- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It was a tale of two halves but nonetheless an exciting encounter for the opening weekend of the season, as Melbourne City took a 1-0 win on the road over Wellington Phoenix.
» Re-live the match with our live blog
City in the first half at times were electric. Kamau and Brandan on the wings were dynamic, creating alot of headaches for Merrick and his men.
The majority of the half was played in City’s possesion. Phoenix had their patches of the ball but were just severely lacking in that final third.
The addition of Michale McGlinchey and Losta Barbarouses over the coming weeks will aid them a lot – but the first half was all about City.
Luke Brattan was dominating the middle of the park, the link between him and Bruno Fornaroli as they play together more will become a serious threat to all sides.
If it wasn’t for Moss in the first half city could have well been up 2-0 or 3-0, he made some brilliant stops against Fornaroli and Fernando Brandan.
Once Thomas Sorensen was sent off in the 57th minute after handling the ball outside the box to stop the rampaging Roy Krishna on goal, the game was, as you would expect, completely turned.
Phoenix attempted to dominate possesion in the final third but were just lacking that killer instinct and that final ball.
Krishna had a huge chance in the 79th minute with a one-on-one with Dean Bouzanis but instead of crossing it across the box to the open Rogerson, attempted to go around Bouzanis who got his hand to the ball and knocked it away.
Apart from that City defended quite well and never looked in any sort of danger of conceding a goal.
John van’t Schip would be happy with his team’s first half performance and will look to build on that next week in the Melbourne Derby.
The addition of Tim Cahill to that team will only further strengthen that line-up for the title challenge which looks likely in the season ahead.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.