2017 was a massive year for football in New Zealand. Headlined of course by the All Whites and their World Cup qualifiers against Peru, plus the Confederations Cup trip, but there was plenty going on all across the park.
There’s a little bit of confusion around the NZ Premiership tagline: ‘Where All Whites Are Made’. This is an amateur league after all, one which the best players from Aotearoa are seeking to escape.
Ordinarily a 0-0 draw away to Central Coast isn’t such a bad result for the Wellington Phoenix. Problem is that when you’ve only won one game from 12 and are slipping further and further out to sea at the bottom of the table, draws don’t really do the trick.
Chris Wood had one major moment of note here, working hard to win the ball back from Serge Aurier in the attacking third. He fed the ball wide to Steven Defour and then gassed it to the near post where the cross was swiftly played...
It doesn’t get any easier, does it? Sitting bottom of the table with only one win from ten and all this is going on to boot. Then you add in the injuries they’re suffering and it’s like what else could go wrong next. Westpac Stadium gonna burn down?
The NZ Prem's taking a little break for a few weeks for turkey stuffing and that makes this a perfect time to catch up on the competition so far, from Auckland City's recent dominance to Hamilton Wanderer's remarkably loyalty to losing games.
Busy week, this one. Zwolle had two games with the Eredivisie going hard on a midweek set of games and since Ryan Thomas never misses a second that meant 180 minutes in the space of four days. Nothing he can’t handle of course.
Reid picked up a yellow in the 67th min, wrestling down Alvaro Morata in the Chelsea half as the Blues threatened a counter. Doing what’s gotta be done. One of a few Hammers to be booked for, erm, tactical fouls as this game dragged on towards a hard-earned final whistle.
It’s way too early to be calling the Premier League title race now, it’s not even Christmas yet. Victory in the Manc Derby puts Manchester City eleven points clear of Man United with their record fourteenth league win in a row but plenty of water has to pass under the bridge before the trophy gets engraved.
The World Club Cup journey didn’t last very long for Auckland City this year. Up against the host reps and champions of the United Arab Emirates, Al Jazira, they went down 1-0 to a first half goal from Brazilian Romarinho.
Hey, remember a month ago when the Wellington Phoenix beat Perth 5-2 and we were hoping that’d be the start of a long and prosperous run of form? Yeah, about that…
The cross took a lucky deflection to get to Woody but his positioning was fantastic. Dragged a defender away to allow Brady to cut back and got himself in the right place at the right time for the sharp stabbed finish. Mate, didn’t he love it?
Apparently British managers don’t get a fair crack in the English Premier League. At least that’s the way the saying goes, although it’s hard to tell whether anyone actually still believes that.
Deklan Wynne, Francis de Vries, Myer Bevan and Stefan Marinovic all found themselves contracted to the same Canadian/MLS club in 2017... only the Wellington Phoenix have more professional kiwi players.
Oh so the All Whites don’t have a manager? Big deal, the Footy Ferns’ manager left way before. Plus it was way more unexpected and only a few weeks out from their next games.
It’s the game we’ve all been waiting for, Heerenveen vs Zwolle, Rojas vs Thomas… the only problem was that Marco Rojas has slipped back into a bench role and didn’t get the start here. Thommo did, of course, since Thommo never misses a minute for the PECers
The All Whites came close to the 2018 World Cup. Within a couple of goals of it, even. But what might this team look like as they try do it all over again in four years' time?
The only surprising thing about Anthony Hudson leaving the All Whites is the talk outta NZF HQ that they were confident he’d stay. Like, at what stage did they think he was leaning towards another swing in the kiwi ring?
The United Soccer League is a second tier American football division, featuring reserve and affiliate teams for almost all of the MLS clubs. Deklan Wynne, Francis De Vries, Myer Bevan, James Musa, Kip Colvey and Bill Tuiloma all played USL in 2017.
He wasn’t supposed to play. The long haul back from Peru with his injury history? No chance, surely. Except that new boss David Moyes has been dealing with some injured centre backs already and frankly he didn’t have much of a choice.