It’s not often that the first three matches of an A-League Men campaign offer up an inaugural derby against local rivals and one of the world’s longest trips in a domestic league. But the Wellington Phoenix faced this predicament across their opening trio of fixtures for the 2024/25 season. And it wasn’t just the variety of opponents and locations these games offered – it was an array of different results, too, with Wellington winning one, losing one, and drawing the other. Below, we ask what – if anything – we can draw from these early sparring sessions, recapping the Phoenix’s first four points of an as-yet enigmatic season.
Giancarlo Italiano has began his second season as Wellington Phoenix head coach with a win, a draw, and a loss. (Image: Photomac)
It’s a well-known trope that football is composed of moments.
Indeed, it is a trope Giancarlo “Chiefy” Italiano, three games into his sophomore season at the helm of the Wellington Phoenix, knows far too well. When Mikael Doka struck late to sink the Nix in Gosford last season and effectively hand the Premiers Plate to the Central Coast Mariners? That was a moment. When Finn Surman arrowed home a header to beat Melbourne Victory with almost the last touch of the game and secure a top-two finish for the Nix in the same campaign? That was a moment. Oskar Zawada’s side-footed finish to equalise when the Phoenix were moments away from crashing out in the Semi-Final – and the crushing Chris Ikonomidis goal that inevitably followed? Both moments.
So, when Marco Rojas was introduced with around 10 minutes to play against Auckland FC in the inaugural ‘Kiwi Clasico’ at Sky Stadium, it is fair to say it felt like there was another such ‘moment’ on the cards. Rojas, returning after almost a decade and a half to the club that handed him the scholarship that launched his professional football career, came on against new local rivals – could he?
Before Rojas’ introduction, the game had settled into a chokehold. Possession was even; each side had made a similar number of passes. Despite Auckland having had more shots—and more on target—few would say that, as the game threatened to peter out with just a handful of minutes of regular time to play, the A-Leagues' newest side had registered any severe threat to the Phoenix goal.
Wellington attacker Hideki Ishige had missed arguably the game's best chance, bouncing a point-blank header off the turf and up and over Alex Paulsen – returning to Sky Stadium in opposite colours after a club record-breaking 2023/24 campaign – and the Auckland goal. The Black Knights had not come as close.
So yes, the stage was set for a moment – for one of those sparkling, sometimes season-defining moments of magic – to spark the dying embers of the game into life.
Well, the game got one – but unfortunately for the Phoenix, it didn’t go their way.
That moment came in the form of new goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi – who made Wellington headlines this week after the club extended his contract – when the British custodian, under pressure from two Auckland players, attempted a risky pass on the edge of his six-yard area. It was intercepted and duly dispatched by Jake Brimmer, who then added a second as the Phoenix pushed further forward in search of an equaliser.
Wellington Phoenix 0, Auckland FC 2.
Why are we talking about moments? Because they’re something to cling onto, gravitate towards, discuss, and unpack. And something that we have to look at, given that the Phoenix’s three games so far – one win, one draw, and one loss – offer precious few clues as to how the club will fare this season as Chiefy prepares his charges for a trip to face the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford this weekend.
The analysts and pundits tell us that the table begins to settle only after ten games of the season and that we can start drawing meaningful conclusions about where each club’s early-season form will see them rank towards the pointier end of the campaign.
Which begs the question – what conclusions can we draw from Wellington’s first three games?
The Phoenix’s first game, a home fixture against Western United, saw them edge a first half – scoring in the process through a finely taken finish by Kosta Barbarouses from a perfectly weighted Ishige free-kick – but fade in the second, ultimately allowing the Victorian side to restore parity through a well-struck Angus Thurgate equaliser.
The Nix edged possession, at times threatening to play their opponents off the park, but much of that ball retention was sterile and, again and again, petered out through sideways passes.
Wellington Phoenix 1, Western United 1.
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Considering the travel time involved, better and impressive was an away win at HBF Park, with the Phoenix holding a less-than-impressive Perth Glory side off for a well-fought victory.
The talking point was undoubtedly the ever-increasing importance of Tim Payne, whose header sealed the points in Western Australia and who, as a right-sided-defender-cum-wing-back, appears instrumental to everything in attack for Wellington.
Yet the Phoenix’s new Japanese signings also underlined their importance, with Kazuki Nagasawa registering an assist alongside his compatriot Ishige, who doubled his number of assists this season with another lovely delivery that found the head of Scott Wootton.
Perth Glory 0, Wellington Phoenix 2.
Despite the four-point harvest this opening duo of fixtures provided, they both represented familiar failings for the Nix – and none can be as crucial for Italiano to attend to as the Phoenix’s form in front of goal. Across their first three matches, the Phoenix registered 27 shots for an average of nine a game – not bad, but not the numbers of an attacking force that has found its feet in the league. Instead, the worry is that only five of those shots hit the target. A 60% success rate in front of goal is, of course, very good, and the Phoenix’s success last season was largely reliant on an extraordinary hit rate from a meagre portion of chances. It looks like this will again be the case.
But it’s a risky strategy – especially because Wellington no longer has the likes of attacking linchpins Zawada and Bozhidar Kraev to contribute. The team is essentially relying on Barbarouses to replicate last season’s remarkable career revival in front of goal, on Ishige to hit the ground running, and on Rojas – whose introduction did not come until the final moments of the Nix’s third match due to the ‘Kiwi Messi’s’ injury – to provide a key attacking spark.
Now, Wellington’s first three matches – in which Barbarouses and Ishige were both involved in goals – did little to disprove this idea. But that the Phoenix has been so reliant on set-pieces and goals from defenders implies an attacking unit that has failed to click yet, while also suggesting that their goals will be more spread out this year. That, rather than the slick attacking play we have already seen from the likes of Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, and, yes, those new neighbours, it’s corners, free-kicks, and goalmouth scrambles that will seem to be fundamental to whether the Phoenix can replicate last season’s form.
In other words? Moments.
The Wellington Phoenix take on the Central Coast Mariners at Industree Group Stadium on Sunday 10 November at 4pm AEDT in their fourth match of the 2024/25 A-League Men season.
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