Phoenix 2
Adelaide 1
Led by man of the match Ben Sigmund, the Wellington Phoenix turned in their best performance of the season to beat Adelaide United at AMI Stadium yesterday.
The fully deserved victory was only their second A-League win over the South Australians - with both wins, a year apart, coming in Christchurch.
While the win was not enough to get Ricki Herbert's team back into the top six, they are at least back in the play-off mix.
This was a win built on guts and determination against a team desperate to claim maximum points to keep the pressure on leaders Brisbane Roar, who claimed a controversial, and lucky, 3-3 draw with Melbourne Victory 48 hours earlier.
From the outset the Phoenix showed they meant business against star-studded Adelaide but, as so often the case this season, that early promises was not turned into goals and they were hit on the counter by the visitors.
In the 14th minute Tim Brown gave away a silly freekick.
Cassio pumped the ball into the Phoenix penalty area and Sergio van Dijk obliged with a telling header which found the top corner of the goalposts and flew home for his seventh goal of the season and his sixth against the Wellingtonians.
Down, but far from out, the Phoenix continued to press, but for the second time, Nick Ward could not turn good ball into a goal. With danger man Paul Ifill often dragged away from the central position he obviously craved, the Adelaide defence had few concerns as they ran the first-half clock down.
Within seconds of the restart the Phoenix were in business.
Ward picked out Sigmund, again playing in his less-preferred right back role, and the hometown hero beat the offside trap, charged deep and fired his well-timed cross into the mixer and Brown timed his run perfectly to fire home from close range.
The attack and counter-attack continued, but with the Phoenix having the better of the exchanges.
Herbert rang the changes - getting his three substitutes on before he was banished from the bench by referee Peter O'Leary, who was at his pedantic school-teacher best (he had earlier red-carded Adelaide captain Travis Dodd for an innocuous challenge) - with young Marco Rojas again his trump card.
As the game went deep into the four minutes of added time, the Phoenix won their sixth corner. Rojas stepped forward and sent a great ball in, and Sigmund was on hand to rise and head home. It was only the second goal from set play for the Phoenix all season, both scored by Sigmund.
It was a fully deserved fifth win for the Phoenix. Against one of the most daunting teams in the Hyundai A-League, they had 21 shots to six on goal (9-2 on target), forced Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic to make five saves to none by Mark Paston and, tellingly, had an emphatic 69 per cent of possession to 31 per cent overall. At halftime it had been just 51-49.
The Phoenix now have a few days to re-gather before playing Gold Coast away on Saturday night.
