Feast of goals unlikely in first leg
Despite some musings to the contrary from coach Giancarlo Italiano, all signs point to a tense low-scoring encounter when the Wellington Phoenix meet the Melbourne Victory on Sunday.
The Phoenix will be away from home in the first leg of their two-game A-League Men semifinal, and are most likely to have avoiding a defeat as their automatic setting.
Italiano said after his side’s opponents for the semifinal were settled following Victory’s penalty-shootout win over Melbourne City last Sunday that “the advantage is with the team that is more brave’’.
“At some stage either team has to go for the game. That means we can be a little more adventurous away from home, because a goal would be very important.’’
However, experienced defender Scott Wootton said previously that caution was likely to form the basis of the approach from the visitors, who will host the second leg in Wellington on the following Saturday.
“When you play two legs, most managers and players will always say you want it to go to the wire in the second leg; you don’t want to come out gung-ho and leave yourself open and be two or three down in the first leg and have a mountain to climb in the second leg,’’ Wootton said.
“I don’t think that would be in anyone’s plans, but you’ve got to get the balance right ... you don’t want to go and completely defend ... and invite loads of pressure and you could also be two or three goals down.’’
Left back Sam Sutton said the side would treat the outing like a normal game. “The only difference being, if we go up a few goals, we can keep pushing for more.
“If we go down, we’re not going to throw the toys out of the pram. We’ve got to be smart and make sure we don’t concede any more.’’
In the two seasons since the A-League has used the two-leg semifinal system, there have been just six goals spread across the four first-leg matches.
Adding to the likely miserliness on Sunday are the results between the two sides in the regular season.
While Wellington finished 11 points above the Victory on the ladder, they drew twice with Sunday’s opponents, and scored a 1-0 win in the other fixture – with just five goals in the three games.
When the sides clashed in Mebourne in November at AAMI Park, the visitors somehow grabbed a 1-1 draw, despite failing to register a single shot on target – their goal came from a Victory own goal.
The Phoenix needed a stoppage-time penalty from captain Alex Rufer to give them a 1-1 draw at home in January, and when the two sides last met, in Wellington last month, the hosts snatched another late goal via a deflection from a Finn Surman header to give them a 1-0 win.
Melbourne Victory’s scoring threat will be partly blunted by the absence of attacking midfielder Zinedine Machach, who was handed a two-game ban following his red card in their dramatic elimination semifinal win. The Frenchman is the club’s second-highest goal-scorer this season.
At the defensive end, goalkeeper Paul Izzo was the star of that elimination final, saving a penalty in regular time and three more in the shootout after extra time. Izzo also made some brilliant stops as City lay siege to his goal.
The Phoenix attack should, however, benefit from key striker Oskar Zawada drawing closer to full fitness.
The Polish frontman made an unexpected return recently from a thigh injury that had been expected to be season-ending, and has been used as a late substitute so far, netting a penalty in their final home appearance of the regular season.
Italiano is likely to decide today whether Zawada may play a bigger part in Sunday’s first leg.