Right now the Wellington Phoenix are slightly on the wrong side of probability in trying to at least match what they achieved the last two seasons and make the A-League finals. Whether they get there or not, that’s too hard to predict right now.
This was not a good week for the Timbers but it was an alright week for Bill Tuiloma. In the midweek they travelled to Mexico for the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final (after a 1-1 home leg draw) where they fell behind on twenty mins…
Oli Sail did not play a single minute last season. He’d played four times in each of the previous two seasons, every time as a backup/alternate, but if he was planning on taking his career to the next level in Ufuk Talay’s first campaign in charge then that didn’t go so well.
Ali Riley’s ongoing media takeover is ramping up even more. Another slick episode of Off The Ball chatting with Orlando teammates of course, still a couple more of those on the way. But then there’s also this news about her and Toni Pressley creating their own vegan cooking show…
One of the best days of his life, folks. That’s what the deal is when a proper striker has one of those days where the goals just fly in. There’s a lot of pressure on strikers to put the ball in the back of the net but there’s also massive rewards coming back the other way too.
Rightio so we’ve covered the ladies, now it’s the turn of the blokes in what was a much more confusing Olympic football draw and somehow also a much more beneficial one too. Like, we came out good from this one.
The draw for the Tokyo Olympic football tournaments were held on Wednesday night and it was a mixed bag for kiwi fans. The fellas got an outstanding draw, about as good as they could have hoped for. The ladies meanwhile... yeah not so flash.
The Woodsman has a surprisingly decent record away against Manchester United of late. In fact Burnley as a team always seem to play well at Old Trafford these days. They’d gone four games in a row without defeat at that ground dating back to February 2015.
Little bit of a sad one here as this is the last Premmy Files piece we’ll ever publish. The Premiership is no more. The end of an era in Aotearoa football.
And so it came to this. The 2021 W-League Grand Final. Seven kiwis got minutes throughout the season and two were still standing as Melbourne Victory took on Sydney FC for all the glory. Two who’d still be standing (metaphorically) at the end of 120 minutes of pressure-cooker football.
As with any year, Team Wellington came into what has since become the last ever ISPS Handa Premiership planning on ultimate glory. Eleven games into the regular season that wasn’t looking especially likely. Then suddenly it all clicked.
Nothing makes sense. Assumptions are worthless, reputations are irrelevant. A general sense of confusion is the default state. The more you try and understand things, the more futile that exercise appears. Such is life sometimes.
What. A. Hit. Olivia Chance showing everybody what she’s capable of in a massive game, not all too dissimilar to an effort she had at the World Cup except this one floated into the top corner. Goals really don’t come too much better than that.
There were many strange campaigns this season but few rival Hamilton Wanderers’. Kane Herbert’s team won each of their first three games – including a stunner 2-0 win against Auckland City - to be leading the comp after three weeks with eight goals scored.
Well that was a wild sorta season. It began with annoyances as Eastern Suburbs went down 1-0 at Kiwitea Street in week one with an Emiliano Tade penalty the difference in a game where they were thwarted by…
Nik Tzanev has had to be so patient for his chances since joining AFC Wimbledon. Working his way up from the U23s to the first team, from third choice to backup, to cup-day alternate... until he finally got a run of games lately and mate has he taken his chance.
Three games in and it was all looking disastrous for the Dragons in what would soon be confirmed as their final ever season in existence. 3 games, 3 defeats, with 10 goals conceded, is not the way to begin a semi-final worthy season.
One of the major narratives leading into the weekend’s Premiership Grand Final was the absence of Logan Rogerson for Auckland City after he’d scored 8 goals in 13 games to get them to that stage. Safe to say they missed his presence running in behind the defensive line too but that’s another story.
Let us here recap what was an outstanding game of football. A fitting farewell to the NZFC/Football Championship/Premiership after seventeen chaotic, entertaining, unpredictable, hotly debated, financially vulnerable years.
There’s no more fitting way to see the New Zealand Football Premiership into the deep looming hereafter than with an Auckland City versus Team Wellington grand final. They are after all the two dominant forces of this competition