The All Whites turned up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup with two stated intentions: to win a game and to progress to the knockout stages. They did neither of those things.
Sixteen teams remained, eight of them have now been eliminated after the fourth round of the Chatham Cup took place over the weekend. Still regional match-ups to this stage but a surprising number of non-top tier teams made it this far up north to keep things interesting
You won’t be seeing Emma Pijnenburg in a Wellington Phoenix jersey next season because she’s heading back to the Netherlands. She already spent a couple years with Feyenoord before joining the Nix…
The top of the Central League table has taken another reshuffle after Napier City Rovers won 3-2 against Wellington Olympic in a fantastic game of footy. Luke Stoupe put Olympic ahead after 23 mins…
For a while there, we had room to dream. The All Whites made it to their third game still in with a chance of making the knockout rounds, all it would have needed was the greatest result in the history of football in Aotearoa.
The saying goes “No Payne, No Gain” therefore by logical extension Much Payne must equal Much Gain. Two years of contracted Tim Payne is a lot of Payne so when the biggest club in Paraguay, Club Olimpia, agreed a transfer for Tim Payne after the World Cup…
It was all going swell at half-time. Finn Surman’s towering (unmarked) header and another intense, energetic performance from the All Whites, full of clever interplay and sturdy defence, had the lads leading 1-0 at the break against Mo Salah and his Pharaohs
This was the week that the Oceania Pro League players returned. Four weeks after Auckland FC lifted that championship (overshadowed by another one they lifted that same weekend), we have begun to see the various kiwi players involved in that competition dispersed back around the league
In 1982, the objective was simply to get to a first World Cup amidst an absolute odyssey in qualifying. In 2010, it was time to show that New Zealand belonged at that level by grinding out some results. In 2026, it’s not only about getting back to the World Cup, it’s not only about getting results…
It was another cup weekend this time around with the Chatham Cup and Kate Sheppard Cup both reaching their fourth rounds. That’s last 32 teams for the Chats, last 16 teams for the KSC
A few spare days after Haiti whupped the All Whites 4-0 (admittedly in an unserious warm-up game), their women’s team completed the set with a 2-1 win over the Football Ferns. Neither team had ever played against Haiti before... not sure we’ll ever want to play them again after how that all went.
A-League Premiership in year one. A-League Championship in year two. Even a cheeky Oceania Pro League title in there for good measure. It hasn’t taken long for Auckland FC to pack that trophy cabinet full
The loss against Haiti was rubbish from the All Whites but at least it was misleading rubbish. Most of the damage was done after Darren Bazeley began making wholesale changes, sharing the minutes around to get his whole squad moving.
The funky thing about this round is that the top four, separated by just two points, all played each other... and nothing’s any clearer now than it was a week ago. That included a wonderful game between Western Suburbs and Napier City Rovers which…
This All Whites team has been trying to turn potential into results throughout these last few years and they haven’t really done it yet. We’re long since past the stage where good performances carry much weight, these days the task is to score goals and win games.
It’s Ligue 2’s St-Étienne and it will remain Ligue 2’s St-Étienne after Les Verts were beaten 4-1 in the away leg of their promotion playoff against Nice. This following the 0-0 draw at home on Wednesday.
Here’s a rare weekend of footy that began on a Thursday. There were Chatham and Kate Sheppard Cup games across the country and since it was a long weekend the Northern League folks managed to squeeze in a full league round as well.
After guiding the Wellington Phoenix to the grand final with an extra-time second-leg win against Brisbane Roar at a sold out Jerry Collins Stadium in Porirua, Bev Priestman did a post-game interview where she was asked…
The last time we saw the Football Ferns was in World Cup qualifying a few weeks ago when they booked their ticket to Brazil 2027 with a 1-0 win over Papua New Guinea in the final with a performance that…
Darren Bazeley claimed a few weeks ago that Minnesota United were being careful with Michael Boxall’s adductor injury and that he’d have been playing a lot earlier if it were playoffs or whatever.