Eugene Dadi was the toast of Wellington on Saturday after his double on debut helped secure the Phoenix their first ever Hyundai A-League win against Brisbane Roar.
After Tim Brown had opened the scoring in the 26th minute, Dadi turned on the magic to double the home side’s lead early in the second half with a spectacular bicycle kick before a smart finish six minutes later handed Wellington a 3-0 lead.
Dutch striker Sergio van Dijk scored a late goal for the Roar to make the final score 3-1.
“It was quality, absolute quality,” said Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert of Dadi’s first goal in Wellington colours.
“I think that’s the mark of the player. He brings that. He’s got a brand Eugene and he’ll be a crowd favourite.”
“It was just an excellent goal. That’s in his locker. I don’t think every player has that but he certainly does.”
Skipper Andrew Durante, who set up the Ivory Coast striker for his wonder-goal, added: “He’s 36 years old and to be able to do that is pretty impressive.”
Dadi only arrived in the New Zealand capital from Perth this week but his influence is already being felt.
“He gets in good positions and makes himself available,” said Durante. “He was a great target man for us. He held things up, got in the box and our instructions were to get the ball to him, get early crosses in and it was fantastic.”
The win at Westpac Stadium was the Phoenix’s first against the Roar in nine attempts and lifted them to fourth on the ladder.
“They are a good mobile side and if you don’t shut them down they can hurt you,” said Herbert.
“I thought we were organised enough tonight to deal with a lot of those things. They are a good team and it’s a good result for us.”
It was also the first time the New Zealand side had strung together back-to-back victories this season.
“We had little lull when we had suspensions and injuries that took us off the boil a bit but we’ve come back strong,” added the coach.
Van Dijk’s goal was of little consolation to a side that has conceded eight goals in its past two matches and has seen the departure of Craig Moore, Charlie Miller and Liam Reddy – who had a strong game in goal for the Phoenix on Saturday.
Durante believed filling the gap left by Qantas Socceroos defender Moore would be the hardest task for Brisbane.
“They are going to miss his leadership, his organisation. He’s pretty much been the heart and soul of that club for the last two seasons. They look a little bit disorganised,” the Wellington captain said.
Roar coach Ange Postecoglou was once again left to rue his players’ costly lapses in concentration at crucial times.
“It looked like we were in control and causing them a few problems but then we conceded a pretty soft goal from our point of view,” he said.
“That put us on the back foot and in the second half we were chasing it a little bit and you’re always going to leave some gaps and again conceded two goals from crosses which was disappointing.”
“Overall I think we created enough opportunities in the front half just defensively we let ourselves down.”
He continued: “We have got to stop leaking goals. If you look at the stats we’ve probably conceded more goals than any other team in the league and that says it all.”
“That’s a team thing as much as an individual thing. You don’t want to take away from our attacking side of the game because I thought we created six to eight good opportunities.”
“You don’t want to take away from that but obviously we need to shore things up at the back.”
