WSW in Wollongong Battle For A Point

[mack]

The A-League resumed following the World Cup break with the Wanderers taking on Wellington Phoenix, who took a late lead before the Wanderers clawed back a point through a "beat everyone" long range free kick from Yeni Ngabakoto.

This Wellington "home" game in Wollongong saw the Nix hoping to rise as high as 4th place with a win and the Wanderers, firmly ensconced in the top 4, had a theoretical chance of displacing Melbourne City if they won 9-0. Western Sydney's major team news was Yeni Ngabakoto being elevated for his first start of the campaign and Ramy Najjarine's performance against Everton during the break being rewarded with a start as well. The pitch that greeted the sides was woeful, with bare patches of dirt and very little grass cover.

Wellington had the best chance of the opening stages with a series of shots from tight angles that were parried away by Lawrence Thomas before a final shot flew well wide. Najjarine won a free kick with neat footwork on the edge of the area that he took himself, shooting on his left over the wall but covered by Oli Sail.

Thomas rescued the Wanderers in the 14th minute from what seemed a near certain goal. A corner kick bounced off one man to the far post, and with the apparent empty net to aim for it was nodded toward goal only for the flying Thomas to paw it away over the bar. The subsequent corner was a scramble that no-one knew much about including Thomas but the ball eventually squirmed away and was belted up-field and cleared.

Wellington looked to have picked up the first card of the match when former Wanderers midfield Steven Ugarkovic smashed into the back of an attacker, a pointless foul that was never going to win the ball. It would have put him under yellow card pressure for the remainder of the game had it actually been given, an optical illusion created perhaps by the referee ticking him off in the notebook without the full saction of a yellow card. Neat interplay between Calem Nieuwenhof and Brandon Borrello resulted in a long range shot in the 32nd minute that was well off target.

The only exciting things in the last 15 were multiple instances of a broken ball ended up being used, and Ngabakoto picking up a yellow card very late for a forearm to the head area of a Wellington player. All in all, a forgettable half, perhaps down to ring rust following the break.

10 minutes after half-time the Wanderers had a good chance to break open the game. They attacked down their right flank, fired back across the six yard box but Krpic couldn't get the final touch, Sail pawing the ball back into the middle and away from the Wanderers attackers.

Wellington opened the scoring on the hour mark. A simple diagonal cross to the back past from Clayton Lewis, a huge aerial mismatch between Bozhidar Kraev and Gabi Cleur made the Bulgarian the favourite and he made no mistake with a downward header past Thomas to make it 1-0. Marko Rudan reacted immediately, taking off Najjarine for Milos Ninkovic and Oliver Bozanic making his debut with Romaine Amalfitano departing. With 20 to play and the emergency alarm blaring due to some pyrotechnical colour from the away fans, Borrello had a shot wide. A delay ensued when Lewis smashed his face into the turf after jumping on the back of an opponent.

Sail got himself into a tangle when he rushed out of his box to sweep away a through ball, just barely getting to the ball in time to prevent a touch around him and a second to prevent Krpic getting a free shot at goal. David Ball picked up a yellow card for dragging down Adama Traore to prevent him getting a run into the penalty area.

The Wanderers setup a grand stand finish with a 10th minute strike. That free kick conceded by Ball was in the perfect position for a whipped in cross, Ngabakoto fired an in-swinger that evaded everyone including the run of Marcelo and left Sail completely stranded on the wrong side of the pitch. The celebrations were muted by Ninkovic, who was himself a substitute, having to come off with a clear hamstring issue & was replaced by Daniel Wilmering making his first appearance in the A-League since the 3rd of July 2021. Kraev went into the book for a challenge on the other goalscorer of the evening Ngabakoto.

Wilmering combined with Traore and eventually found a cross into the 6 yard area that Krpic lunged for & missed but ultimately still found a shot from the floor. Sail had another heart attack moment when he mishandled a tame cross that Ngabakoto was sliding through on, but he was thankful it didn't fall for a rushing Wanderers. The match wound down into 6 minutes of injury time and Rudan gave an A-League debut for Nathaniel Blair with Ngabakoto off.

