With all the intense effort and attitude that it takes even just to get yourself in contention to be picked for a World Cup, the last thing you wanna see is a player having their dream shattered three days out from the start of the tournament thanks to injury.
The post-Roy Krishna era of the Wellington Phoenix has begun with one of the more impressive kiwi signings this team has ever made. Stefan Marinovic has joined the Welly Nix on a two year contract, directly replacing Filip Kurto as the number one with the gloves and with that a regular All Whites starter has returned to the motherland.
And completing the clan with the last three groups. Do the research. Enjoy the World Cup.
Dishing up the goods ahead of what’s only gonna be the biggest, most competitive FIFA Women’s World Cup in history.
The Football Ferns had a brilliant win over England on the weekend but just in case anyone was getting carried away they went and chased that with a 1-0 defeat against Wales. It was a comedown game in many ways.
People, we’re living rent-free on controversy corner right now. The kiwi U20 lads were up to some magical things in Poland and were on the brink of history when keeper Michael Woud pounced to his left to deny Andres Perea for Colombia. It was Woud’s third straight save to start the shootout.
Two games in the space of a few days with promotion to the top flight on the line. Nikko Boxall’s Viborg finished second on the ladder by a single point and so were confident coming into it against Hobro but their opponents weren’t about to phone it in and be relegated just like that. Gotta earn it.
All you can do in these tournaments, in this sport, in all of life, is to put yourself in the best position to succeed and the rest is up to fate/luck/spiritual providence. The kiwi lads did that. They showed up and competed at a level that we’ve never seen from a New Zealand side at a FIFA tournament (definitely not a men’s side, at least).
After losing 5-0 to the USA a bit over a week ago, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the Footy Ferns were in for similar treatment against another World Cup contender as they faced England in Brighton. Instead it turned out to be the best result the Fernies have had for at least a couple years.
The lads went down to a 2-0 defeat against Uruguay, which doesn’t do too much damage to things on the surface but it was a disappointing result and a game which wasn’t really worth getting up for especially when you’d already stayed up later than you meant to watching cricket.
Following on from the Honduras win which showcased what they could do at their best, we had a very different challenge in a well-organised Norway side that wasn’t going to allow themselves to be carved open in the first half hour the way that New Zealand did to their last opponents.
Shout out to Bill Tuiloma, who just started his tenth game in a row, the longest streak he’s had for the club, and he’s the only Timbers player to have played every minute of those ten games.
It feels like just yesterday that we were meeting Mark Rudan for the first time. An unproven but driven personality with a strong reputation within the Aussie game coming across the ditch for his first gig at managing an A-League side.
Honduras versus New Zealand, first game of the group stage for both, 4am in Aotearoa for us hardy jokers. Could they step it up when it really mattered? Mate, could they ever.
If the Ferns hit rock bottom a year ago amidst the disastrous reign of a coach who shall not be named beneath the disastrous reign of a chief executive officer who shall not be named… then it’s also fair to say that they’ve made quick and significant progress under Tom Sermanni ever since.
There’s a men’s U20 World Cup starting in a few days and you should probably be excited about it. With quite possibly the strongest pool of age-group players New Zealand has ever had for one of these things, even Des Buckingham’s squad announcement felt like a Moment and based on their preparation for this thing this set of lads could genuinely be the real deal.
The Football Ferns played on Friday afternoon. The North Carolina Courage played the Utah Royals on Monday afternoon. Both in America, mind, but too short a recovery period for the two kiwis involved in both games? Not at all.
Although the news came as no surprise, it was still a bit of a downbuzz. Tyler Boyd has officially changed his allegiance through FIFA to the United States, which is a card they only let you play once as a senior international… thus his chances of ever playing for the All Whites again are officially 0.00%.
A 5-0 defeat is not exactly the result you want to see as you ramp up your preparation for the World Cup but that’s what the Football Ferns were served up against the USA in St Louis. Five goals and that puts a sudden halt to some of that recent momentum.
The final day of the Premier League season wasn’t quite as dramatic as we’d hoped. There were no late goals that mattered, the two teams scrapping it out at the top both won comfortably enough – although Man City copped a scare in the first half – and it was all kinda predictable in the end.