What a magical night in Wellington as two of the A-League's best water-polo specialists showed us how those years flapping about in the pool were worth the pain and tears.
It was a night where every proud New Zealander who had recently caught World Cup fever could come out to support the 'shadow all whites', but only if they were not marooned in their homes and didn't own some sort of seaworthy vessel.
Why did this game go ahead?
Who knows why, but it did go ahead and both teams had to deal with the same conditions.
POSITIVES
United came to play football. Yes it was the wrong sport on the night but they played it anyway. They moved the ball well and worked as a team in a performance that would have earned them three points in the opening round.
Miron played Caravella from the first whistle and with great results. I am going to blissfully assume he read my last blog and agreed with my assessment. His impact was both immediate and defined the team's positive approach, continuously launching United's attacks in the first half.
Smeltz - two goals down, 18 to go. (ps. I'm tipping him to break the 20 goal mark if he stays)
A comeback of sorts. One criticism of the team's inaugural campaign was its inability to claw back goals, while not an outright win it was good to see this 'never say die' attitude. This is the mindset a team needs to be champions.
NEGATIVES
Gee... I don't know, maybe the abysmal condition of the ground? Who else here drooled at the sublime movement of the ball as it splashed and sloshed down one flank and gracefully slammed to a dead stop on the other?
The fact that on a horrid night like this a team that is being outperformed only needs to send a cross anywhere near the box and it will result in a goal from a ping pong effect as the players, blind from the driving rain, thrash wildly at the shapes flashing in front of them.
Watching grown men slip over for 90 minutes is only really funny when accompanied by a laughter track from funniest home videos.
Watching the rain wash away a potentially huge crowd, thus giving the 'crowd snipers' more ammo in the never ending battle of whose game has more bums on seats. I was really hoping to see a massive groundswell of support for our sheep loving friends post world cup. I still hope to see it soon and was very impressed that over 8000 of them braved the tides to swim to the cake tin.
ASSESSMENT
Good spectacle; Bad game. United always looked capable of scoring many goals while Phoenix seemed to stumble upon theirs - however - no matter how they were scored they all counted. A draw was fair, and I really do hope to see the GC United water polo team put that enthusiasm and game plan into action on dry ground in the weeks to come.