The final chance came from a long range set piece, Ugarkovic did in fact pick up his yellow card late on, it was launched long into the box for Krpic who was adjudged to have been offside or fouling. Following the final whistle a general melee broke out thanks to Oli Sail getting in the face of Marcelo before the tensions broke and handshakes went all around. Wellington would be disappointed to having conceded late on but also happy to have not lost to a Wanderers team who came home with a wet sail. The draw keeps the Wanderers in the top 2 for another week and pushes Wellington into the top 6.

The Wanderers next game is against Western United in Melbourne on Sunday the 18th of December with kick-off at 3pm Sydney time.

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[pseudonym]

Got something out of not having to fly to New Zealand 

Ninkovic will be a nervous wait. Having recruited Bozanic is very important in this situation.

Now that Diamante is back, Western United will be tough

[ZachMercer]

Not a good pitch to play Ninko on. Can't help but feel it contributed to an injury. 

[MartinTyler]

I've said it before and I'll say it again......as a country we're 'kin useless at preparing pitches for soccer.

[sonar]

We are still not good in the final third. Krpic does a lot of work off the ball but is not scoring the goals we need from a striker. We are still a work in progress.

[BoyFromTheWest]

We don't do a lot to set goals up. We pass some in circles and hope something happens. We need some strategy in attack and use the best in the players we've got. Not happening yet.

[MathyouWSW]

As I said and many others had said on the other thread, that field was applauding. If the last event as mentioned was back in August, why haven't the council and/or Venues NSW checked and maintenance the pitch? That was bad.

N'Gbakoto looks to be a decent foreign signing. Congrats on scoring a somewhat odd goal.

Blair is looking very promising just based off that performance he looks to be a great signing as well. 

I think the team performs at best in a 4-2-3-1 formation, it looked to be a 4-4-2 formation at the start and I'm not entirely sure why Rudan didn't go with this formation to begin with since Talay usually plays Wellington in a 4-2-2-2 formation so the squad could of played a majority of play in the middle of the field (which it seemed they did anyway).

Wilmering playing as a left wing looked was concerning at first. But, he was brilliant and I hope he gets to see more minute in that position. 

The squad's performance today was somewhat mediocre. Hopefully, they'll be well prepared for Western United next week. Plus, the club will provided an update on Yengi, Ninkovic, Sapsford & Badolato. I'm going to assume Sapsford and Badolato were not selected and might be getting ready for the upcoming NPL season. 

Also, I forgot to add...the third kit reminds me too much of my public school sports uniform. So, based off that, I don't like it.

Edited December 10, 2022 by MathyouWSW

[StringerBellend]

We got a point away after going down, last season we'd have got nothing.

Ninko coming off is a worry as we started creating when he came on

 

 

[MartinTyler]

59 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

We got a point away after going down, last season we'd have got nothing.

Ninko coming off is a worry as we started creating when he came on

 

 

I actually thought that Bozanic was the catalyst to our recovery

[GunnerWanderer]

Thomas save early on was outstanding draw sound result. 
 

@Davo comment about more sand here than Qatar so much ROFL 🤣 

overall it’s another decent hitout, but sadly those few weeks off we didn’t look any better up front today, Yeni looked okay nothing special maybe needs a few weeks to get warmed up hopefully 🤞 

onto next week 

[StringerBellend]

7 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

I actually thought that Bozanic was the catalyst to our recovery

He was good wasn't he 

[JustWandering]

15 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

I actually thought that Bozanic was the catalyst to our recovery

That's the way I saw it too. He was delivering some really effective long passes forward that had Wellington on the back foot. I'd be starting Bozanic from next game on.

[MajorMelons]

If Ninko is not starting next week, I would play Hoff instead, with Bozanic and Amalf behind.

