The Wellington Phoenix want to put a women’s team in the Aussie W-League. Not saying they’re going to or that they’re any closer to making it happen but they still want to and they made that clear with a little statement on their website (and beyond) this week.
What in the sweet smell of success is going on with Matty Garbett? Already one of the rising stars of the Flying Kiwis ranks but a few whispers on the interwebs reckon he might be about to take it even further out
Remember the Wellington Phoenix? Remember how well they were going? Old mate Uli Davila pulling strings, David Ball hustling up top, Libby Cacace tearing down that left flank, Big Stef saving anything that came near him, Stevie T holding it all together at the back... so good.
Football is slowly coming back and no country has been more efficient about it than Germany, true to reputation. Not only have the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 been back for three weeks now but they’ve also as of this week brought back the third tier as well as the women’s Bundesliga.
As the first major league to get back into it after a pando interruption, the Bundesliga’s been enjoying some boosted support from footy fans around the world as it carries the torch. Sarpreet Singh’s Bayern Munich, to use the club’s full Aotearoa translation, have picked up where they left off with three wins from three.
The Netherlands put a dead halt on all pro sports from the date of that announcement in late-April until September. Considering how that overlaps with what would have been the start of next season, it was therefore determined that the 2019-20 Eredivisie could not be completed.
Major League Soccer has become the place to be for kiwi footballers lately, there are almost enough All Whites jokers there to build a first eleven. There would be if you included the four dudes currently signed in the USL Championship one tier below... and also if you could get a goalie in on loan.
In the end there must be a winner. It’s those stakes that make top level sport what it is so, ultimately, somebody’s gotta win and somebody’s gotta lose and one way or another we have to find that resolution.
What we have here is a unique set of dudes from which 20 out of 21 have played professionally as some stage and 14 of them are full internationals. Hence their respective journeys over the past five years offer a fascinating look at the life of the career footy player from Aotearoa.
Here it is. Concluding the coverage of a Premmy season that began with all manner of coaching upheaval and ended abruptly thanks to a global pandemic. The stuff in the middle was pretty good though.
Right now it’s a slim list... but on the current trajectory it can’t be long until a couple more hombres y mujeres join that most illustrious company in the most illustrious club footy comp on the whole planet: the Champions League.
The Wellington Phoenix are a unique case in the Premiership, an U20s team that competes with the old fellas, a reserve team competing against the best franchise clubs in the country in the national league. They’re not even allowed to play in the playoffs if they make it.
The concept of the footballer with a long-term injury is an awkward contradiction. You’re paid to play footy, it’s the core aspect of your personality... yet you’re unable to do it. It’s got to be such a difficult thing to come to terms with.
Thus we cross the Cook Strait and find ourselves in the gorgeous Marlborough region. Good wine, great beaches, a vibrant art scene... and after some initial hideousness a fair dose of decent football as well.
If they don’t get to crack back into it and this is truly the end of the season, well, it’s been real. Third place on the ladder is already a record for the Wellington Phoenix. Two wins and a draw out of their last six games and they’d have bagged a record points total too.
Now it’s the turn of the rest of the North Island for their little Premmy Files season roundups. Waitakere United, Hamilton Wanderers, and Hawke’s Bay United, in that order – which is both the order of north to south and also the order they finished on the table.
And with that we cap one of the all time great W-League seasons from Melbourne City and one of the all-time great Flying Kiwis runs as well from Rebekah Stott. To be fair she does this every year with Melly City... but these last few months have been one some whole other buzz.
While ACFC have the star signings and the ex-pros and they snatched up their closest rivals’ manager when they needed one... Team Wellington’s success this season has been a little easier to sleep on.
Look, it’s not how they will have wanted to do it. But as Joe Pesci whispered to Robert De Niro to tell Al Pacino: It is what it is. They picked up the Charity Cup this past weekend with a win over Eastern Suburbs and follow that up now with an eighth Premiership championship and an eleventh premiers title.
Not really sure what the next couple weeks are going to be like especially but no dramas, we’ll keep on serving up what we’ve got to serve up and stay chilling in this state of flux.