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| Team Wellington and Wanderers TJF Photos |
TEAM WELLINGTON 2 WANDERERS (Hamilton) 1
ISPS Handa Premiership
David Farrington Park, Wellington
Sunday 6th January, 2019
Attendance : 150ish
The topic title for Team Wellington discussion on the Yellow Fever (Phoenix fans) message board claims they are the "7th best in the world" and technically they are correct as they finished in seventh place at the recent Club World Cup (we'll just ignore the fact there were only seven teams competing, as you do have to win your Confederation title to qualify). Team Wellington became the third New Zealand club to compete at this tournament, with Auckland City and Waitakere United being the others and thanks to going out on penalties Team Wellington can claim to be the only one technically unbeaten at the competition! That they didn't progress was a shame as they were 3-0 up at half time, but where you may have expected many teams to "park the bus" Team Wellington stayed true to their style of play and continued attacking which allowed UAE champions, Al Ain, back in and they forced extra time before winning 4-3 on penalties. Al Ain went all the way to the final where they lost 4-1 to Real Madrid.
This was Team Wellington's first game since they had been in the CWC and while its great being at home the 150 or so that turned up to see them take on Wanderers is a bit different than the 15 000 that saw them in the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in the UAE!
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| Father & Son coaches, Ricki & Kale Herbert TJF Photos |
Wanderer's have been the surprise team of this season, although not to everyone. While last season seemed a bit of a nightmare, one win and six points and 53 goals conceded saw them pick up the wooden spoon, when questioned, head coach Ricki Herbert described it as "a work in progress" and said that there would be some hard times. He was right and with some shrewd signings in the off season, it took them just two games to equal last season's points tally of six. They found themselves in fourth position going into this game and looking like a genuine contender for the playoffs at the end of the season.
The previous games between these clubs in Wellington had resulted in 5-2 & 3-2 wins for Team Wellington, with 14 goals in two games and with players it could be fair to say there may be several goals in this game, it was a fact I decided to keep to myself in case of providing the proverbial jinx.......I needn't have worried!
It started promisingly with both teams looking to attack and after 20 minutes Team Wellingon's Mario Barcia broke through and a clever run by Jack-Henry Sinclair drew the defender with him allowing Barcia to slip a pass inside for Nati Hailemariam to slot home in the far corner.
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| Team Wellington's Nati Hailemariam makes it 1-0 TJF Photos |
The rest of the half was pretty scrappy with neither team managing to get an edge over the other. Wanderer's did come close to an equaliser when Martin Bueno had a shot just miss the far post, it was one he would be quite disappointed about as a player of his calibre should really have scored.
In the second half Team Wellington started to look a bit more organised and kept their shape better and the ball better than they had been. 10 minutes in Jack-Henry Sinclair had one of those cross\shot things, ie it's hard to tell if he was shooting or crossing the ball, he'll probably claim it was a shot (but it would have been a cross had it missed) but whatever it ended up in the top corner of the net and made the score 2-0.
Wanderer's reply was quick when three minutes later a header from a corner hit the crossbar and James Hoyle was the quickest to react and headed it past the Team Wellington defence to make it 2-1.
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| Wanderers James Hoyle gets one back TJF Photos |
It was a tight game, with both teams creating similar amount of chances but no clear cut ones. Team Wellington were without Andy Bevin, who is the sort of player that could have made a difference in a game like this, but they had the experience to hold Wanderers out. Wanderers on the other hand will probably feel they deserved a draw, but they didn't take their chances and as good as seven goal striker Martin Bueno is, he'd be much better if he stayed on his feet a lot more.
In all it wasn't the prettiest game to watch but it was enjoyable and was a good start to 2019's football watching.
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