[Davo]

I wanted to wait until I’d seen a game with the third kit before I judge, it but it’s pretty bad. Looks like the colour they use on the plain packaging for cigarettes, the one that was scientifically chosen as the most unappealing colour available.

To be fair, that colour perfectly symbolised our performance for the first 60 mins. Not sure why we changed to 4-4-2 but it didn’t really work.

At least we made changes, took control of the game, and got a result. Under Robbo Plan B would have just been to Plan A harder until we lost.

[Sithslayer1991]

Acceptable point. First game back we looked slow in attack. Pitch wasn't great. Yeni gets his first goal.

[Upthehill]

3 hours ago, MajorMelons said:

If Ninko is not starting next week, I would play Hoff instead, with Bozanic and Amalf behind.

Amalfitano played a decent amount at CAM in the past. And one of Hoffs strengths is linking the back line to the front. We'd lose a lot of that with him higher up the pitch

[matty]

We were dire.

Once Bozanic came on we were much better. 

He was dropping too deep when we had possession at first but as he worked into the game he was great.

Cluer was unusually poor, so many misplaced passes.

[Zelinsky]

What was the post game pushing and shoving all about?

[MajorMelons]

6 hours ago, Upthehill said:

Amalfitano played a decent amount at CAM in the past. And one of Hoffs strengths is linking the back line to the front. We'd lose a lot of that with him higher up the pitch

Interesting, because transfermart has Amalfitano’s history at CM and DM only. Where did he play as CAM? 
 

I think Hoff is our best CAM after Ninko. 

[WSWJACK]

2 hours ago, Zelinsky said:

What was the post game pushing and shoving all about?

Don't really know but Marcelo always seems to be in the middle of it, looks as though he can handle himself though.

[Davo]

3 hours ago, Zelinsky said:

What was the post game pushing and shoving all about?

Right on full time Sail claimed a ball and bumped into Borello, who went down looking for a pen. Sail had a go at Borello, Marcelo got involved, then they all got mad when Marcelo kindly tried to give Sail a Brazilian jiu jtisu lesson. 

[GE942150]

Post match presser:

According to Rudan, Ninkovic injury isn't serious and came off as a precaution. He twinged it weeks ago at training, so wasn't fit enough to start but believed was still ok to come off the bench.

 

[MartinTyler]

14 hours ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

We don't do a lot to set goals up. We pass some in circles and hope something happens. We need some strategy in attack and use the best in the players we've got. Not happening yet.

Whilst I don't disagree I found myself comparing us with City last night. They had some excellent passages of play through the middle but lacked the cutting edge in the final 3rd. We're not at their level yet but good looking possession in the middle of the park means nothing if you can't convert.

[MartinTyler]

14 minutes ago, GE942150 said:

Post match presser:

According to Rudan, Ninkovic injury isn't serious and came off as a precaution. He twinged it weeks ago at training, so wasn't fit enough to start but believed was still ok to come off the bench.

 

Who's the journalist he wasn't happy with?

[GE942150]

8 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

Who's the journalist he wasn't happy with?

What time frame?

[MartinTyler]

10 minutes ago, GE942150 said:

What time frame?

He was the last of the questioners you couldn't really hear. 

[GD07]

We’re built to defend a lead. If we get that first goal we’ll probably be right most weeks, if not might be a struggle. 

[Paul01]

38 minutes ago, GD07 said:

We’re built to defend a lead. If we get that first goal we’ll probably be right most weeks, if not might be a struggle. 

Andvwhen Ninkovic doesn't start we're ....

[BruceL]

20 hours ago, Davo said:

I wanted to wait until I’d seen a game with the third kit before I judge, it but it’s pretty bad. Looks like the colour they use on the plain packaging for cigarettes, the one that was scientifically chosen as the most unappealing colour available.

... and the keeper's shirt was much the same, from a distance. Difficult to pick him out. I was waiting for the ref to get him to change jerseys!

[mack]

Ref needed to swap to the blue shirt as well, our cigarette brown blended in with his red.