Wellington Phoenix 2-0 Western Sydney Wanderers
by Ryan Miller Woods (30/3/24)
Above: Wellington Phoenix celebrate against Western Sydney Wanderers earlier today. Photo: stuff.co.nz
In Mackenzie Barry’s 50th appearance for the Wellington Phoenix, Wellington ended their season on a high with a 2-0 win against Western Sydney Wanderers at Porirua Park. For the Wanderers, they’ll have to rely on their cross-town rivals Sydney FC to emerge victorious against Melbourne Victory tomorrow for them to make the Finals.
In the sixth minute, Wellington had a golden opportunity to have opened the scoring via a mistimed pass by Western Sydney’s Alexia Apostolakis which Isabel Cox pounced on and advanced to be one-on-one with Sham Khamis but was unable to put the ball around the keeper.
Within the first ten minutes, the Phoenix were the ones making the opportunities and controlling the flow of the match. While Western Sydney did some things well defensively early on, there were moments where it felt like they were inviting Wellington to capitalise on one of their mistakes.
In the 17th minute, Wellington opened the scoring thanks to a beautiful first-time floated cross by Manaia Elliott to find Emma Main in the box beat Khamis with a diving header. Main’s fourth goal of the season was a deserved lead for the hosts. Surely she now has to be in contention for a call-up to the Football Ferns.
An unfortunate coming together occurred ten minutes later between Kate Taylor and Ella Buchanan saw a delay in proceedings as a result. While Buchanan was able to continue in the match relatively unscathed the same couldn’t be said for Taylor as she was substituted off the pitch in the 33rd minute which potentially could impact her spot in New Zealand’s matches against Thailand next month.
Western Sydney had their best chance of the first half just before the break via Apostolakis who crossed the ball into the box which was then knocked down by Buchanan into the path of Danika Matos whose first-time shot towards goal just went over the bar.
Early on in the second half, the Wanderers started to create more chances in attack but their failure to take any of them came back to haunt Robbie Hooker’s side.
Ten minutes into the second half, Hope Breslin provided a floated through ball for Main who was able to run onto it and outrun Wanderers defender Vicky Bruce. While Bruce tried to get into the way of Main’s eventual shot in the box, it wasn’t enough, and despite Khamis’ attempts, the ball went into the back of the net for Main and Wellington’s second goal of the match.
Western Sydney, despite being two goals down still showed that intent within the final third to get something from the match itself as in the 71st minute, Cushla Rue came close to halving the deficit thanks to a great pass by Talia Younis, but Rue’s shot went wide of the mark.
A very special moment occurred in the 80th minute off the back of a recent call-up to the Football Ferns in place of club teammate Brianna Edwards, goalkeeper Aimee Danieli made her A-League Women’s debut as she replaced Rylee Foster between the sticks. Danieli’s debut also meant that Wellington had used every possible player available to them in their squad this season.
This victory brings to an end Wellington Phoenix’s most successful season since joining the competition in 2021/22. Nine wins from 22 matches compared to only five wins in their 32 games prior to this campaign. Fans in New Zealand will be hoping for an even better return next time.
Teams: WELLINGTON PHOENIX (4-3-3): R. Foster, M. Foster, Barry, Taylor, McMeeken Fraser, Breslin, Whinham, Elliott, Cox, Main. Substitutes: Danieli, Brazendale, Speckmaier, Davidson, Jaber.
Scorers: Main 18’, 55’.
WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS (4-4-2): Khamis, McComasky, Bruce, Harrison, Apostolakis, Buchanan, Price, Chessari, Matos, Harding, Rue. Substitutes: Collins, Caceres, Morris, Younis, Abdul-Massih.
Referee: Caitlin Williams.
Attendance: 1,280.
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