One of the best things about a new season is its inherent unpredictability.
Anticipation builds with every shock result, every opportunity for the established order to be challenged by a coach with new ideas or a team with new players.
That has been borne out even at this early stage, with Central Coast Mariners surprise leaders after two matches — an impressive feat regardless of the validity of a table after just three, incomplete match weeks.
This year though, the biggest questions appear to be around the fixtures, with COVID-19 causing chaos around the competition.
There were just two matches in this, the third round of the competition: Western Sydney Wanderers’ 2-1 victory over Newcastle on Friday night and Saturday evening’s entertaining and controversial 1-1 draw between Macarthur and Wellington Phoenix.
Brisbane Roar’s match against Melbourne Victory that was set for Sunday, January 10, has been postponed as a result of the Brisbane lockdown. Perth Glory hasn’t even played a game yet.
Yet despite the confusion off the field, one depressingly familiar frustration still has the power to frustrate supporters, as Wellington Phoenix fans found to their cost at Campbelltown.
Wellington bemoans VAR decision
The displaced Phoenix looked exceptional in the first half, returning to their pre-COVID form of 2020 with a dominant midfield performance thanks to Alex Rufer, Alex Devlin and Ulises Dávila.
The visitors deservedly led 1-0 at the break thanks to David Ball’s 39th minute goal after some lovely work down the left from James McGarry.
It should have been more too, with Ivan Franjic performing heroics repeatedly at the back as the blue shirts of the New Zealanders flooded forward uninhibited.
However, the game turned in the second half thanks to the depressingly familiar beacon of controversy — VAR.
Phoenix midfielder Rufer was sent off for violent conduct after the VAR adjudged that he kicked out at Denis Genreau after the Macarthur player delivered a studs-up challenge in the centre of the field.
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How the VAR came to that conclusion is anyone’s guess. Rufer was lying on his back, eyes closed in pain after Genreau caught him with a studs up tackle before running into his leg, but nevertheless, referee Stephen Lucas was moved enough by the replay to change his decision from an already-dubious yellow card to a straight red.
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In fairness, Macarthur had been growing into the game, but the red card changed the dynamic, and when Markel Susaeta fired past Stefan Marinovic it seemed as though momentum would carry the new kids on the block to a second win of the season.
But Wellington held firm for a share of the points that their performance surely deserved.
NSW no home-from-home for Phoenix
Last year the Phoenix played some of the best football in the competition on their way to third spot on the ladder, before losing in the elimination final to Perth.
However, that only tells a small part of their story.
As was the case with every team, Wellington’s season was split in two due to the coronavirus shutdown — and the Phoenix struggled massively after relocating to the New South Wales bubble.
Prior to the shutdown, Wellington was flying, predominantly off the back of their home form.
Of the 11 games it played in New Zealand (ten in Wellington, one at Auckland’s Eden Park), Wellington won eight, drew one and lost two — which were, incidentally, its first two home games, the first and third matches of Ufuk Talay’s managerial reign.
However, in the bubble, the Phoenix won just one in six — not including the finals defeat to Perth.
Phoenix has now not won in its last seven games in New South Wales — a problematic statistic seeing as this is home for the foreseeable future.
One of Wellington’s biggest attacking threats during last season’s exceptional run to third on the ladder came, in part, through their talented left side, with Liberato Cacace and Reno Piscopo.
There must be a conveyor belt of talent in New Zealand though as the Phoenix repeatedly tested the Macarthur defence down the left through the hugely impressive McGarry and Clayton Lewis.
Wellington can and will feel hard done by after Saturday’s controversial decision, but must now stew about it for two weeks. Its next match is not until January 24.
Fixture chaos adds to unpredictability
These fixture issues are likely to prevail for the immediate future, although the A-League is confident that it will be able to complete the season regardless.
“We gained a significant amount of knowledge from the staging of the 2019/20 season which enabled us to move quickly and respond to these latest changes,” A-League boss Greg O’Rourke said in December when 39 A-League games and four W-League matches were impacted by the Avalon cluster.
Whether that is a realistic possibility, with rolling border closures the norm for the foreseeable future, remains to be seen.
Perth Glory is yet to play a game and will not until Wednesday January 20 — moved back from January 16 — when they meet Adelaide who, given current border restrictions, are the only club they could realistically face.
Instead the Glory have had to find intra-state opposition, battling Perth SC in a pre(?) season friendly at Dorrien Gardens on Friday night, where Bruno Fornaroli scored to secure a 1-1 draw.
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“It wasn’t what I wanted, but at the same time, the guys got to play for an extended period against an opposition that wasn’t us, which was fantastic,” said coach Richard Garcia.
At the moment, this interrupted start to the season might not be the one we all want, but at least football is still happening, in its own gloriously entertaining way.
