That match summed up perfectly the last 499 matches as a Nix supporter. We had hope, then joy, then WTF was that? x2, then hope again, then disappointment. It was classic Nix and classic A League. Im pleased Eze is back solo as our no9. To me the Piper think never really worked. Eze stopped scoring with two attackers. Piper got in Ezes zone and despite his big heart lacks finess in front of goal. I can see what Chiefy was trying to do by shuffling his attackers. If we can the ball to Eze in the right places he will win the golden boot. So what now for the season? There are still plenty of points to play for but it seems we are still trying to integrate new players and others coming back from long injuries.
about 2 months ago· edited about 2 months ago· History
That was annoying. Felt like James looked too nervous in the build up to his attempt, despite my mates expecting the net to bulge, I wasn’t confident.
As others have said, the starting XI and subs were a bit off for me. Wasn’t overly impressed with AKH and felt McCarron despite a few wobbles had earnt the right to play. Was not happy to see retre starting and I really don’t get it with him. Just don’t see it. Was the pitch particularly boggy at the north end ? Seemed to get stuck with tuiloma for the second. Then bringing LKH was the wrong call, I actually thought we didn’t play with enough urgency in the final 10 mins. No chasing the ball for throw ins etc, passing around the back. Their keeper was shark and we didn’t even pressure him. So deflating and disappointing.
I'm beginning to get a bit tired of Chiefy's selections and while individual errors probably cost us last night I think there is a level of culpability from the coach as well. We had two goals from long balls which, while well taken, were not indicative of the game and had nothing to do with the so called 'high-press' which the chief has claimed we play! Instead of switching to something pragmatic to defend our lead and nick the win, we started bringing on defenders in places they shouldn't be and watched the whole thing fall apart. For a few weeks now the only bright spots have been players like Piper and LBS - while they might not be the finished product, they always make a difference with their directness. We don't have the quality of other sides in the competition so we need to play to our strengths. Rufer is one of the best defensive midfielders / pivots in the league - yet he is almost useless in this formation as the third Centreback takes his space. Armiento is both rapid and has a left foot, yet we consistently are too slow to get it out to him and never playing him on the run. This is last year all over again. We lose games by being not good enough and the coach doesn't want to change. You would hope that someone like Greenacre or even Iffil would set us up in a way that was reflective of our squads ability!
about 2 months ago· edited about 2 months ago· History
James should be ashamed of himself honestly. For a guy who practices pens all the time and backs himself, as a CB, to be really good at taking them and to be the one to take the team's pens, to then miss only his SECOND pen of the season with an incredibly weak effort. Perfect saving height, nowhere near the side netting, exactly where his last one went.
Not even a big occasion either, just another league game, not a final or playoff or a "must-win" game.
My overwhelming feeling after the game yesterday is that the Nix are just cursed and will never win anything, at the end of a week that saw our chances of winning a trophy in the future slashed when we were kicked out of the Australia Cup.
Even Tuiloma after only being here for a month has already put in a contender for best choke job of Nix history. Didn't take long to assimilate.
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I would also like Chiefy gone. He is absolutely useless with no real idea about football on the pitch. It's all good reading about it but the reality is on the field. His subs positioning was poorly thought out, example, why was Sheridan playing further forward than Piper? Lots of other examples but to many to write about. Please Chiefy do us all a favour and go Coach in Antarctica
about 2 months ago· edited about 2 months ago· History
I hate to be harsh on here especially with individuals, but Bill T needs to be better than that. This is a guy who has played in the top level of the game, and is established international player, we brought him in to stabilise a poor backline, provide leadership and game management..to do such a sloppy mistake not once, but twice (shortly after our second goal) he was tackled inside his own penalty area and AKH managed to save it, then whatever that was for their second goal.. we should all expect better from our senior players, and I though they were all quite poor..
Happy Birthday Chiefy. I hope you have a great day today.
