City Insider - City v Wellington - Sunday 16 May

CITY INSIDER

MELBOURNE CITY FC vs WELLINGTON PHOENIX SUNDAY 16 MAY, 2021 KICK-OFF 4.05PM

MELBOURNE CITY v WELLINGTON PHOENIX

CITY INSIDER SUNDAY 16 MAY

CAPTAIN’S MESSAGE WE’RE BACK AT AAMI PARK TONIGHT FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A WEEK. WHILE IT MAY BE CLEARLY A PRETTY HECTIC PART OF OUR SCHEDULE, LET ME TELL YOU THAT WE WILL NEVER, EVER GET SICK OF PLAYING AT HOME. Making it even better is the form the boys have been in as of late, we’ve now won all of our last eight home fixtures in a row and will be looking to make that nine tonight when we take on Wellington.

I was honoured to make my 100th appearance for the Club on Thursday night. I’ve absolutely loved my time here and the support from you all across the four years I’ve been here and into the future I’m sure. It was great to cap the night off with a goal but more importantly, the three points.

City Football Academy is a great place to be at the moment and the boys are all pumped up and ready to go again tonight.

After spending a lot of the early part of the season on the road, this run of home fixtures has been great for us not only to be able to sleep in our own beds every night and not have to worry about travel, but most importantly to be able to play in front of our home fans as much as possible.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, the support you all give us is much appreciated by the whole playing group, coaching group and staff. We hope to see plenty of City blue in the stands again tonight and hear you all making plenty of noise.

I also must make mention of Jamie Maclaren who became our Club’s all-time leading goal scorer on Thursday night. It’s a massive achievement and we all love playing alongside him.

We’re well wary of the threats Wellington pose after our clash with them earlier this season, but we know if we can play our best football across the 90 minutes, we’ll be able to pick up our ninth win in a row at home.

C’mon City!

Scott Jamieson Melbourne City FC captain

Together We Move

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MELBOURNE CITY v WELLINGTON PHOENIX

CITY INSIDER SUNDAY 16 MAY

CITY INCH CLOSER TO PREMIERS PLATE TONIGHT WE WILL BE LOOKING TO EXTEND OUR CLUB RECORD RUN OF EIGHT HOME WINS WHEN WE HOST NINTH PLACED WELLINGTON PHOENIX AT AAMI PARK. We are also currently on a Club record unbeaten run of eight games as we continue to create space between ourselves and the chasing pack on the ladder.

Coming in off the back of a 4-1 win against Adelaide, it is safe to say that our current form couldn’t be much better.

Both full-backs were on the scoresheet in the opening half on Thursday night, Captain Scott Jamieson bagging an early goal via a deflection in his 100th appearance for the Club before Scott Galloway joined the party on the stroke of half-time with his second in as many games.

The visitors came out strong in the second half and pulled one back early through Ben Halloran, before a

Jamie Maclaren double in the space of 10 minutes had the three points safely within our grasp.

We are are far-and-away the heaviest scoring team in the league, now up to 52 goals for the season (10 in the last three games), which is 13 better than the second placed Wanderers.

Potentially even more pleasing for Head Coach Patrick Kisnorbo is the fact that we have also conceded the second least goals of any team in the A-League, having allowed 24 goals over 21 matches played.

Sunday’s opponent – Wellington Phoenix – rank around the middle of the pack in both of these metrics but we’ll definitely be well wary of the threats they pose.

The visiting City side twice saw the

Phoenix equalise when the teams met in Wollongong early this year, before a Marco Tilio header in the 83rd minute was enough to secure the three points on the road.

Wellington’s push for finals is still alive, having not lost since that night.

They’ll be eager to start turning one point into three points though, having recorded scoreless draws in each of their last two fixtures.

We’re unfortunately set to be without Andrew Nabbout for tonight and the next period, the winger suffering a tear to the adductor tendon in his left thigh on Thursday night.

DANGER PLAYER

SEASON STATS - WELLINGTON PHOENIX

A-LEAGUE PREVIEW

TOMER HEMED One of the Phoenix’s star recruits during the 2020/21 season, former Israeli international Tomer Hemed has come out of his shell in the A-League.

With fellow import Ulises Davila out through injury, the weight of expectation will be on Hemed to push the Nix towards an unlikely finals berth during the final month of the season.

Hemed had stints at Brighton Hover and Albion, Queens Park Rangers and Charlton Athletic before his move to the Kiwis and will look to make an impact in the final third tonight.

