The televised games schedule in this comp is massively flawed and skewed pretty much towards wherever is the closest to the home base studios so they don’t have to carry those expensive cameras anywhere dangerous (like the South Island)… but they got it spot on this week.
It was still looking alright as we neared half-time… and then it all fell to tiny little pieces shattered on the marble floor. Thirty seconds short of stoppage time and it ain’t like the Nix had been flawless at the back but they were mostly good value for the 1-0 lead (cheers to Filip Kurto, who is proving a top notch keeper).
Tom Sermanni made eight changes for the game against the Cook Islands, giving a mostly second-string team a good old workout. Up against Fiji for top place in the group, Sermanni made eight more.
There’s a lot to be gained from a very timely tour like this. For one thing, any extended amount of time working with the coaches in camp is valuable, let alone when the head coach has only recently taken over. Plus hanging out on the beach in the sun on recovery days is basically guaranteed to restore morale to the squad after some tough times.
There are always ways the league can be better but public criticism only feeds into the view that it’s not worth the attention. The media shapes those ideas. Premmy Files has always been about giving positive coverage to the competition. Positive coverage feeds positive interaction.
Can you hear the echoes in the hallways? The house creaking and shuddering as if haunted by the silence within? That’s because it’s an international window for the male players and all the Football Ferns, while not in an international window, are away in New Caledonia for the Nations Cup.
It was a shocking bit of news when South Korea withdrew from their proposed friendly against Australia in Brisbane just a few days out from the match. It was to have been Graham Arnold’s second game in charge of the Socceroos…
By the looks of their training camp and the general talk of good, good, good, good vibrations (and excitations) it sounds like the Ferns are beginning to get their mojo back… but the Nations Cup is a business excursion and Tom Sermanni’s first starting eleven proved as much.
Over in our televised contest it was Southern United paying visit to Trusts Arena and Waitakere United. Lucky buggers Waitakere who have already been on telly three times from their five games, but you already know that Sky TV were all sorts of stingy with their telly schedule.
Seven months out from a World Cup, this is not really the time you want to be settling into coaching changes. It’s when you want to be smoothly refining your team for maximum potential on the game’s biggest stage.
Better slap on a raincoat and get your umbrella out because the drought is over, friends. Thrust back into the starting lineup for the midweek league game against Free State Stars and it took Jeremy Brockie less than twelve minutes to finally bust the dam.
It was the most fascinating matchup we’ve seen so far this season: Eastern Sububrs hosting Auckland City. With all due respect to the opener where Auckland City met Team Wellington, those two have played each other so often in 2018 that we sorta knew what we were getting and could just settle in for the ride.
If your perception about this team changed after last night’s defeat then you weren’t paying close enough attention because this is the level they’re at.
Mark Rudan is a defiant kinda person. He wants his players to feel like they’re up against it in this league and he’s apparently driven by those same chips upon his own shoulders himself, as you can tell from a bit of drummed up controversy this week.
Once upon a time West Ham vs Burnley would’ve been appointment viewing for any self-respecting kiwi footy fan. It sure was last season as Chris Wood scored late and he and Winston almost had a friendly tussle about it all tangled up in the goal net.
It’s a tough gig for Paul Temple and the Welly Nix, trying to balance competitiveness with, you know, being a reserve team playing in the National League. Their squad changes heaps from year to year and their best players are all trying to get promoted to the first team.
Two proper games in now, a 2-1 win at home against Newcastle and a 0-0 draw away to Brisbane, and we’re getting a much better idea of what Mark Rudan wants this side to look like.
This Tom Sermanni fella doesn’t mess around, does he? Confirmed in the job on Friday and by Monday morning he’s already named his first Football Ferns squad. It’s the squad that’ll scrap out the Oceania Nations Cup later on this month for a place at the 2019 World Cup in France.
Marinovic ends his season with 24 matches played, earning three yellow cards and keeping those two clean sheets. He conceded 45 times in those 24 starts, making 65 saves. You know what else this means? Bill Tuiloma is the only New Zealander left in the MLS as the playoffs begin.
There must be something in the waters of the great Waikato River because Hamilton Wanderers are only two games into the new term and they’ve won them both. Repeat: The Tron Wands are on a winning streak!