options for friendlies in New Zealand are limited.
At this stage, that is restricted to playing club sides in the middle of their winter seasons, with national league teams not starting pre-season until late August at the earliest. Even then, those national league teams will be some way off their best.
The Phoenix have beaten Miramar Rangers and Wairarapa United – two mid-table Central League teams.
They would likely get a sterner test from import-laden leaders Napier City Rovers or Western Suburbs, with the latter into the semifinals of the Chatham Cup. Wests drew 0-0 with the Phoenix last pre-season in a match they dominated.
As for Tuesday’s match, Bentleigh played 57 minutes with 10 men after Ryan Kelly was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 33rd minute, but the Phoenix never really looked like breaking their less-fancied opponents down at any point.
Rudan said they had done little work on the final third in pre-season so far.
‘‘Certainly in terms of where we want to be and where we want to get to in that final third, we haven’t touched that area. There were a couple of things that I wanted in the second half because they were a man down and I was expecting a bit more from that.
‘‘The boys are extremely tired, it was a really hard 10 days on the Gold Coast and I wanted to test them under fatigue. We’re certainly nowhere near where we need to be at this stage of the season.’’
Rudan bristled at a question from a journalist post-match about whether it was embarrassing for the club to lose to an NPL team.
‘‘Embarrassment? Why? So what, it’s not the first time an NPL club has beaten an A-league side,’’ Rudan said in reference to losses sustained by the Central Coast Mariners (2016 and 2017), Perth Glory (2017), Adelaide United (2016) and Western Sydney Wanderers (2014) to NPL teams in the past.
Those teams failed to finish higher than eighth in their subsequent A-league seasons after the losses.