Perfect playing conditions but I do wonder why they insist on over watering the pitches. 2 glaring errors both caused by slips cost us 2 goals. But there were plenty of other slips throughout the game.
Basic issues really. Just because you are up 2-0, doesn't mean you take the foot off the throat and sit back. Which we certainly did last night and have done in pretty much every game where we have gone ahead. "Winners" keep pushing forwards and try to score even more goals to build up confidence and their goals for column.
This insistance on playing across the back line and backwards passing needs to be eliminated. Every game we play like this and all we end up doing is putting ourselves under pressure and usually conceding goals. Last night, we did this so effectively, City must have spent the night thanking the football God's for they didn't offer anything at all. We did all their hard work for them.
I'd have stuck with McCaron, he hasn't really done anything wrong. I too, would have put LBS on instead of LKH. Go for gold, not shut up shop. I would have had Retreplay the DM role and Nagasawa play the AM role.
Other are right. this feels more like another home loss than a draw. We nearly stole a loss from the jaws of victory.
Positives, the "500" pictures on the big screens and on the seats over by Aisle 10. Job well done. Going to get that poster laminated for posterity. The 5 goals chosen were all good goals but I had to acknlowdge Eugene Dadi's bycycle kick and the chant "Who's your Dadi" that ensued. Also a certain Mr Elrick "Pie Man" who's 1 gol was a spectacular turn and volley from 25 yards out. Ok, he did time in an Aussie jail afterwards, but it was a great goal.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!
The Keeper was unlucky on the first goal. Sweeped out and won the ball only to see it fall kindly to the striker off the rebound.
So he didn't win the ball then?
I always assume young inexperienced keepers are going to make mistakes; I don't expect highly experienced players like James to try fancy first time volley passes in their own defensive third, which is what led to that goal. Young keepers deserve to be protected by the seasoned pros in front of them to the maximum degree. AKH was failed three times by James and Tuiloma.
you forgot that he played the first City goalscorer onside too. Tried to step up last second and got it wrong. Nixieboys222
I hate to be harsh on here especially with individuals, but Bill T needs to be better than that. This is a guy who has played in the top level of the game, and is established international player, we brought him in to stabilise a poor backline, provide leadership and game management..to do such a sloppy mistake not once, but twice (shortly after our second goal) he was tackled inside his own penalty area and AKH managed to save it, then whatever that was for their second goal.. we should all expect better from our senior players, and I though they were all quite poor..
The Keeper was unlucky on the first goal. Sweeped out and won the ball only to see it fall kindly to the striker off the rebound.
So he didn't win the ball then?
Give the guy a break, it was a 50/50, it was his first game after what, 10 month? He was let down multiple times by our senior defenders. AKH was the least of our problems, the coach is biggest the problem. We got two lucky goals and then came out even lamer in the second half, the substitution had no impact, a moment a coach could shine. I can't see a team that enjoy their football, everything looks laboured. We play better than last season, which is a very low bar, the result are still not coming. This is full stacked team, we should have done better for the occasion. We got promised something different.
about 2 months ago· edited about 2 months ago· History
I’m coming around in the cold light of day that some of the blame I was putting on Chief needs to go on the players.
We saw a minimum of 4 errors that hurt us. Bit of an inauspicious debut from Bill, but hopefully he’s a champion and pays us back a thousandfold.
Rough on AKH. It was really only a half mistake by him. He should have been able to get away with that and have had a middling to reasonable introduction. Let down by more senior players.
The other glaring one is the penalty save. On target but.
To be fair Chief’s substitutes should have worked there, so I’ll give him a pass on that.
My questions for him will be- -Why so few shots and not really testing a team that had just conceded 6?
-McCarron?
-We need more Piper time, but how?
- We had 7 defensive players already. Why then did we need one more in Retre? And why the gap to Eze?
-how far away is Edwards? Can we expect Carlo to have a chance to operate further forward?
