There’s nothing quite like a massive transfer fee to hang over your head like a toilet seat. Especially if you’re being signed by Jose Mourinho, especially if it’s to play for Manchester United, especially if your name is Paul Pogba.
Could it have been different if Chris Wood had been 100%? What about the overly defensive formation to start the second leg? Were a few of those young players a little raw to perform in such circumstances? Or did Rory Fallon not fulfil his leadership duties sufficiently?
Hudson said before the first leg that if the All Whites can still be in the contest coming round the final bend in Lima then they have a plan. Whatever could that plan be? Hmm… there are a few ideas out there.
The All Whites are busy training in Peru and thus the top male leagues are all in an international break but that doesn't meant that the world stops turning. There’s plenty other Flying Kiwis happenings going on
Once upon a time the All Whites went to Bahrain in the first leg of a World Cup playoff and came back with a battling 0-0 draw. The second leg, as they say, was history.
The biggest game of football to be held in Aotearoa in at least the last four years (if not eight, really) is close enough that it’s almost time to pick up that old stained white jersey from the drycleaners.
No reason to panic, The Woodsman was back and swinging his axe on the weekend just like Winnie was. And also like Mr Reid, Woody was equally rusty in his return after missing last week.
It’s the definitive squad of Huddo’s reign. It’s the culmination of everything he’s been building towards – they contracted him ‘til the end of the World Cup campaign for a reason. Okay then, let’s make sense of it all.
We’ve seen more than enough Welly Nix seasons to know that one win can spark a run of four or five… yet right now that one win is acting pretty elusive. Leprechaun levels of elusion.
Its funny, we were all pondering the impending departure of one national team manager and all of a sudden another goes ahead and unexpectedly resigns. Tony Readings has called time on his tenure in charge of the Football Ferns
Stefan Marinovic only really booked his place as the ‘Caps number one about a week ago but he’s already started twice in the knockout stuff, not even conceding a goal in the process. That’s the form we wanna see, mate.
Word on the street is that Anthony Hudson is close to agreeing his first gig of the rest of his career. It’s like the second album test, how do you follow up coaching the mighty All Whites?
Three weeks out from the World Cup qualifying playoffs, it seems like every game involving a New Zealand or Peru player has taken on this extra context now. That context being a simple one: DON’T GET HURT!
Slaven Bilic could lose his job soon. With Crystal Palace and Leicester City already having dumped their managers that leaves West Ham as the next likely candidate… after Ronaldo Koeman at Everton, of course.
Of all the things going on within football in Aotearoa these days, Andy Durante limping off late in the Phoenix’s 3-2 defeat away to Sydney late the other night wasn’t the most immediately memorable.
‘Where All Whites are made’, goes the tagline. Once upon a time that would’ve been more insult than inspiration but in recent times it seems like they might just be onto something.
And here we had it, the game that we’d all been waiting for, a Flying Kiwis Premier League Derby for only the third time in history and Chris Wood’s first experience of such conflicted stakes.
And with that the All Whites will compete for a place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup against Peru, over two legs, home and away, in November. Maybe that’s a better prospect than playing Chile or Argentina but Peru didn’t seem too intimidated by the opportunity.
When Vido Jr put that header away five minutes in it seemed like we were in for golden times at the Wellington Phoenix. It was strangely reminiscent of the goal the All Whites scored, actually.
Leading your sports news tonight… Abby Erceg is one game away from captaining successive NWSL championship teams. That and the small matter of the biggest Flying Kiwis Derby of all time which is coming up.