We’re back, comrades. A few weeks off to recharge the batteries and now we get to have a geeze at which players perhaps indulged too much in the holiday festivities and which dudes were up at 6am on Boxing Day to go for a run.
As far as first games of the season go, that was certainly one of them. Bit hard to say much else because that 2-1 loss to Sydney felt more like tentative steps into the 2021 campaign rather than the Phoenix busting down the gates or anything.
It’s been a long time coming and we’re still not exactly out of the woods with all the confusion but a brand new A-League season is finally here and the Wellington Phoenix are locked and loaded.
They finally got another win last week, now STVV are officially on a winning streak after scraping by away against Standard Liege – a new experience for Libby Cacace in Belgium. Which sounds like a major upset against a strong team but Standard Liege aren’t what they usually are.
Everybody sees different things, everybody brings different experiences to the table, everybody had their own ideas of how the game should be played and what constitutes a good performance. This is how the prudent and propitious pages of the Premmy Files saw things...
Doubt anybody on the planet would be surprised to see that Chris Wood presses less than almost any striker in the Premier League (and less effectively than most too) given the way that Burnley play their football.
One last round of fixtures before the end of this mental old year and it began with a bit of Auckland City, fresh off the upset defeat in Canterbury, searching for their absent form with the Wellington Phoenix coming to town.
Incredibly as the Pride lined up for kickoff they had nine players out there who had started all seven games this year: Una Foyle, Kate Taylor, Rebecca Lake, Tahlia Herman-Watt, Whitney Hepburn, Amelia Abbott, Lara Wall, Britney-Lee Nicholson & Gabi Rennie.
So... that whole Auckland ineligible player thing turned out to be a bigger deal than it initially had been. Despite NZ Football saying they wouldn’t be docking points because nobody actually lodged a complaint, all three teams affected then appealed and NZF decided they had no course but to uphold those appeals.
Every step that Meikayla Moore has made in her career, from playing for Canterbury to making the Footy Ferns to moving to Germany, she’s made that step with confidence and success.
One of the peskiest aspects of having an amateur national league is the travel between games. The teams do get stipends to help pay for that from NZ Football but the financials are only part of that yarn. There’s also the logistical side of things and that doesn’t always go to plan.
At the start of the month New Zealand Football announced some changes to what’s currently known as the ISPS Handa Premiership which could accurately be described as: extensive. Drastic is another word that springs to mind.
One change to the Southern team that lost to Auckland last week with Amy Hislop replacing Emily Morison up front. That meant another start for Blair Currie in goal (who has been going back and forth with Tessa Nicol for the gloves).
There was a bit of a wait between playoff games for both Minnesota and Sporting KC – a wait that was made even longer when the match was delayed another 24 hours after an NFL game was postponed, clearing a timeslot for the broadcasters – but here it finally was.
Bringing us to the televised game which was Team Wellington against Auckland City at David Farrington Park, one of the last times we’ll ever see these two great rivals going head to head.
Northern’s win over Auckland in week four put the cat amongst the pigeons in this competition. Feathers flying everywhere because every team had dropped points thanks to that result. Keeps things wide open going into the last three rounds.
Can’t argue with the way Viking are going these days. Joe Bell had dropped to the bench for the win away at Sarpsborg 08 but he still got a solid half an hour out there and then six days later he was back in the starting line-up.
A ball in behind held up on the trampoline bounce of the turf and Joao Moreira was onto it like a beast to its prey. Searle slid in to try and stop him and the penalty was awarded. Up stepped Hamish Watson and his mullet and he sent Draper the wrong way to make it 2-1
No doubt that the big game this week was when Northern Lights hosted Auckland at North Harbour Stadium (well, the outside of North Harbour Stadium). Northern found a bit of form last week with a strong performance to beat a dogged Southern side 3-0 but Auckland have been in hot form from day one.
MLS playoff madness on Monday, there were three consecutive games with New Zealanders potentially involved and it began with Winston Reid and Sporting Kansas City.