9

7

LEAGUE POSITION

GAMES WON

32

29

GOALS SCORED

GOALS CONCEDED

A-LEAGUE LADDER

LAST RESULT

LAST TIME WE MET

ADELAIDE

0

WELLINGTON

2

WELLINGTON

0

MELBOURNE CITY

3

A-League 2020/21 - Match Week 21 Friday 7 May, 2021 Coopers Stadium

VIDEO HIGLIGHTS

A-League 2019/20 - Match Week 15 Monday 5 April, 2021 WIN Stadium

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MELBOURNE CITY v WELLINGTON PHOENIX

CITY INSIDER SUNDAY 16 MAY

CITY POWER ON AND OFF THE PITCH WHILE CITY’S RECENT FORM HAS BEEN SCINTILLATING, BEHIND THE SCENES THINGS HAVE BEEN A LITTLE DIFFERENT FOR THE PLAYING SQUAD AND COACHING STAFF, PARTICULARLY ASSISTANT COACH DES BUCKINGHAM. An Achilles injured sustained by Head Coach Patrick Kisnorbo saw him sidelined for a period of time, leaving Buckingham to fill the void and step into the role as the main man.

It wasn’t completely without precedent; Buckingham having already done so back in Round 14 against the Wanderers when Kisnorbo was struck down with food poisoning on the morning of the match.

City would go on to win that fixture 4-1 with the star-studded front three all on the scoresheet.

This was far from the first time Buckingham was in the hot-seat though, having previously taken charge of Wellington as the caretaker coach following the departure of then head coach Ernie Merrick in season 2014-15, remaining there until 2017.

He’s also held roles as an assistant coach within Stoke City’s ranks, as well as the New Zealand national team set-up.

Despite not having Kisnorbo on the sidelines for its recent fixtures against Perth and Brisbane, City didn’t appear to miss a beat – taking maximum points from both matches.

“It’s always an interesting one with the boss away,” Buckingham

told SEN. “I’ve had three games in charge now, one earlier in the season when PK was sick and obviously the two recent ones when he was out with the Achilles and wasn’t even around the Club.”

“It’s a real test for me of what’s been built over a period of time… ‘is it true?’ ‘Do players believe in it?’ ‘Do they stick to it?” he said.

There’s no doubt City continued to roll on even without their Head Coach, pleasing Buckingham and the rest of the coaching staff.

“From the challenging situation of losing the Head Coach, whether it be through illness or the way it’s been in the last couple of weeks, the players have really shown that what they’ve built and what we have built as a collective stands true.”

It’s been a scintillating run of form in recent times for City, the team currently on two Club record runs; an eight-game home win streak, along with an eight-game unbeaten run.

Despite so many moving parts, the team has continued to build and improve constantly, something that Buckingham has loved to see.

“Not only have they continued to work extremely hard, but the

performances have stayed the same and in patches they’ve been getting better in that time period,” he said.

“It’s down to a lot of things but we’ve got a very mature group of players that have been able to see that through and nobody is talking ahead of what’s happening in the next game and that’s how you keep focussed.”

The familiarity within the playing and coaching ranks has been clear this season for City, and Buckingham points to that as a big factor for the team’s success so far this season.

“I’m the only staff change from last year,” he said.

“The Club has been able to retain a very big core of last year’s playing group and the staff which has allowed it to have some real consistency for this year.”

With Kisnorbo’s return to the sidelines on Thursday night, Buckingham has now graciously stepped back into his usual assistant coaching role, and there’s no doubt that he and the coaching staff will be fully prepared for this evening’s clash against Wellington.

