Melbourne City winger Marco Tilio has struggled to gain match time this season, but on Sunday the 21-year-old got the chance to book his ticket to the World Cup in Qatar.
Despite City not getting the three points, Tilio put forward a solid case to Socceroos manager Graham Arnold to include him on the flight to Doha next month.
Tilio was electric running up and down the right wing, his speed and agility allowing him to track back and help on the defensive efforts whenever City lost possession.
Tilio’s agility benefited Melbourne City in the 15th minute, when he was able to collect an errant pass from Phoenix right-back Tim Payne, allowing City to hit the counter with Tilio having a shot on target that hit the arm of Payne, winning a penalty that star striker Jamie Maclaren swiftly put away.
The often hard-to-please Melbourne City manager Patrick Kisnorbo came just short of praising Tilio outright in the post-game press conference.
“I think it was more about the pressure on the ball and the positioning which allowed him to be in those situations and if it was on the other side [of the pitch] it would have been Lecks [Leckie],” Kisnorbo said.
“So it was just in the areas that we pressed, we were getting the ball quickly and he was in that position where we wanted him to be and obviously he got the penalty and he got his goal.”
Wellington Phoenix manager Ufuk Talay was quick to point out that both of City’s goals, which heavily featured Tilio, were both scored on the counter after the Nix’s own mistakes.
“For me honestly, I believe we didn’t deserve to lose the game,” Talay said.
“I thought we started the game off well, considering two goals came from our own mistakes. Turnovers. They hit us well on the counter and scored two goals. Other than that, I thought we had full control of the game at moments we played straight through them.”
The Nix did have control for most of the game, the stats show that they had 58 per cent possession throughout the match, however, Melbourne City’s squad were clinical when they were able to get the ball in the opposition’s half.
An example of this was in the 34th minute when City was able to win the ball back in the midfield which was then played to Leckie, who executed a beautiful diagonal pass to Tilio who calmly and precisely slotted it into the back of the net.
In a World Cup group with the likes of France and Denmark, the Socceroos will most likely be looking to play on the counter as they will struggle to control possession against quality opposition. Tilio looms as a perfect option.
This game was ideal for Arnold to put Tilio under the microscope to see how he fares when playing a game for a team that is not dominating possession.
He would have been pleased to see the performance of Tilio although selection headaches are never enjoyable for head coaches.
If Sunday was anything to go by, Tilio is looking like an important piece in what is looming as one big selection puzzle for the Socceroos.
Feature Image Credit: Melbourne City
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