R12 vs Western United | Sat 28th Dec | 7.00pm | SS7

Fire up! Enjoy the game those who are going

happy whacking day everyone COYN

Has the matchday squad been announced yet? 

If we win, Rudas will claim that he, Mark the great, build the club to that moment, beating himself, so in a sense it’s a win.

Referee: Shaun Evans

Assistant Referee 1: Anton Shchetinin

Assistant Referee 2: George Lakrindis

Fourth Official: Kate Jacewicz

VAR: Craig Zetter

Western United FC squad: 1.Filip KURTO (GK), 2.Aaron CALVER, 3.Brendan HAMILL, 4.Andrew DURANTE, 5.Dylan PIERIAS, 6.Connor CHAPMAN, 7. Valentino YUEL 8.Panagiotis KONE, 9.Apostolos STAMATELOPOULOS, 10.Scott McDONALD, 11.Connor PAIN, 12.Dario JERTEC, 13.Ivan VUJICA, 14.Max BURGESS, 15.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, 18.Besart BERISHA, 22.Ersan GULUM, 23.Alessandro DIAMANTI (c), 27, Jerry SKOTADIS, 30.Ryan SCOTT (GK)

*2-4 to be omitted*

Ins: 6.Connor CHAPMAN (promoted), 10.Scott McDONALD (promoted), 13.Ivan VUJICA (promoted)

Outs:

Unavailable: 19.Josh RISDON (injury), 20.James DELIANOV (gk) (knee – season)

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Stefan MARINOVIC (gk), 2.Liam McGING, 3.Luke DEVERE, 4.Te Atawhai HUDSON-WIHONGI, 5.Matti STEINMANN, 6.Tim PAYNE, 7.Reno PISCOPO, 8.Cameron DEVLIN, 9.David BALL, 10.Ulises DAVILA, 11.Jaushua SOTIRIO, 13.Liberato CACACE, 14.Alex RUFER, 20.Oliver SAIL (gk), 21.Callum MCCOWATT, 23.Walter SCOTT, 27.Steven TAYLOR (c), 31.Ben WAINE, 32.Sam SUTTON, 88. Gary HOOPER

**2-4 to be omitted**

Ins: 14.Alex RUFER (return from injury), 23.Walter SCOTT (promoted)

Outs: Nil

Unavailable: 16.Louis FENTON (shoulder - season)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/118399230/its-a-sign-of-respect-phoenix-youngster-liberato-cacace-now-a-marked-man

"Rudes wanted us controlling teams without the ball but Uffie wants us controlling teams with the ball. It's two different structures."

in Melbourne watching the cricket, left at lunchtime currently on the train to Ballarat, surely it can’t be anymore disappointing than the cricket. Who else is going??

If it’s that bad I’ll be leaving before half time to ensure I get the early train back to Melbourne, won’t be waiting around 2 hours for the next one!

It’s about 30° in Melbourne, I don’t want to guess what the temperature is going to be in Ballarat, this train ride is quite interesting seems to be a case of build a train station and people will come...

I don't think it matters if we lose this game, as we have matches against Jets and CCM coming up we can get back into the top 6.

We don't want to lose this game. The performances of late don't deserve us to lose to this plastic mob. Play how they have been and we should win this. 

it’s hot. Have taken refuge at the north Ballarat sports club

Wasn't Mcdonald on his way out? If so I hope he just jogs around for 75 minutes today until Rudes realised what's going on and takes him off..

Their midfield and defense looks very exploitable but gotta be careful about their attack as long we can contain Diamanti can’t see them doing much

Berisha is always dangerous.

Good group of Phoenix supporters it looks like on the TV. At the top of the screen in our defensive half. Excellent stuff!

Pitch looks very hard even though it has been watered before KO. 

Hamill looks like he's done a left knee and he was gesturing at the state of the pitch too by the looks...

That's a red card

Absolute red!  Has to be

not even a yellow 

no card?

so swinging arm to the back of head are legal?!?!?

OK, what do I know, silly me for thinking you can't throw a swinging arm to the back of someone's head in the a-league. My bad

I don't know how that wasn't looked at? Ran in and actually raised the forearm at the last second, making contact with the side of Ball's head. Definitely wasn't unintentional or accidental as he had time to pull out, but inexcusably raises the forearm. 

Dog shot that was, should be back in the changing rooms...

Skotadis should be off

McCowatt has been really poor; needs to bulk up a bit, gets bumped off the ball so easily

WU the dirtiest team in the league; created in the image of their coach

One red and two yellows so  far for Skotadis

sooner or later there will be a send off

Great effort by Ball, realising how slow Dura is 

What a goal, what play

oh yess!!!

I call that Devine justice

Great win by Devlin before that (again) too, after a great tackle on Burgess

The most pleasing thing so far for mine is that it's 30 odd degrees and we look a step ahead of these guys. 

And finally some reward. Great play Davila! Player of the season so far, Ball deserved that for his hard running a excellent work rate too!

I love everything about that goal. Devlin with the tackle and release, da vila with magic and Ball finishing

Devlin's tackling has been unreal...so good

Fantastic from Davila, but I love the little half step back into the pocket from Ball to create the space from the defenders. 

Devlin is going to be a huge miss when he inevitably gets picked by the U23s

McCowatt losing his man constantly, getting bodied, he needs to step up