WELCOME FROM GM DAVID DOME Nau mai, haere mai and welcome back to WIN Stadium in Wollongong for the men’s second Isuzu UTE A-League match in 14 days. They made a great start to the ‘February Football Frenzy’ by beating Macarthur FC at Campbelltown on Sunday. The 3-1 score line was the least the team deserved for what was a comprehensive showing against a talented Bulls side. It’s the first time this season they’ve recorded back-to-back wins in the league and I get the feeling they’re about to go on another memorable run. Jaushy showed great resilience to bounce back from his first-half misses to score twice and secure the three points that lifts us on to the verge of the top five. He will be making it hard for Gary Hooper to get back into the
side once Hooper shakes off his hamstring injury. It’s great to have that competition for places throughout the team.
get on with the job and never complain. They have a great set-up in Chatswood and top-quality training facilities at Valentine Sports Park.
Centre back Finn Surman is another one who has seized his opportunity. Finn has broken into the first-team at the age of just 18 and has been a revelation while we wait for our latest signing Scott Wootton to shake off his niggly quad injury.
This wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the support of our commercial partners on both sides of the Tasman.
Today’s opponents Melbourne Victory are fresh off lifting the FFA Cup on Saturday night. They are a fantastic team, but we showed in our semi-final we can compete with them. With Clayton and Tim back from international duty, Gael close to full fitness and Oli over his hip injury I believe we now have the depth to test them for the full 90 minutes.
Spark, Oppo, Chemist Warehouse, ELMO and Gazley-Skoda are the men’s biggest supporters and the team also gets great local assistance from Fraternity Club, BaiMed and Southern Classic Cars. Nothing happens on the pitch without the support of these great businesses. COYN!
It’s been enormously challenging for the team having to relocate for a third season in a row, but the players, coaches and management
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YOUR 2021/22 WELLINGTON PHOENIX SQUAD #3
DEF
#4
MID
#8
GAEL SANDOVAL
# 11
JAUSHUA SOTIRIO
MID
# 18
FWD
BEN WAINE
#6
#9
FWD
# 14
# 10
# 16
ALEX RUFER (CAPTAIN)
DEF
SAM SUTTON
MID
RENO PISCOPO
MID
# 19
DEF
TIM PAYNE
DAVID BALL
NICHOLAS PENNINGTON
DEF
CALLAN ELLIOT
MID
# 13
DEF
JAMES McGARRY
BEN OLD
FWD
# 17
#5
SCOTT WOOTTON
MATTHEW BOZINOVSKI
#7
DEF
DEF
LOUIS FENTON
# 20
GK
OLI SAIL
YOUR 2021/22 WELLINGTON PHOENIX SQUAD # 21
DEF
# 23
MID
JOSH LAWS
# 33
CLAYTON LEWIS
DEF
# 34
FINN SURMAN
# 88
# 31
MID
# 40
GK
11
FWD
GEORGE OTT
# 43
ALEX PAULSEN
FWD
FWD
OSKAR VAN HATTUM
Ben Folami
FWD
13 Birkan Kirdar
MID
14 Jay Barnett
MID
15 Aaron Anderson
DEF
16 Stefan Nigro
DEF
17 Brendan Hamill
DEF
19 Nick D’Agostino
FWD
1
Matt Acton
GK
20 Ivan Kelava
GK
2
Jason Geria
DEF
21 Roderick Miranda
DEF
3
Jason Davidson
DEF
22 Jake Brimmer
MID
4
Rai Marchan
MID
23 Marco Rojas
FWD
5
Matthew Spiranovic
DEF
24 Nishan Velupillay
FWD
6
Leigh Broxham
DEF
25 Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio
FWD
7
Christopher Ikonomidis
FWD
26 Lleyton Brooks
FWD
8
Joshua Brillante (captain)
MID
27 Zaydan Bello
DEF
9
Francesco Margiotta
FWD
34 Gianluca Iannunci
FWD
MID
Coach: Tony Popovic
10 Robbie Kruse
COACH UFUK TALAY
# 32
KURTIS MOGG
JACKSON MANUEL
GARY HOOPER
DEF
FEATURE:
POSITIVITY THE KEY FOR IN-FORM PHOENIX FORWARD Jaushua Sotirio is on pace for the most productive A-League season of his career.
