Less than three weeks out from the beginning of the new season and the Welly Nix currently have sixteen registered players. Same as they had in early August when Alex Rufer was announced as having re-signed with the club.
Today is a day of reckoning for today was the day on which the much-awaited Muir Report was finally released to the public. At 1330 hours, specifically. It arrived on NZ Football’s website with a headline reading: ‘NZF apologises to Football Ferns’, and as far as the organisation in question went, things only got darker from there.
Some stuff happened here, mate. Very curious indeed. The Whitecaps were expected to build upon 2017’s playoff appearance but instead they’re lingering on the outside of contention, playing some annoyingly defensive footy and paying the price.
Poor old Winnie hasn’t played a game since he mangled his knee in a heavy defeat against Swansea City in early March. He’s only played four competitive games in 2018.
Anthony Hudson’s Colorado Rapids were eliminated from playoff contention two weeks ago when they lost 3-0 at home to Atlanta United. Six games still to play at that point but they had no mathematical chance of making the knockout stuff.
If Abby Erceg is a household name in Aotearoa then it’s because of her role as a catalyst in exposing the inequality in New Zealand Football’s treatment of our women’s national team. If Abby Erceg is a household name in Aotearoa then it’s not because of her club career and that’s a shame.
No, your eyes do not deceive you. For the second time in three seasons Abby Erceg has lifted the NWSL championship trophy, as captain no less. A 3-0 win over Portland Thorns did the trick.
The Phoenix have never been ones to do things quickly. It took ages to appoint a new manager after Darije Kalezic parted ways with the club - even if you ignore the caretaker spell then it was still ages.
These are odd times for Flying Kiwis with Ryan Thomas and Winston Reid both out injured. Tyler Boyd is on the way up but he had a week off this time, Abby Erceg always holds down the fort but her game was postponed. Ali Riley’s injured.
New Zealand Football’s trying a little harder these days with the women’s side of things. Giving the Kate Sheppard Cup a name was a good move, as was the decision to expand the National Women’s League into a two-round competition.
On comes Rosie White and she scores with her first touch of the ball, smashing it past the keeper after the deft assist from Aussie Sam Kerr, dropping it right at her feet. Bit of a trans-tasman connection over the in the dirty states, also Rosie’s first goal for Chicago after joining from the disbanded Boston Breakers in the offseason.
Shout out to Kiwi Cup Final Day, the harmonious occasion when grassroots kiwi footy gets the spotlight it deserves. Gotta love it.
Heraf had to go, there’s no doubt about it. He had to go because it reflected an unacceptable lack of transparency and accountability to have him acting both as Tech Director and a national team coach – which is Andy Martin’s fault most of all and also why he had to go too, good riddance.
Burnley needed goals if they were going to qualify for the Europa League group stages. Lots of goals, at least two of them, after losing 3-1 away to Olympiacos in the first leg.
This club has dealt us some real trash in the last twelve months and that’s before even bringing up the all or nothing gamble that was Darije Kalezic, a gamble that shredded their last bit of on-field credibility and led us to this point now where Mark Rudan is having to rebuild almost from scratch.
Chris Wood always scores in the Europa League, it’s one of the things that he does. After putting one away against Olympiacos on Thursday night in Greece, he now has a second goal in three starts (plus one appearance off the bench).
It’s not always easy to figure out what’s going on in the world of football and the Wellington Phoenix can be as perplexing as they come. Right now there’s a new manager overseeing what’ll be basically a new squad in the hope of winning enough games to earn a new licence.
All this talk about Jose Mourinho. Jose didn’t get the transfers he wanted, Jose’s fallen out with Paul Pogba, Jose says it’ll be a difficult season, Jose’s lost the dressing room, Jose’s picking on his players again…
Medical all sorted, first training sessions with the new teammates completed, and Ryan Thomas was ready to face the media as an official member of PSV Eindhoven. He signs on a four year contract and will wear the number 30 jersey, same as he did with PEC Zwolle.
It was never going to be an easy task, these OFC games always have their challenges. Particularly at this age when you don’t have so much experience tackling this very unique and particular battle.