Mo limping a bit too, might be just tired. Rufer had almost the complete game tonight. His leadership in that midfield is an essential ingredient to this team. We are lucky to have such a work horse and one that has good vision with his passing game. And he nearly scored a cracker of an attempt.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!
Who’s Perth’s coach? Surely there’s a better team in there with Williams, Sail, Pennington and Taggart than what we’re seeing in these first two games.
Bit rough he wasnt on for that long and Chief has said he is still working to get fully match fit.
Fair enough. He’s been talked up, but today wasn’t the day he showed why.
Thought maybe we could have done a bit better with counters while they were all in, but job done. Better than previous seasons.
That second half performance I could never relax because we didn't seem totally comfortable. Our composure playing out was poor compared to last season, Oluwayemi not showing the same confidence as Paulsen playing out yet.
Very nice, surprised there weren't more yellows tbh (and that none of our guys died) seeing as they were fouling us so much. Felt like they were overcompensating after last week.
We started a bit slow but it felt like we were in control from about mid way through the first half.
2 set pieces in 2 games from Ishige that have lead to a goal - great to see.
And I can't believe how much space Payne had for his goal, how did no defender pick him up!
Rufer's shot in the 2nd half was so calm and composed, would've been brilliant if it went in - and would've been well deserved considering how great he was all game. Can't overstate just how important he is for us
We started a bit slow but it felt like we were in control from about mid way through the first half.
2 set pieces in 2 games from Ishige that have lead to a goal - great to see.
And I can't believe how much space Payne had for his goal, how did no defender pick him up!
Rufer's shot in the 2nd half was so calm and composed, would've been brilliant if it went in - and would've been well deserved considering how great he was all game. Can't overstate just how important he is for us
The marking for Payne's goal shows you why Hamzaoui was playing 3rd tier in Belgium before joining the Glory this season. Bloke had absolutely no idea where his man was.
Glory weren't good but we made clear progress on last week.
First 10 aside, which we took to figure out their press, we looked comfortable and in control of that, in and out of possession - that 2 weeks in a row where our goal has barely been threatened, the most dangerous Perth attacks were shanked crosses that Olu was all over.
Speaking of, I though he had a better showing last night, came for more ball and caught some in traffic and wasn't caught out with his feet at all, even if there were a few stray passes. Untested by shots, but awake to the crosses. He could be a very good signing.
You wouldn't know Sheridan and Hughes have less than a season of first team football between them, the CB conveyor belt is alive and well.
Sutton was good, if a understandably a little rusty and he and Payne caused headaches once we started playing around their press. The midfield 3 were also good, Conchies best game in a Nix shirt and Nagasawa starting to look more fluid. Chief must wake up every morning pinching himself that Alex Rufer is a Phoenix player.
Good shifts Barba and Ishige. Not working just yet but it's coming and we'll only get better from here.
None of the subs embarrassed themselves either. Roll on next week.
I thought it should've been 4 or 5 after the subs came on and I think later in the season it would've been.
Thought we dominated aside from the first ten mins or so. Conchie really impressive, Sutton too - had a shaky start but really grew into the game. I thought Olu had a better game too, came and claimed a few tough ones. I still think he's a little too passive though.
Ishige and Nagasawa were quite up and down I thought. Nothing was really coming off for Ishige until the set piece and some of Nagasawas passes weren't quite finding their mark. I can see what they could be if they put it together though, and their baseline work ethic is good. We will need more out of both quality wise going forward.
Rufer far and away our best player and it looks like he's done his knee, was in a lot of pain on the ground after the game - any word on this?
Had a busy day with my boys birthday yesterday so football took a backseat.
Good to see we won though, and from reading through here we were well ahead of Perth. Will watch the replay a bit later on today when I get time, but it's fantastic to hear our young lads are doing the business early on as well.
If anything, it sets us up well for the derby next week though. Really didn't want to head in to that game on the back of a 0-2-0 or 0-1-1 record. Probably going to give the ticket sales another boost too!
Rufer said in the post match interview that he was fine and just got a kick late on. Could've been putting on a brave face
Hope so mate as it definitely didn't look like that on the footage
Rufer is key to us doing anything this season. I've never seen a player progress like he has. I remember when he first came in and everyone questioned what he brought to the team. Now he's a legit playmaking DM and absolutely the heart of the team.