-what was your thinking in not attacking from the get go?
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While overall we are much better with James in defence, it makes no sense to take one's second penalty exactly the same way as the first when it is a low percentage chance. To put it so close to the middle it would need way more power or a different height. One does not even need to invoke the Panenka to point out good penalties. Instead I would tell you of Wladyslaw Stachurski, right fullback of the excellent Legia Warsaw team (1964-1974). That team was good and went as far as the 1970 Europe Cup (today known as UEFA Champions League) semifinals (lost to the eventual winners, Feyenoord) and 1971 quarterfinals (lost to Atletico Madrid). Stachurski was the nominated penalty taker for years, including the cup games, and he always placed them in the same spot: the right corner (left of the keeper), and all the opposition knew that. Yet he never missed one and never had one saved, because of his consistency. And because I saw that on a grainy black and white TV as a child, I still consider it a standard that you simply must score from a penalty. End of.
Actually, getting outplayed quite a bit these days
Doesn't Armiento take penalties? If not, why not? Maybe in training goalkeepers are unwilling to stand up to that left foot of his. I know I'd be scared.
Can we just have a go for 90 minutes. It's the A League - if you don't entertain then no-one is gonna come and watch you. Look at Newcastle. Might lose tonight against Roar but no matter what - they will attack them relentlessly.
The writing was on the wall right from the second half start - top City subs - so we decide to defend the lead - omg - is so frustrating to watch. Even worse as we now have a very good squad of players. No one will be there this Friday night again.
The league is so close, we could end up on the same points as 3 or 4 teams but miss out on a play off spot due to our poor goal difference. You'd have to wonder why they chose to sit on the lead and then only push when Melbourne equalised.
While overall we are much better with James in defence, it makes no sense to take one's second penalty exactly the same way as the first when it is a low percentage chance. To put it so close to the middle it would need way more power or a different height. One does not even need to invoke the Panenka to point out good penalties. Instead I would tell you of Wladyslaw Stachurski, right fullback of the excellent Legia Warsaw team (1964-1974). That team was good and went as far as the 1970 Europe Cup (today known as UEFA Champions League) semifinals (lost to the eventual winners, Feyenoord) and 1971 quarterfinals (lost to Atletico Madrid). Stachurski was the nominated penalty taker for years, including the cup games, and he always placed them in the same spot: the right corner (left of the keeper), and all the opposition knew that. Yet he never missed one and never had one saved, because of his consistency. And because I saw that on a grainy black and white TV as a child, I still consider it a standard that you simply must score from a penalty. End of.
Having a defender take a penalty unless they’ve been a penalty specialist their whole career is like someone doing a paneka. If they score it shuts everyone up but if they miss it looks like such a poor choice and everyone’s is going to be questioning why
Can we just have a go for 90 minutes. It's the A League - if you don't entertain then no-one is gonna come and watch you. Look at Newcastle. Might lose tonight against Roar but no matter what - they will attack them relentlessly.
The writing was on the wall right from the second half start - top City subs - so we decide to defend the lead - omg - is so frustrating to watch. Even worse as we now have a very good squad of players. No one will be there this Friday night again.
Newcastle in Natta, Grozos and others I can’t remember also have a very committed athletic defense who are all signed up to the playing style.
I agree. Collect the dam ball. Thought Alby was a bit shaky, did some good things but moment was bad.
the ball was outside the box, if he'd delayed his charge out the striker has an easier shot. He came out as you'd expect and slid into the challenge, was simply unlucky that tha ball bounced the way it did.
Game still an easy win had we put the pen away, whcih you'd expect, and not given them their second goal with a poor peace of concentration by an experienced pro.
about 2 months ago· edited about 2 months ago· History
As someone else mentioned Tuiloma not once but twice, got caught dithering on the ball. Such bad obvious errors are you suspect why he barely played as a CB in the MLS for his last 2-3 seasons there.
