Marco Rojas’ star is definitely on the rise. The livewire midfielder produced a man-of-the-match display to inspire Wellington Phoenix to a 2-0 win against Melbourne Victory on Wednesday night.
Rojas ran rings around the Victory as he set up Dylan Macallister’s opener before sealing the valuable three points with a goal himself in the 72nd minute.
“He’s definitely a star. If he keeps going like this then bigger and better things are going to come his way,” enthused Phoenix captain Andrew Durante.
“He’s got a level head. He’s not a kid with a big ego or anything like that. He knows his place. He’s definitely a star for the future.”
The 19-year-old’s mazy running, ball skills and pinpoint crosses into the box had the Victory defenders bamboozled all night and it was only some outstanding saves from Michael Petkovic that prevented the scoreline for blowing out even further.
“There are not many players in the A-League that will take on defenders like that so often and consistently,” said Durante.
“He’s full of confidence and that’s exactly what (coach) Ricki (Herbert) wants from him.
“We get the ball to him and he takes them on. He’s creating chances and scoring goals as well so we can’t ask much more from him.”
Wednesday night’s performance was by far and away the best by Wellington this season.
The return of Tony Lochhead at left-back after a three-month injury lay-off saw Manny Muscat restored to his holding midfield role and that allowed Vince Lia and Tim Brown to pour forward.
“I think if you’ve got a natural left-footer they are more relaxed going forward and more confident in getting up that line. That’s what Lochie brings,” said Durante.
“Manny breaks up everything. He can create as well. He’s good with the ball at his feet. It gives the back four a lot of security as well and I think the way we set up today was good.”
“We got the wingbacks forward and everyone did their job. Dylan at the front held the ball up well and to be honest I don’t think there was a bad player on the park.”
“The whole team were outstanding. We wanted this so badly. We wanted these three points and I don’t think anyone has ever battered Melbourne like that before.
“We just kept going, wave after wave, and it was outstanding and the boys are over the moon,” added the skipper.
The Phoenix, who now sit one point behind sixth-placed Melbourne Heart with a game in hand, have a short turnaround with a tricky trip to Central Coast on Sunday followed by another tough away fixture against league leaders Brisbane the following weekend.
But Durante said with two wins and a draw from their past three matches the team was ‘quietly confident’ they could repeat last year’s late run and make the finals series again.
“We started peaking this time last year and we’ve gone undefeated in three. But we’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“Central Coast away and then Brisbane away they are very, very tough games. We have to remain level-headed and take it game by game. But there is no reason why we can’t go on and do a similar thing to what we did last year.”
