Football: Defensive gaffes haunt Wellington Phoenix in 4-0 thrashing to Sydney FC

Alex Brosque beats defender Marco Rossi and goalkeeper Lewis Italiano to score the first goal. Photo / Getty

Sydney FC 4
Wellington Phoenix 0

Communication is an often underrated aspect of football and the Phoenix demonstrated how not to do it in a predictable loss to Sydney FC tonight.

Most statistics pointed to a Phoenix defeat at Allianz Stadium; Sydney are top of the A-League by 12 points and haven't lost at the ground for 26 games. Wellington are bottom and kicked off without their two leading scorers, Andrija Kaludjerovic and Roy Krishna.

One statistic that was a cause for Phoenix celebrations was Andrew Durante playing his 279th game, beating the A-League record previously held by former Sydney and Wellington keeper Danny Vukovic.

The Phoenix started brightly but their first major gaffe was not long in coming. Michael Zullo rolled in a diagonal ball from the left, and Wellington centre back Marco Rossi and keeper Lewis Italiano were left to look accusingly at each other as Alex Brosque ran by them both to open the scoring in the eighth minute.

The next entry in the voluminous annals of New Zealand A-League comedy defending arrived six minutes later. Durante and Goran Paracki both went for the ball, succeeding only in trapping it for Brosque to run between them and set up Adrian Mierzejewski for a well-taken second goal.

Two gifts, two goals, game over. The Phoenix were never coming back from that — now it was just a matter of how many.

Four, as it turned out. The game meandered along as Sydney squandered chances until the champions rediscovered their clinical edge with goals in the last 15 minutes from Milos Ninkovic and David Carney.

Adding to Wellington's woes were the injury-enforced substitutions of Rossi in the first half and Matt Ridenton in the second, although the latter's departure allowed an A-League debut for 17-year-old Liberato Cacace.

Sydney FC 4 (A. Brosque 8, A. Mierzejewski 14, M. Ninkovic 74, D. Carney 85)
Wellington Phoenix 0