As we prepare for a couple more meetings between the All Whites and the Socceroos, it’s worth remembering that these teams went 11 years without playing each other between 2011 and 2022. They’ll have played five times in three years once the 2025 Soccer Ashes are through.
The Portland Timbers had three debutants in their starting line-up away against San Diego FC with summer signings Kristoffer Velde, Felipe Carballo, and Matias Rojas all involved... but the real headline was 21-year-old Finn Surman being given the captain’s armband
Which brings us to the most important game of the week: Tauranga Moana vs Hibiscus Coast. If Tauranga won, they’d secure their spot in the top division for another year at HC’s expense. If the Coasties won, they’d go ahead of Tauranga on goal difference
To think that there were people out there genuinely panicking about Nottingham Forest’s lack of preseason goals, completely overlooking the inevitability of The Woodsman in their presence.
It was semi-final weekend for both of our national cup competitions with the last four clubs in the pots scrapping it out for a trip to North Harbour Stadium.
The new season has arrived and even though Liberato Cacace only featured briefly at the end of Wrexham’s preseason, he still went straight into the eleven for the match against Southampton
The shenanigans in the latest round of Men’s Northern League were almost indescribable but let’s do our best because this much craziness ought to be recorded for posterity.
Going from four League Cup games against lower division opponents to suddenly hosting Rangers on matchday one of the new Scottish Premiership season is definitely diving in at the deep end. But Elijah Just had no dramas with it.
The inevitability of Wellington Olympic means it’s only a matter of when, not if, they clinch their fifth consecutive Central League championship. They were away against the Wellington Phoenix Reserves who had their Aussie Cup reps back for this game.
Callum McCowatt was injured this time last year, meaning that he missed out on Silkeborg’s Europa League qualifiers against Molde of Norway. This year it’s only Conference League qualifiers but McCowatt is fit and firing and coming off the finest form of his career.
The cup stuff swung back around this weekend as the last eight clubs in the Chatham Cup were chiselled into four. Gotta start with the defending champions Wellington Olympic, who faced Western Suburbs in a Central League duel at Endeavour Park.
Who saw that coming, aye? Wrexham had reportedly been after Liberato Cacace for weeks but they were only one of a long list of clubs you could say that about (and that’s just the ones we heard about).
There’s nothing quite like a good old top of the table bonanza. That’s what we got at Shepherds Park on Saturday when Birkenhead United hosted Western Springs seeking to reclaim the first place badge that they’d been wearing for most of the season
Elijah Just’s Mothwerwell move was confirmed last Thursday NZT with the Scottish club paying an undisclosed fee to sign him on a two-year contract (with a club option for a third). This reunites him with coach Jens Berthel Askou who previously signed Just at AC Horsens.
Sound the bells because we have a new leader in the Men’s Northern League…
Sarpreet Singh has landed in Serbia, ready to add another language to his Duolingo lessons. In a career that’s already taken him from Wellington to Germany to Portugal, he’s now signed a two-year contract with TSC Bačka Topola in the Serbian SuperLiga.
That’s right, time for another cup week and leading the way are the quarter-finals of the Kate Sheppard Cup. Final eight. No time to wait.
Michael Boxall may have told reporters that he didn’t want the spotlight of MLS All Star status but the voters didn’t listen, sending him on the way to his first ever selection. The squad was announced last Thursday NZT and…
What do ya know, the old mates at Auckland FC have made another couple of reserves signings. They already added Benjamin Perez Baldoni (15, Ellerslie) and Nathan Martin (17, Fencibles) a few weeks back and in the last few days…
This was a week for transfers... but there are a few stray games involving kiwi footballers sprinkled in here. Like, for instance, another silky victory for Joe Bell’s Viking FK as they continue to hang out at the very top of the Eliteserien.