Agree about Rufer, he's grown to be one of the best players in the league.
Fantastic result! Super happy with 2 goals and a clean sheet. I feel a lot more excited about the derby now, knowing we can attack and play better football to what we've seen in RD1, bring it on!
I remember when Matt Ridenton was very clearly the better midfield prospect, it's a shame what happened to him. Good on Alex for becoming far greater than most of us thought he would be.
Remember when they made him trial for the club? Was it when Ufi arrived?valeo
Nelfoos
Rufer said in the post match interview that he was fine and just got a kick late on. Could've been putting on a brave face
Hope so mate as it definitely didn't look like that on the footage
Rufer is key to us doing anything this season. I've never seen a player progress like he has. I remember when he first came in and everyone questioned what he brought to the team. Now he's a legit playmaking DM and absolutely the heart of the team.
I can't believe I haven't seen Walker mentioned in this thread yet! I loved the energy he brought into the match and he had a particularly great run up the side at one point that could have resulted in a goal.
Reading some of the comments, maybe I should re-watch it cause at the time I thought we looked better after our subs. While I thought our starting team played a lot better than last week, there were still a lot of passes to nobody and bits of miscommunication. I guess it's too early to have fallen into a rhythm and we will gel better with time and I'm probably just being impatient.
Also, please please please please let Rufer be okay.
Rufer trialled to earn a contract when Rudan arrived, his contract expired just as Rudan was arriving
I think it speaks volumes of late development - Kids at 18-21 are not the finished product and its dangerous to right them off.
A combination of patience, good luck etc has seen Rufer develop to be a Star in the A-league and likely first 11 player every time for a (hopefully) World Cup qualified NZ team!
Whats brilliant about this is that with the injuries we have, and the system taking time to set in with the players, Chiefy said it would take some weeks into the season for everything to completely click.
With Uffie it was often the same, and we generally seem to start slow and then get really good. It's so damn nice to start with 4 points before we've even properly got going yet
I was hoping the coverage would've stayed on the interview camera for a second or 2 longer after Rufer's full time interview just to see how he looked walking off, but unfortunately they cut away early.
I know he said he's fine and I really hope he is but he just looked like he was in a lot of pain when he was sat on the pitch at full time - although up until the whistle he appeared to be moving completely fine.
Pretty sure theprof said he was heading to this game - maybe he can provide some insight into how he was walking after the match? Rufs is usually pretty good at coming over to the fans at the end
Wtf was Hamzaoui doing on Payne's goal??? That's schoolboy defending.
Sail really is not the problem. He's got actual donkeys playing in front of him.
I couldn't believe my eyes watching it happen live. I was like "Is no one going to get that?" then ofc the goat himself got it
I think the commentators put it best, none of them were willing to take responsibility which you genuinely wouldn't expect from professionals. It really made me appreciate our defense more tbh since our guys where are fighting hard to lock up
Having re-watched the match now I've actually changed my mind. I think we looked pretty good throughout and what I was noticing was Payne making some mistakes and Kosta looking kind of frustrated (I want to believe that it's because he had been vibing with Marco until his injury and can't wait to have him back...?). Our passing was actually nowhere near as chaotic as I remembered and we had some good chances I'd forgotten about. I think my match day nerves clouded my judgment.
My favourite bits were Cola getting super amped up while watching form the bench, the numerous Hughes defensive headers and also swapping out Kosta for Piper near the end was hilarious.
Agree with QotQ. There were some very good long passages where I could see the growing influence of our two Japanese imports clearly visible, adding to our game what we did not have as much of in the past. It was interesting that both our goals were scored from headers by defenders.
And having said all that, how did Pennington miss that sitter for Perth late in the game???
Actually, getting outplayed quite a bit these days
It's very pleasing to see that in Ishige we may now have someone who can actually take a decent set piece free kick into the penalty area with the right pace and accuracy.Also some of the others younger players are actually trying out centring the ball when driving into the penalty area.I've thought this has been a weakness of our games over several years. This development, even with a shorter front line compared with past seasons ,could result in the picking up of more goals which will help us in the run-up to the finals.Excellent!! In Chief we trust.
