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.
Let us begin at the summit, where Birkenhead United have been hanging out for a couple of months. Birko remain first after this week’s fixtures... but the lead has been narrowed after they only drew 3-3 against West Coast Rangers.
Gabi Rennie was in a generous mood for Eskilstuna United’s penultimate game before the summer break. She didn’t score as Esky won 4-0 against Gamla Upsala, instead she simply set all four of them up.
It was only a fortnight ago that the previous cup rounds took place but the games keep flowing so it was time for third round fixtures in both the Chatham Cup and Kate Sheppard Cup
There’s a Men’s U20 World Cup happening in a couple of months, if you didn’t know, and the New Zealander team has been busy in preparation. They just popped over to Chile for a couple of games.
Getting over that initial barrier and proving you can get results against top sides is one thing, but a World Cup group stage involves three matches in a short space of time and one good result usually doesn’t cut the mustard.
Dunedin City Royals had won seven outta seven heading into this week but a trip to face Cashmere Technical away posed one of their trickiest fixtures yet. Nevertheless, they did in this game what they did in all the other games.
This two-game trip to Canada marks a new phase for the All Whites, going from qualifying for the World Cup (by beating lower-ranked nations) to preparing for the World Cup (with games against much higher-ranked nations)