Phoenix ride their luck
Mark Rudan has become the first Wellington Phoenix coach to win his first game in charge.
His side’s gritty 2-1 win over the Newcastle Jets at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Sunday was also the club’s first opening day win since October 6, 2012.
It came with slices of good and bad luck.
Their first goal was off the head of Newcastle defender Daniel Georgievski in the first half, while they had a second-half goal ruled out after the intervention of the Video Assistant Referee. The VAR then intervened again to help them win a 90th-minute penalty, which Roy Krishna eventually scored.
Rudan made a couple of bold selection decisions, starting with Polish import midfielder Michal Kopczynski not making the matchday 16, instead playing 90 minutes for the reserves in the curtain-raiser.
Alex Rufer was preferred as Mandi’s central midfield partner, keeping Mitch Nichols on the bench, where he was joined by Nathan Burns.
Sarpreet Singh, David Williams and Krishna operated as a front three, while Liberato Cacace, Tom Doyle, Andrew Durante, Steven Taylor and Louis Fenton played in a relatively flat back five.
From that setup, the Phoenix looked to defend stoutly and get the ball forward as quickly as possible in behind the Newcastle defence.
The first half wasn’t pretty, but the Phoenix provided some genuinely entertaining moments for the 9174 in attendance during the second half.
Goalkeeping was a big weakness for the Phoenix last season, but they appear to have a safe custodian in Filip Kurto, who looked assured throughout and produced a great save in the 68th minute to tip a header onto his own crossbar.
Krishna stepped up for a late penalty, having his initial effort saved by Moss before tapping home the follow up in the 90th minute to secure the win. The goal helped Krishna equal Paul Ifill’s record as the leading scorer for the club with 33.