Hopefully he doesn't do it again for the Nix. But at a higher level for the AWs I think he is that backup RB to Payne. He doesn't play as a CB at a World Cup. BT offers more from an attacking point of view, than defensive. 20 mins off the bench, esp if the AWs are chasing a goal.
Phil Neal was a defender and penalty taker. i think he only missed 3 in his entire career.
You can't create chances by sitting back and waiting for an opportunity that might not come along. You have to go forward and create them. Make things happen.
Eze was my player of the match. Not just the 2 goals but he chased around most of the game trying to put pressure on the opposition players.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!
Head coach Giancarlo Italiano says five minutes of “brain fade” cost his Wellington Phoenix side in their 2-2 draw against Melbourne City.
“I don’t know what to make of that game, to be honest,” Italiano told the media after the men’s A-League match at Sky Stadium.
“I’m disappointed. I feel as though if we play that game 20 times, that won’t be the result.
“It’s just a bit of a brain fade for about five minutes. The first goal we conceded, I was getting the subs ready, I turn around [and] even the bounce off Alby [Kelly-Heald] when he clears it goes straight to them.
“The second goal was just comical. I’m not going to sit here and blame anyone for it. Bill [Tuiloma] got caught in possession, but I thought he was outstanding for the rest of the game.
“I thought with the ball he gave us a different dimension, especially in the first half under pressure.”
The Wellington Phoenix’s 500th Isuzu UTE A-League match ended 2-2, as the club’s first game did back in 2007.
Melbourne City scored twice in a five-minute period midway through the second half after the Phoenix held a two-nil lead thanks to a brace from Ifeanyi Eze, who has moved, at least temporarily, to the top of the Golden Boot standings.
Manjrekar James had a chance to win the match for the Nix in stoppage time but his penalty was saved.
Besides the penalty, Wellington had other opportunities to win the match.
“Once we conceded to go two all, we started playing again, and that was the frustrating part,” Italiano said.
“I think City were really happy to get the point and just hit us on the counter, and all of a sudden spaces opened up and we endeavoured to move forward.
“We made a chance, in the end, missed a penalty. But the penalty isn’t the reason we ended up drawing, it was that five minutes where we should have just done a little bit better.”
Can we just have a go for 90 minutes. It's the A League - if you don't entertain then no-one is gonna come and watch you. Look at Newcastle. Might lose tonight against Roar but no matter what - they will attack them relentlessly.
The writing was on the wall right from the second half start - top City subs - so we decide to defend the lead - omg - is so frustrating to watch. Even worse as we now have a very good squad of players. No one will be there this Friday night again.
I agree totally. We are serving up dull backward passing dross in a league with no relegation.
If you go backwarsa sometimes,that fine, but then you have to transition into an outright attack. We never did, I think we almost always gave it away in the middle, hooked in the very general direction of Eze who had 4 people to beat to the ball.
It looks to me like they have no idea how to build an attack unless it starts from the centre half or goalie. That's not football. The opposition love all that.
I won't be watching anymore if it continues ,and I've seen almost all of those 250 home games.
Can we just have a go for 90 minutes. It's the A League - if you don't entertain then no-one is gonna come and watch you. Look at Newcastle. Might lose tonight against Roar but no matter what - they will attack them relentlessly.
The writing was on the wall right from the second half start - top City subs - so we decide to defend the lead - omg - is so frustrating to watch. Even worse as we now have a very good squad of players. No one will be there this Friday night again.
I agree totally. We are serving up dull backward passing dross in a league with no relegation.
If you go backwarsa sometimes,that fine, but then you have to transition into an outright attack. We never did, I think we almost always gave it away in the middle, hooked in the very general direction of Eze who had 4 people to beat to the ball.
It looks to me like they have no idea how to build an attack unless it starts from the centre half or goalie. That's not football. The opposition love all that.
I won't be watching anymore if it continues ,and I've seen almost all of those 250 home games.
