Wanderers Robbed In Auckland

[mack]

A combination of poor finishing for the Wanderers and inept officiating has helped Wellington Phoenix to a 2-1 win over Western Sydney in Auckland tonight. Jaushua Sotirio & Ulises Davila scored either side of a Nicolai Muller equaliser, with the headlines dominated yet again over a contentious VAR decision.

The Wanderers started brightly, dominating the first 10 minutes. Kwame Yeboah unleashed a low drive that glanced past the far post, and Mitch Duke's leadup play allowed Nicolai Muller a tight chance that was agonisingly wide. In the 19th minute Muller cut inside, beat a Nix defender with a body swerve then fired a curling shot that was heading for the side netting until Wellington keeper Stefan Marinovic's fingertip save turned it around the post.

After half an hour the Wanderers interchanged neat passes between Pirmin Schwegler & Yeboah, allowing the midfield to win a corner that Matt Jurman banged a header requiring a double handed save from the keeper. Wellington had their first major attack of the half in the 44th minute, breaking in a counter-attack down the left flank through Jaushua Sotirio, the resulting shot from Steinmann being blocked by McGowan. The first half was a familiar tale of the Wanderers having the majority of possession and chances but failing to unlock the defence with the final ball.

Two minutes into the second half Wellington capitalised on a long ball and flick on that put Sotirio clean through on goal and he lofted the ball over the head of Daniel Lopar to open the scoring.

After another 20 minutes of toil the Wanderers finally had their deserved equaliser. Daniel Georgievski got on his bike with a 25 yard run that he ended with a neat through-ball for the run of Muller. With a yard of space free he found a sidefooted finish that evaded the sliding cover defence and Marinovic to nestle into the bottom corner for 1-1.

Midway through the second half Mitch Duke was rocked in a jumping contest by Tim Payne, the Wellington midfielder bring down his elbows and giving Duke a bloody eye socket. The Wanderers Captain continued on stoically with an emergency bandage wrap covering up the wound.

With 10 minutes to go Daniel Lopar continued his sterling form, Callum McCowatt flicked the ball at the near post at close range, Lopar covered his near-post well with a magnificent diving reaction save on the right hand to keep the scores level.

For yet another week, the VAR intervened to give the Wanderers opponents a massive advantage. Wellington won a penalty after the ball was smashed into Schwegler's arm from a meter away, while his arms were down by his side. Despite being at point blank range, the referee waved it away, then ambled over to watch a dozen slow-mo replays and award a penalty that goes against the rules as written. It was easily converted. The Wanderers pushed for another equaliser but couldn't get it done. Wellington deserved at best a solitary point, but instead took all three points with the early Christmas gift from Daniel Elder. With rumours circulating about the potential exit of coach Markus Babbel, it remains to be seen if he will be in charge for their next match. If he was to be punted by chairman Paul Lederer, the way he & his side have been treated by our disgracefully poor officials will be a huge reason why.

The Wanderers face Perth Glory next weekend on Saturday December 14th, in Perth with kick-off at 9:45PM Sydney time.

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[MathyouWSW]

Boy am I going to cop it from my NZ friend. *Sigh*

[Smoggy]

Wanderers robbed in Auckland says the title...yeah...penna was shyte..but robbed nahhhh not for me. Post match reviews seem to drift away from the reality by the match...

Edited December 7, 2019 by Smoggy

[mack]

banned

[pseudonym]

play the kids for the remainder of the season

[lloydy136]

VAR is a distraction. We were garbage after zeigler came on and MB changed the formation.

Again 'good in patches' and 'created chances' is not good enough when the club has spunked big cash on a manager and his hand picked bundesliga imports.

Jashua Sotorio's Wellington Phoenix tore us to pieces for the last 30 minutes.

Say that sentence out loud and see if you can do it without throwing up in your mouth.

[sonar]

Just now, Smoggy said:

Wanderers robbed in Auckland says the title...yeah...penna was shyte..but robbed nahhhh not for me.

We had to chances to put the game away in the 1st half and didn't.............paid the price.

What has Mo Adam done to deserve sitting on the bench...?

 

[BoyFromTheWest]

Summed up well, Mack.  We should have gone in 3-4 goals up before half time. Yeboah played well but is not able to finish and that is a problem.  I'm still not convinced about Kamau - does some good things but is sometimes easily beaten to the ball.  He stands off or waits for the ball to come to him.  Perhaps he might be better up front.  Muller much better.  Not sure the back 3 worked but at least we tried something.  Would have liked to see Mo and/or Meir on earlier.

I think Schwegler is absolutely fed up with the calls - seems he was going to walk off after the penalty.  Rubbing salt into the wounds he received a yellow card - how stupid can a ref be????!!!

A wasted game in the end.

[Davo]

5 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Wanderers robbed in Auckland says the title...yeah...penna was shyte..but robbed nahhhh not for me. Post match reviews seem to drift away from the reality by the match...

So you reckon we still would have lost without the shyte pen?

[StringerBellend]

You’re way too kind on this one Mack 

Our ineptitude and stupidity lost the game

our poor finishing is because players in our front three aren’t natural finishers 

we got back into it and we’re on top, we then at 1-1 go to a back three and lose our shape 

previously mentioned poor finishers looked shattered and yet played 97 minutes while two strikers sit on bench 

Lopar kept us in it again 

all this against a side who won’t make the 6 

 

[GunnerWanderer]

Well said Smoggy 

if you get up a few goals one bad decision doesn’t cause you to lose - every week we are talking about ref instead of focusing on the fact the players are not geling and not performing 

I said in the match thread the 3 at the back is supposed to give you and extra man in middle for us it just put another man where we didn’t need it 

we lose the midfield and with no lopar we end up losing by at least 4 

where is the next bye? Bring it on 

[StringerBellend]

1 minute ago, Davo said:

So you reckon we still would have lost without the shyte pen?