MATCH SQUADS

HEAD COACH: PATRICK KISNORBO

A-LEAGUE

1. TOM GLOVER

2. SCOTT GALLOWAY

3. SCOTT JAMIESON

4. NUNO REIS

5. DANIEL GEORGIEVSKI

7. ROSTYN GRIFFITHS

8. AIDEN O’NEILL

9. JAMIE MACLAREN

10. FLORIN BERENGUER

11. CRAIG NOONE

13. NATHANIEL ATKINSON

14. NAOKI TSUBAKI

15. ANDREW NABBOUT

16. TARAS GOMULKA

17. STEFAN COLACOVSKI

18. CONNOR METCALFE

19. BEN GARUCCIO

20. ADRIAN LUNA

22. CURTIS GOOD

23. MARCO TILIO

33. MATT SUTTON

35. RAPHAEL BORGES RODRIGUES

36. KERRIN STOKES

38. JORDAN BOS

42. AHMED TALEB

1 20

STEFAN MARINOVIC OLIVER SAIL

2 3 4 5 16 21 27

LIAM MCGING LUKE DEVERE TE ATAWHAI HUDSON-WIHONGI JAMES MCGARRY LOUIS FENTON JOSHUA LAWS STEVEN TAYLOR

6 7 8 10 12 14 23 32

TIM PAYNE RENO PISCOPO CAMERON DEVLIN ULISES DAVILA MATTHEW RIDENTON ALEX RUFER CLAYTON LEWIS SAM SUTTON

9 11 13 15 17 31

DAVID BALL JAUSHUA SOTIRIO CHARLES LOKOLI-NGOY MIRZA MURATOVIC TOMER HEMED BEN WAINE

HEAD COACH: UFUK TALAY

WELLINGTON PHOENIX

MELBOURNE CITY v WELLINGTON PHOENIX

CITY INSIDER SUNDAY 16 MAY

CITY YOUTH TAKE DOWN GEELONG MELBOURNE CITY FC’S NPL3 SIDE SECURED A HARD-FOUGHT 1-0 ON SATURDAY NIGHT, TRAVELLING TO GEELONG WHERE IT WAS ABLE TO TAKE ALL THREE POINTS THANKS TO A LATE LUCAS BYRNS STRIKE. Geelong’s Anthony Trajkoski created the best chance of an evenly-contested opening 10 minutes, the midfielder’s strike from just outside the area fizzing past Taleb’s left post.

The City keeper did brilliantly to keep the scores level in the 22nd minute, producing a world-class diving save to tip away a closerange, top-corner-bound effort from a scramble in the six-yard box following a corner.

Geelong continued their dominance of the chance-creation in an otherwise dry opening third of the game, with Taleb forced into another great reflex save to deny Masudi’s huge chance to score from close range in the 32nd minute.

Taleb’s heroics belied the trend of otherwise solid defending in the opening 45; Geelong’s few attempts were from great areas, despite an overall lack of chances for either team.

Having struggled to make inroads into the opposition penalty area in the first half, City made a much stronger start following the break.

Jordan Bos set the tone in the 48th minute with an incredible, oddsdefying individual slalom past multiple defenders into the box to fire off a low shot and test Kieran McDowell in goal.

Bos’ early opportunity also marked the start of a wild patch of end-toend play that made for an exhilarating middle-third of the game, both keepers called into action on several occasions to keep the scores level.

The midfielder tried to help the ball into the top right corner, but was marginally too heavy with his touch, with the effort looping narrowly over the crossbar instead.

The local crowd rose to their feet in unison in the 70th minute when they thought Trajkoski had netted the winner for Geelong but the shot instead skimmed the outside of the post. City started to get its act together in the final ten minutes, with Caputo and Grimaldi getting away shots at goal.

However, the big moment of the game came in the 85th minute when City were interplaying well around the boundaries of the penalty area and were eventually able to work the ball wide to Byrns, who cut inside and buried his curling effort into the top-right corner.

SEASON STATS - MELBOURNE CITY NPL

KEEP AN EYE ON...

NPL REPORT

RAPHAEL BORGES RODRIGUES While he may not have been on the scoresheet last night, City attacking midfielder Raphael Borges Rodrigues has been enjoying a strong start to this NPL3 season.

Having come off the bench in the hub last season, he does have one A-League appearance to his name and he continues to push for more first team opportunities.

With City all but set to lose striker Jamie Maclaren to Socceroos duty in coming weeks, further opportunities could present themselves for the younger members of the squad, Borges Rodrigues included.

He's now up to five goals this season, including a hat-trick against Whittlesea last week.

LAST RESULT

2

5

LEAGUE POSITION

GAMES WON

22

10

GOALS SCORED

GOALS CONCEDED

NPL 3 LADDER

NEXT MATCH

GEELONG

0

MELBOURNE CITY

MELBOURNE CITY

1

BALLARAT

NPL 3 Victoria 2021 - Round 8 Saturday 15 May, 2021 Stead Park

NPL 3 Victoria 2021 - Round 9 Sunday 23 May, 2021 KO: 6.00pm Casey Fields

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MELBOURNE CITY v WELLINGTON PHOENIX

KID’S ZONE

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CITY INSIDER SUNDAY 16 MAY

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