Thurgate pegs Phoenix back as Wellington, Western draw
Wellington Phoenix have blown their chance to put two New Zealand sides on top of the A-League Men ladder, sharing the spoils with Western United in their season opener.
Angus Thurgate equalised for the visitors on Sunday, cancelling out Kosta Barbarouses’ first-half injury-time goal in a 1-1 draw to begin their campaigns.
The Nix hoped to replicate the start of their new Kiwi rivals Auckland FC, who won their inaugural match to sit on top of the competition.
However, in a disappointing start for last year’s second-placed finishers, John Aloisi’s second-bottom side pegged them back in a game neither was able to grab hold of.
Still, a little slice of history was made at Sky Stadium, with five Japanese players on the field for the first time in A-League history.
Both sides went shopping for J.League experience during the off-season, with Wellington’s Hideki Ishige and Kazuki Nagasawa and Western’s Hiroshi Ibusuki joining Tomoki Imai and Riku Danzaki, already at the Melbourne club.
Western United, missing Ramy Najjarine and Ben Garuccio and with Noah Botic on the bench, battled to create scoring chances, with Wellington only slightly more dangerous.
On the half-hour mark, Kiwi commentator Jason Pine offered a generous appraisal of a low-tempo match when he said it was still waiting for its moment of inspiration.
Without key players Marco Rojas (fractured leg) and new signings Paulo Retre (groin) and Stefan Colakovski (conditioning), Wellington manager Giancarlo Italiano set his side up in a defensive 5-3-2, while allowing right-back Tim Payne licence to get forward.
Barbarouses hit a volley wide, and at the other end Payne produced a last-gasp header to clear Danzaki’s dink to the back post.
Other than that, it was fairly ho-hum until first-half injury time when Sebastian Pasquali – playing as a number six – earned a yellow card for persistent fouling.
From Ishige’s free kick, Isaac Hughes sent a header back across goal, where Barbarouses’ outstretched boot beat Matthew Sutton’s gloves to the ball.
Barbarouses had a pair of half-chances to double the lead early in the second half.
The All Whites forward was bundled over by Sutton while chasing Scott Wootton’s long ball, which went untouched and bounced wide, then sent an audacious overhead kick high.
Sensing opportunity, Thurgate struck, opening up Wellington’s defence with a neat turn and playing through Botic, who cut back for the midfielder to rifle home.
The match was finally alive, with chances flowing at each end.
Matthew Grimaldi took the ball from the halfway line into Wellington’s box before shooting wide, and Alex Rufer botched David Ball’s centre, firing wide despite having plenty of time.
When Payne ran on to an injury-time long ball, the 7535-strong crowd stood up one last time, but his shot straight at Sutton meant a fair result for rusty first-round bodies.
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