I do

they looked far more dangerous than us 

besides a draw isn’t good enough either 

 

[beatsurrender]

I just hope, was it, wasn't it a penalty doesn't mask the real issues. We were hanging on there after clearly being the better team for the majority. Then our coach moves to a back 3 and doesn't replace Duke who's virtually comatose. Yes our finishing is poor. But we are way underperforming for out outlay. Sotirio ffs!! That's down to the coaching.

[StringerBellend]

Just now, beatsurrender said:

I just hope, was it, wasn't it a penalty doesn't mask the real issues. We were hanging on there after clearly being the better team for the majority. Then our coach moves to a back 3 and doesn't replace Duke who's virtually comatose. Yes our finishing is poor. But we are way underperforming for out outlay. Sotirio ffs!! That's down to the coaching.

Yeboah’s finishing is erratic at best, Kamaus record speaks for itself, duke isn’t prolific. Mueller showed how you finish 

the guy we signed as a finisher comes on after 90 mins and the kid that showed he’s a natural finisher doesn’t get on at all 

 

[Sithslayer1991]

have to say Var was wrong for me. BUT we were under the pump for the beginning of the 2nd half. And was made worst with Ziegler introduction to make a back 3. We have big problems at the moment

[lloydy136]

Also wondering who there is left to come back and haunt us with a goal?

Redmayne to come up for a corner and head in a 95th minute equaliser in the derby?

[Erebus]

I'm done

[matty]

I don't think Ziegler nor the back three change were necessarily the issue. We've done the same thing almost every match this season, the last 15-20 minutes we lose all structure and composure. Even the Victory game that we won I pointed out that they were rolling right over us at the end. 

[WHACKO]

The only thing we'll win this year.

 

[Beer]

Can’t believe how much we’ll be laughing about all this when we win the league in May 

[Generator]

As others have said, it wasn’t a robbery, it was an appropriate award for no final product in the first half and a poor tactical change near the end. I also think the ref was generally pretty reasonable and let the game flow for the most part. Even the penalty I accept - his lower arm was out sufficiently from his body for the VAR and ref to overturn the original call.

Anyway, at least I can focus my attention on Canberra United for the remainder of the W-League season. Great imports and no six hour round trip.

[DamnedUnited]

46 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Wanderers robbed in Auckland says the title...yeah...penna was shyte..but robbed nahhhh not for me. Post match reviews seem to drift away from the reality by the match...

Oh here comes the Babbel Out brigade 

[Smoggy]

1 minute ago, DamnedUnited said:

Oh here comes the Babbel Out brigade 

I am not Babbel out, not just yet anyway...but it is getting close.

[tardotz]

Not much to say really.....its the same every week.  We cannot blame Babble for the first half that's all on the players and we should have put the game to bed. The second half we showed nothing, after the equaliser the subs and change of formation is all on Babble.

[1988banana]

ITS TIME TO GO 

 

 

K.M.... IN

[Davo]

42 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

I do

they looked far more dangerous than us 

besides a draw isn’t good enough either 

 

If you genuinely believe that had the penalty not been given there was a better than evens chance of another goal in the last couple of minutes, I’d like to enquire about your bookmaking services. Wouldn’t get those odds anywhere else.

As for a draw not being good enough, I never said it was and totally agree with you.

[BoyFromTheWest]

42 minutes ago, GunnerWanderer said:

Well said Smoggy 

if you get up a few goals one bad decision doesn’t cause you to lose - every week we are talking about ref instead of focusing on the fact the players are not geling and not performing 

I said in the match thread the 3 at the back is supposed to give you and extra man in middle for us it just put another man where we didn’t need it 

we lose the midfield and with no lopar we end up losing by at least 4 

where is the next bye? Bring it on 

Totally disagree that the players aren't gelling or performing.  We completely dominated most of that game - certainly the first half.  Phoenix were not in the game for the first half hour. Their keeper and some nervous finishing saved them.  We put some good stuff together and a goal in the first 20 would have seen a very different result in my opinion.  Yeboah looked nervous taking too many steps with the ball instead of shooting.  They came back into things in the 2nd half but we were still the better team for most of the game and gelled well but didn't score.  They didn't deserve a win but we put so much pressure on ourselves and tighten up at key moments.

[1988banana]

We scored , babbel brings on a CB 🤦‍♂️ fmd im out , we have the players but babbel has no idea 

[WHACKO]

Have a look at Sydney FC third goal and compare that to us. We a miles apart.

[Potkorok]

Back at hotel after enduring yet another inept performance live. Was good to sit with a few other Wanderers fans, both locals and from Oz. This despite there being no official away bay which meant putting up with some seriously puerile commentary from parts of Phoenix crowd who evidently know as much about the game as they do about quantum computing....what to say about the game? Well it's been said above. We can't  finish, then we concede , then we equalise, then we inevitably cop the raw end of a VAR decision. I don't understand enough of the intricacies of the game to comment too much but i was baffled by the formation changes and the subs. I think Meier appears to be the biggest waste of marquee dollars since Pio. He may have been Football god at one stage but it seems that is in the past. Also hard to change my opinion of him when he plays about 30 seconds a game. It's a joke. And it comes down to Babbel and then the board to take responsibility for these kinds of decisions. Now I'm enduring Sydney up 3-0 at half time. Say what you will about them - I'm no fan, but they're doing something right and we are pissing all of the first few years of club history up against the wall and that is very hard to watch.