Saturday\u2019s concessions were probably the worst yet. The first came after just 28 seconds, as Jesse Randall beat the offside trap before squaring to Sam Cosgrove. The Phoenix did well to recover mentally \u2013 and grabbed a spectacular equaliser through Ifeanyi Eze \u2013 before their defensive high line was undone again in the 34th minute, through the timing of the pass and the blistering pace of Randall. Wellington\u2019s high line has been a major talking point and was something Auckland were always going to target, as an obvious Achilles heel.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously a lot of teams are speaking about it, even Chief [Giancarlo Italiano] is speaking about the high line,\u201d Auckland FC coach Steve Corica said. \u201cWe did it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Corica was surprised at the instant success with the rapid first goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut obviously we work on it at training, the high line and trying to get in behind. It worked out perfectly. The timing of the run was good. The ball was great over the top, Sam was in a great position also to tap in.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a brave tactic by the Phoenix, especially without key defenders Manjrekar James and Tim Payne, which left them with four players aged 21 or under in their backline. Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano felt his players has been too eager to step forward and simply got their timing wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very disappointed. It felt like we actually gave them the two goals,\u201d Italiano said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at this way. If we execute and the line gets beaten because our players are still in sync then that\u2019s on me, but when we don\u2019t execute or the players are going away from what we instruct then it\u2019s more about correcting that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italiano added there will be teething issues with the strategy and they will have to be persistent and patient.<\/p>\n
The Phoenix always looked a bit fragile, especially with the speed of Randall, who broke the game open in the first half. It was another reminder of his progress and particularly sweet for the 23-year-old, who came through the grades in the capital but was unable to get a shot with the Phoenix.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we\u2019re very happy to have him in Auckland,\u201d Corica said. \u201cHe\u2019s finding his feet, after last season, being his first year in the A-League. He\u2019s doing a great job for us defensively, working hard, but now he\u2019s starting to pop up with some very important goals for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Randall is already shaping as one of the biggest movers of the season<\/a> and his form will be increasingly hard to ignore, especially in the All Whites equation. <\/p>\n Overall, Corica was thrilled with the application and resilience from his team, reduced to 10 men in the 52nd minute with Dan Hall\u2019s red card, then seeing out 20 minutes with nine players, after Logan Rogerson was dismissed. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m extremely proud,\u201d Corica said. \u201cDerbies are never easy with 11 men and when you go down to nine obviously it made it extremely hard. But they dug deep, they put their bodies on the line and they defended their box really well\u201d.<\/p>\n He had no issue with Rogerson\u2019s dismissal but questioned the validity of the Hall red card, claiming that Corban Piper had handled as he chased a through ball and also felt that Francis de Vries was close in cover.<\/p>\n \u201cSo out of the two, take your pick, so hopefully they can have a look at it, maybe take it off him,\u201d Corica said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know what the rules are for that.\u201d<\/p>\n After the international break, Auckland FC host the Brisbane Roar on November 23 (3pm), while the Phoenix return to action against Macarthur on November 22 (5pm) in the capital. <\/p>\n Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a Sports Journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But in the cold light of day, this is another painful defeat, continuing an unfortunate pattern for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9092,27500,51,24558,47738,26845,87460,87461,111,139,69,57694,10715,4514,8628,213,52,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-125746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-against","9":"tag-aleague","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-defensive","12":"tag-derby","13":"tag-fc","14":"tag-fragility","15":"tag-haunts","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-phoenix","20":"tag-remains","21":"tag-same","22":"tag-song","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-wellington","25":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jesse Randall of Auckland and Xuan Loke of the Phoenix battle for the ball. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n