Wellington Phoenix players will become Melbourne Heart fans for a few hours on Sunday night.
Wellington Phoenix players will become Melbourne Heart fans for a few hours on Sunday night.
With Sydney FC accounted for, the Phoenix will be watching Sunday’s second A-League elimination final between Perth Glory and the Heart to see who they will face next weekend.
A win for Glory and the Phoenix will be making the arduous trip to Western Australia. If Heart prevail it will be another game to look forward to at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.
And it’s clear exactly which outcome the Phoenix players are hoping for at nib Stadium.
“I think we’ll have a Heart party on Sunday,” said Paul Ifill who scored the match-winner from the spot in the 3-2 win against the Sky Blues.
“A barbecue round mine and we can be Heart fans for the day and hope they can do it. There’s nothing better than getting a second game here (in Wellington).”
That sentiment was echoed by Tim Brown, who got the opener on Friday night when he poked the ball home early in the second half.
“I don’t want to go to Perth,” said the midfielder, who will retire at the end of the season to pursue his studies in Britain.
“But if that’s what we have to do then that’s what we’ll do. We’ve risen to every challenge this year. When we’ve been down and out and it’s really counted we’ve risen to that.”
“If we have to go to Perth we’ll go to Perth. I don’t think it fazes us but certainly if we don’t have to that it would be better.”
Wellington certainly didn’t have everything their own way in Friday night’s clash with Sydney.
A dour first half produced few genuine chances for either side. Sydney’s best came in the 18th minute when Joel Chianese fired in the perfect cross for Bruno Cazarine only for Phoenix defender Ben Sigmund to get a foot to it to blaze it over the bar.
Andrew Durante, who gave the captain’s armband to Brown for the match, forced a great save from Ivan Necevski a few minutes later but it was no surprise when the teams entered the break goalless.
All that changed in a dramatic second half that began with Brown’s goal and ended with four others being scored in a seven-minute burst close to full-time.
First, an unmarked Sigmund headed home in the 79th minute and a Phoenix win looked certain.
But two goals in three minutes by Chianese gave Sydney real hope of forcing the match to extra time until Michael Beauchamp brought down Ifill in the box and the Barbadian international fired it into the top right-hand corner.
“It was just surreal,” said Ifill. “It seemed like the three goals – their two and our one – were within about a minute. At 2-2 they must have thought they were right back in this and in the ascendency.
“For us to get a penalty must be gut-wrenching for them. To be honest I thought they were really good (Friday) night. They were hard to break down. It’s probably a bit harsh on them.”
