Check this out, then. Barcelona turned up in South Africa just like they said they would and put on a show for a massive crowd at FNB Stadium in Soweto… Jeremy Brockie, of Nelson, New Zealand, got to play against Lionel Messi and the lads.
They were always going to be lifting the trophy after what they did last week. Team Wellington are too good of a team to be complacent enough to blow this with so much on the line… and besides, after a 6-0 win in the first leg the margins for error were pretty enormous.
Safe to say this squad announcement was overshadowed pretty much everywhere by the situation going on with Abby Erceg’s re-retirement… everywhere except in NZ Football’s announcement which barely even acknowledged Erceg.
Heaps of talking points from the latest Football Ferns squad which has been announced for the friendly against Japan next month. The fact that the game is taking place in Wellington is one of them, as is the quality of the opposition…
Yeah, nah, Woody was all good to play against Bournemouth. Not only that but he broke the goal scoring stalemate in the most poacher way possible – purposefully deflecting a teammate’s shot into the net to score the goal for himself.
The idea that a professional club could split its home games between two different cities in two different countries, with two different fan-bases, wearing two different home strips, is potentially the dumbest compromise since Abraham Lincoln promised his wife a trip to the theatre.
Team Wellington have never been to a Club World Cup (only Auckland City and Waitakere have ever represented Aotearoa there) and they were clearly pumped up for this one, not about to let it slip like Stevie G.
Depends who you ask, to be honest. There are large portions of fans from five other top six teams who’d make a pretty virulent argument that The Red Devils aren’t getting much credit on account of how trash they’re playing.
Riddo missed just one game last season, only Goran Paracki played more minutes. It was a breakout season for the 22 year old having spent several years on the fringes waiting for his chance and when he finally got it he thrived.
Michael Boxall versus Stefan Marinovic, a couple essential figures at the back for the All Whites but rivals on the field over in the MLS… especially with Mikey facing up against his old employers. So which one of them clung on to a rare clean sheet?
The Football Ferns are coming home! They’re gonna play Japan in Wellington on 10 June, a rare dip into local waters and hopefully resounding proof of how far this team has come over the last few years.
Do you know who the next Wellington Phoenix manager is going to be? Can you drop a mate a line if you do, maybe get TNC that big scoop? Help some independent kiwi media battlers catch a break?
Three straight defeats including the rock bottom 6-0 loss last week and Big Stef and the Whitecaps were in dire need of a result to get things back on track. And, oh look, they got one. A 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake.
For seven straight years Auckland City has reigned supreme in Oceania. Season after season they’ve triumphed in the Champions League and as their reward they’ve represented the confederation at the Club World Cup.
The Wellington Phoenix have gotten a lot of bad press this season. A lot of it they brought upon themselves, a lot of it was drawn from their unstable future, some of it probably had to do with fan fatigue and the rest was just a pile on.
And guess who scored a couple goals for his Dutch club this week? None other, mate. Marco Rojas scored both as Heerenveen beat Den Haag 2-0, shooting them up into the Europa League playoff spots.
Sure, the Premiership ended a couple weeks back… but not everyone’s gone back to their winter clubs just yet. Auckland City and Team Wellington still have the small matter of trying to qualify for the 2018 Club World Cup to worry about.
Manchester City absolutely blitzed the field in Pep Guardiola’s second season in charge. They had one hand on the Premier League title before the turn of the year after a record 18 consecutive wins (and 22 unbeaten games to start the season) left the rest of them all eating dust.
The end of one season means the beginning of the next when it comes to professional sports, there’s no time to dwell on the past and if the future isn’t being planned already then you’re only falling further and further behind.
Burnley played another game so you know what that means… another goal for the tally of Chris Wood. Another win for the Clarets as well and coupled with Arsenal’s latest defeat that European qualification is looking a decent flutter.