Wellington 2
Sydney 1
KEY POINTS:
A born-again Wellington Phoenix side - bearing little resemblance to the rag-tag mob who masqueraded as a soccer team in Perth a week earlier - yesterday stunned A-League front-runners Sydney FC with a come-from-behind 2-1 triumph.
The win went a long way to restoring coach Ricki Herbert's and
club owner Terry Serepisos' faith.
In a week of mixed emotions for New Zealand franchises playing in Australian championships, the win by the much re-arranged Phoenix was just the fillip they needed.
Of the team who ran on to Members Equity Stadium and turned in that drab 1-0 losing effort to Perth, only Tony Lochhead, Richard Johnson, Shane Smeltz and Leilei Gao started at Westpac Stadium.
Mark Paston, Manny Muscat, Ben Sigmund, Karl Dodd, Tim Brown, Adam Kwasnik and Vaughan Coveny were - for one reason or another - handed starts in a re-jigged line-up.
There were understandable early jitters but always with a sense of urgency, which had too often been missing in five earlier outings this season.
The visitors quickly took the offensive, creating early chances for Shannon Cole, Terry McFlynn and John Aloisi. Wayward finishing and resolute defensive play kept Sydney scoreless.
The pressure built, and 20 minutes from the start the breakthrough goal came.
Cole, wide on the right, chipped over a cross to unmarked and unchallenged Alex Brosque, who nodded a looping header under the crossbar and beyond Paston's despairing fingertips.
In another life, the Phoenix may well have shrugged their shoulders and let the game run its course.
Not this time. Digging deep and calling on the benefits of a week of hard work on the training pitch, they rallied. Paston saved one attempt from McFlynn. Aloisi's snap shot from a Cole corner was blocked and away sped the home side to win a first corner. Gao's swinging ball eluded all.
Three minutes before halftime ever-dependable Smeltz capped a move he had started when he rose at the near post to head home Lochhead's pin-point cross.
Two minutes after the break Coveny was booked for a weak challenge by referee Chris Beath, who erroneously flashed red but quickly switched to yellow.
The game-breaker came in the 76th minute when midfielder Brown, his head swathed in tape, pounced on a loose ball outside the penalty area and fired hard and low to beat despairing goalkeeper Clint Bolton.
The energy returned, and spurred by a vociferous 6729-strong crowd, the Phoenix played out the remaining 15 or so minutes with few worries apart from one Aloisi shot which Paston coolly dropped on to snuff out.
One win a season does not make, but in scoring their second win - the first 3-2 in the Pre-Season Cup - over the Hyundai A-League favourites, the beleaguered Phoenix players showed the grit and determination they must produce again when, a week today, they travel to play the Newcastle Jets. And, in the weeks that follow.