The speedy forward showed his resilience to score a second-half brace against Macarthur FC on Sunday and triple his goal tally for the 2021/22 Isuzu UTE A-League season. He also found the back of the net a couple of times on the Phoenix’s run to the FFA Cup semi-finals. Sotirio scored four league goals in each of his previous two seasons with the Wellington Phoenix after tallying no more than three during his five years with Western Sydney Wanderers. The 26-year-old could have had five goals against Macarthur, in what was just his fourth start of the A-League season, after blowing a hat-trick of chances in the first-half. He had a goal disallowed after drifting off-side, sprayed a shot well wide of goal when one-on-one with Macarthur’s ‘keeper and headed over the bar from inside the six-yard box after an inch-perfect cross from Sam Sutton. “Obviously I was very disappointed going into halftime. I had two chances I definitely should have scored, but I’ve got a great group of team-mates beside me and coaching staff that…gave me the extra confidence to keep going,” Sotirio said.
“First half I was thinking ‘aww wow this is not my day’ and even second-half I had another shot hit the cross-bar and I was like ‘not again, here we go again’.” His team-mates and the Phoenix coaching-staff put their arms around Sotirio at halftime and picked him up. “I was feeling down. I was disappointed in myself. They just told me to keep going, keep staying positive and that was pretty much the message to me. They gave me the confidence and it paid off in the second-half. “That’s what we’re here for you know. It happens to the best of us. That’s football sometimes so…it’s all normal.” Jaushua Sotirio put the Nix ahead with his first goal midway through the second-half, when he pounced on a loose ball, raced forward and squeezed the ball past Filip Kurto in the Macarthur goal. “Definitely relief. I was like ‘aww finally I got the first one in [and] anything can happen from now on’.” Sotirio’s second was a more assured finish. He brought down a raking diagonal pass from Sutton and calmly lifted the ball over Kurto
and into the back of the net. “I just kept being positive and it was a great ball from Sutts, got a good touch and a good finish so I was very happy, very pleased.” It is that positivity which Sotirio believes was key. “That’s what I pride myself on, never giving up and believing in myself so I went out in the secondhalf with lots of positives and kept going for it and luckily I scored. “It’s the most chances I’ve had in a game so definitely lots of ups and downs. “Luckily I got those two goals in the end which is very positive for myself and the team [because] now we build momentum going into the next couple of games.” It was the Phoenix’s first back-toback wins of the league season and lifted them off the bottom of the table. “We definitely needed it. With where we were on the ladder… to get the win was very important for us. “Now that builds momentum going
into the next couple of games. We’ve got short turnarounds now so we’ve got to stay in shape and keep the momentum going.” Tonight’s match against Melbourne Victory is the Nix’s second game in 14 days and Sotirio is embracing the testing schedule.
Jaushua Sotirio is far from daunted by tonight’s challenge. “It’s on the day to be honest in the A-League. I feel like everything’s pretty even.
“I love it. We love playing games so less training, more games that’s what we’re all about.
“We could have beaten them in the semis. We were 1-nil up and I had a chance, I scored [but] I ended up being off-side and then unfortunately things happen and they turned it around.
“Recovery is going to be key and we’ve got a great group, a lot of depth in the squad so everyone is going to be majorly involved.”
“They’re great team, no doubt about that but we’ll go into it with lots of positives and hopefully we’ll keep that momentum going.”
Victory are the newly crowned FFA Cup champions, having beaten the Phoenix 4-1 in their semi-final in Geelong last month.
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THE PHOENIX WISHES TO THANK THE FOLLOWING BUSINESSES & ORGANISATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT THIS 2021/22 SEASON: P R I N C I P A L
P R E M I U M
C O R P O R A T E