In our defense Armiento got absolutely locked down. But we should have had an extra player through the centre.
about 2 months ago· edited about 2 months ago· History
coochiee
As someone else mentioned Tuiloma not once but twice, got caught dithering on the ball. Such bad obvious errors are you suspect why he barely played as a CB in the MLS for his last 2-3 seasons there.
Hopefully he doesn't do it again for the Nix. But at a higher level for the AWs I think he is that backup RB to Payne. He doesn't play as a CB at a World Cup. BT offers more from an attacking point of view, than defensive. 20 mins off the bench, esp if the AWs are chasing a goal.
And someone brought up that he tried to step up on the first goal, where if he’d turned and run back maybe he’d have been able to cover. Nowhere to hide in this league.
Be interesting to see Bill at RB/RWB and Payne as a CB.
The Keeper was unlucky on the first goal. Sweeped out and won the ball only to see it fall kindly to the striker off the rebound.
So he didn't win the ball then?
Give the guy a break, it was a 50/50, it was his first game after what, 10 month? He was let down multiple times by our senior defenders. AKH was the least of our problems, the coach is biggest the problem. We got two lucky goals and then came out even lamer in the second half, the substitution had no impact, a moment a coach could shine. I can't see a team that enjoy their football, everything looks laboured. We play better than last season, which is a very low bar, the result are still not coming. This is full stacked team, we should have done better for the occasion. We got promised something different.
Yeah pretty wild to blame him for that, guy has beaten the offside line and he reacts well to get out to it only for a very fotunate double deflection to land right in the city player's path.
Bill needs to wake the fudge up, he was almost caught out a couple of times and seemed completely unbother by the man chasing the ball down to the point I could see it happening before it did
I bet Sander Kartum could also take a penalty. Would keep the goalie guessing.
Agree but unless a player steps up demanding to take it do you really have confidence in them taking it. Everyone is bagging James for missing but bet there would be a few who were okay given the way he put his last one away.
Professional football penalty taking is almost all about mentality, I've never got any issues with defenders being the penalty takers, I always assume it means they have proven themselves in training and the coach and senior players have got their back to get it done. Lauren was the peno taker for Arsenal's invincibles most of the time, ahead of the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira etc, and had a very impressive %. As soon you miss though, everything always gets questioned, only natural, particularly a decisive one in the final minutes.
We kept City to 0 shots in that first half and maybe 1 touch in our box.
Excellent setup from Chiefy.
The one touch interplay to play through City in that first half was great. Retre was decent as a 10, dependable first touch and passing. The subs City brought on are quality players, one of their visa signings and someone trying to get into a WC Socceroos squad (with a lot of pace). After scoring our 2nd goal collectively the team possibly didn't deal with the intensity of City trying to force their way back into the match that well, resulting in the errors - this is possibly a good learning moment for some to be aware of teams' chasing a game and be a bit stronger mentally.
With the subs, I can see what Chiefy was wanting - Mileusnic up front for balls into the channels behind City's attacking fbs (which he did well there), Piper was probably put on the right for his physical ability to get up and down (and possibly better match the intensity of Behich), Sheridan came on for Narjjarine to offer a better presser in the front third next to Kartoum who had come on for Retre, and LKH a direct swap for Kazu.
At the point for LKH coming on there was an option to shifting Sheridan back and bring on LBS instead of LKH. Even with LKH on, Sheridan could have also gone to RWB at some point and had Piper up front and switched to a 352. As it turned out we finished the game strongly and LKH was decent in midfield (I think possibly a position best suited to his characteristics).
AKH did ok mostly, decent coming for crosses and controlled his space well for a lot of the long balls City played. The first goal, perfectly he would have knocked the ball sideways but was a little unfortunate the way the ball rebounded for Younis, the 2nd goal if he had pushed the ball wide then there would have been no chance for the City player to follow up - that was disappointing though definitely Tuiloma's fault.
