The Wellington Phoenix started brilliantly against the Melbourne Victory in their elimination playoff. Right from the start they looked sharp and energised, as Roy Krishna found and pocket of space and lashed one goalwards off his left foot for Lawrence Thomas to save.
There’s definitely a defensive feel to this squad, with a fair few fringe forwards left out of the picture. More than that it’s an extremely experienced squad. The only players with fewer than ten caps are two reserve keepers and a couple defensive alternatives. 14 of the 23 players have at least 50 caps and there are six centurions with a 99-capper in there too.
Here we are then. Friday night at 9.50pm at AAMI Park in Melbourne. It’s the Melbourne Victory against the Wellington Phoenix with the winner advancing to play either Perth or Sydney in the semi-finals and the losers can finally get back to work on that long-ignored novel they’ve been writing because their season will be over as swiftly as a Valyrian steel dagger to the gut.
Woah matey, who saw that one coming? For eight consecutive years and eleven times out of the last twelve the OFC Champions League has been won by a club from Aotearoa, the one exception being Hekari United’s triumph in 2010 and even that was still against Waitakere United in the final.
Bill Tuiloma has constantly planted one foot in front of the other and made strides ever since joining the Timbers. First it was establishing himself with the reserves at USL level. Then it was working in as a defensive option on the bench for the MLS team. Then it was a couple of impressive starting efforts in the playoffs last season when injury/suspension struck the squad.
But let’s be honest, if Mark Rudan was prioritising this game in any way then he wouldn’t have made six changes to a winning team. That alone was a dead giveaway for his priorities here. Meanwhile Perth have a bye next week because of being minor prems and all that plus they rested their dudes last week so they didn’t wanna go three weeks without a decent hit out.
A minor tweak for the usual number tahi Timon Wellenreuther and Michael Woud, fresh from being named in the Junior All Whites for the U20 World Cup in a few weeks, was up for his second Eredivisie start.
The Nix have been a confidence team this season with their fate constantly swinging with the hype of their results. That hype’s on the downswing at the moment. They needed one more of those ahead of that playoff game to get the buzz going again and they needed it desperately.
Bad news is a well-liked and successful manager leaving your football club. Worse news is when that manager is almost certainly leaving to join a rival club in the same competition. Worst news is when three-quarters of your current squad are still unsigned and might all decide to pop across and join the old gaffer at his new club.
Des Buckingham has named his 21-man squad for the upcoming U20 World Cup in Poland in five weeks and, mate, it’s a doozy. There are senior internationals, there are overseas professionals, there are Ole Academy stars, there are Wellington Phoenix grads.
Speak it into existence. Chris Wood knows the trick. Saying the words aloud is the first step towards success and the first hurdle to overcome in that process. The rest may as well be inevitable.
Alright good people, settle down now. Mark Rudan is leaving at the end of the season. We sorta already knew this news was coming though, right? If he wasn’t willing to shut down the speculation then it meant he was considering it and if he was considering leaving then he was always going to eventually decide that he had to go.
We’ve had a couple days now to contemplate the events of Friday evening. The news breaking about Mark Rudan was one thing, and it’ll get plenty more words as the week progresses, but the performance in Brisbane was unacceptable regardless of whatever else was going on.
It’s been two months since the Ferns polished up their Cup of Nations work in Australia. It’s two more months before they kick off their 2019 World Cup campaign. Things are seriously ramping up right now and Tom Sermanni has been working against the clock from day one so there’s honestly just no time left for stutters or setbacks.
Oh so you thought that Premmy Files was over? Nah mate, plenty more going on even as the season’s come to its glamorous conclusion. The winter club season’s well underway now but Team Wellington and Auckland City still have another few weeks of challenging for silverware as the Champions League hits its latter stages.
In the 18th minute Chris Wood popped up at the far post and get in there, lad! Asmir Begovic came leaping for it from the corner kick but couldn’t get a touch on the ball and Chris Wood basically had an open header from half a yard out. No dramas for that fella. None whatsoever.
Important football fan lesson: never get too far ahead of yourself. Three wins in a row for the Nix… that was something special. Fifteen goals in 270 minutes. But all against teams outside the top six. Travelling to Adelaide was always going to be much tougher task.
People, your patient wait is over. It is time for the second annual Premmy Files Team of the Season. And not just one team either like most jokers, but three teams ranked in order. First team, second team, and third team.
If we’re being honest then the Nix got away lightly on the ol’ injury front until pretty recently. For the longest time it was a couple spare games missed by Filip Kurto in which Oli Sail chipped in brilliantly anyway, and maybe a couple niggles for a couple fringe players that didn’t really affect anything. Suspensions were the bigger problem.
Michael Woud has been staying ready. Since transferring from Sunderland to Willem II last year he’s been making moves in the background, already working his way up to back-up goalie status and even earning a new contract a few weeks back.