Home sweet home beckons for Phoenix
The most unfashionable Wellington Phoenix team in history is poised to become the hottest ticket in town.
Sans superstars, the A-League men leaders tackle second-placed Central Coast Mariners in Gosford today, seeking a result which would keep them on track to claim the Premier’s Plate and a massive home advantage come finals time.
The Phoenix have not hosted a home playoff match since the 2014/15 season, but with four rounds left in the regular season, that streak is set to end - with the biggest carrot being dangled tantalisingly close to their collective noses a Grand Final in the capital.
Being three points clear at the top of the table after 23 matches is a position even the most ardent Yellow Fever member would have struggled to envisage when unheralded Giancarlo Italiano took over the coaching reins from Ufuk Talay at the end of last season.
It’s a successful 2023/24 league campaign to date which has its firm foundations built on a straight-back-and-sides approach.
There’s no flash about the likes of defenders Scott Wootton, Finn Surman, Tim Payne and Lukas Kelly-Heald. Sensible haircuts sit atop a combined no-nonsense approach to restricting the opposition while the quartet are also still comfortable on the ball, playing out from the back.
In conceding only 23 goals from as many games to date, the defensive improvement under Italiano and assistant coach Adam Griffiths has set the basis for their title challenge.
The Phoenix conceded 45 goals in the 2022/23 regular season, in which they qualified for the finals series in sixth spot, and were eliminated in the first weekend after a 2-0 away loss to Adelaide United.
Only two teams have scored less than the current league leaders this season - and those sides are second-to-bottom and
There’s no flash about the likes of defenders Scott Wootton, Finn Surman, Tim Payne and Lukas Kelly-Heald. Sensible haircuts sit atop a combined no-nonsense approach to restricting the opposition.
bottom. But their ability to deny opposing attacks mean the Phoenix still have the second-best goal difference.
The defending champions and today’s opponents are the only side which can realistically overhaul them for the Premier’s Plate.
But even a top-two spot would give Italiano’s troops the first weekend of the finals series off - the team will have their fate in their own boots with regular season games still to come versus the 3rd-placed Melbourne Victory and 5th-placed Macarthur - while also leaving them needing simply a win in the two-leg home and away semifinal to send them into the Grand Final.
Winning the regular season provides the added bonus of hosting the final, should the Phoenix reach it. Saturday May 18 has been pencilled in by the club for a potential semifinal second leg at Sky Stadium, and May 25 for the Grand Final. A win or a draw in Gosford would take them a long way to achieving that goal, but they will have to do without captain Alex Rufer, who was given a one-match suspension after his red card in last Sunday’s win over Brisbane.
Such setbacks have rarely rattled Wellington this season. They’ve got just 535 minutes on the park from standout striker Oskar Zawada in this campaign - who netted 15 times last season - and is likely to stay sidelined by a thigh injury.
The club has had a string of more high-profile coaching appointments than Italiano - Ricki Herbert, Ernie Merrick, Marko Rudan and Talay have all come and gone without producing the rewards they were expected to bring.
Maybe only ‘homegrown’ youngster Ben Old provides the promise of excitement that came from imports Paul Ifill, Carlos Hernandez and Roly Bonevacia over the past 17 years.
But Wirral-born Wootton, Costa Rican midfielder Youstin Salas and long-term imported frontman David Ball exemplify what Italiano has transformed the side into - a hard-working, hard-to-beat but easy-toadmire unit which sits on the cusp of history.