The English Women’s Super League is underway and there are two Flying Kiwis in the mix: Anna Leat is the newest addition to the crew while Ria Percival is the record NZ appearance maker in this comp by a country mile, back for another crack with Tottenham Hotspur.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Season was about more than a few frantic hours of deals. It was about an entire month’s worth of moves. In between the Olympics and now it’s just been one transfer after another, top tier kiwi footballers on the up and up and up.
When Ufuk Talay took over as manager of the Wellington Phoenix he spoke about recruitment. In his words, 70% of successful coaching is about recruitment and the other 30% is motivation and tactics.
Then came the goal. James Tarkowski had just hit the crossbar with a header and the ball stayed alive, leading to a Matt Lowton shot that Wood cheekily diverted past the keeper. A small touch but a decisive one.
Every week, man. Five games in and it’s been the same thing every time with SSV Jahn Regensburg winning and Sarpreet Singh contributing at least one goal or assist. Schalke at home was no different.
What a move this is, Flying Kiwis Transfer Season serving up another belter with Liv Chance off to Celtic. Back in the UK after previous stints with Everton, Bristol City, and Sheffield United... and following an excellent campaign with Brisbane Roar in the last W-League.
the Olympics are done now and the kiwi footballers from therein are already back to tearing it up for their clubs so it must be time to check in on how the Phoenix are doing.
Fresh from the Olympics, where she played against eventual bronze medallist the United States for her fourth international cap, Footy Ferns goalkeeper Anna Leat has stepped into the big time club scene with West Ham United.
It was the 2019 U20 World Cup that tipped the scales for Bayern Munich in their long term monitoring of Sarpreet Singh, having been aware of him since he was an 11 year old touring Germany with an age grade team.
Hardest working... Saturday’s match... but she was only just the Olympics? Yeah well she was and then she was back in North Carolina and nobody on the planet can doubt the hardest-workingness of NCC’s Kiwi.
It was overwhelming. A quarter-final against hosts Japan who had won all three of their group stage games with the prospect of advancing to the semis of a major-ish men’s football tournament but to do so would mean a pretty significant upset.
That chaotic defeat against Honduras seemed to rattle a fair few people but it didn’t shake the blokes who mattered. Or if it did, it did so in a good way.
For what it’s worth, the final game against Sweden was by far the best that the Football Ferns looked all tournament. Considering they’d only had one closed-door friendly match’s worth of preparation in the entire previous sixteen months it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The thing you’ve gotta know about the second tier of German football this season is that it’s hard case. One of the main reasons that Sarpreet Singh didn’t click with FC Nürnberg is that FCN is a hugely storied club with a heap of fans and when they got off to a rough start…
The funkiest thing about that 1-0 win over South Korea is that the OlyWhites didn’t even play that well. How many times did you see someone spray a pass out to Libby Cacace’s wing and it end up flying out for a throw-in?
Let’s be honest here, the Aussie game was the Football Ferns’ best chance to win a game at these Olympic Games. Let’s also be honest and admit that we knew full well that this was a terrible draw for the ladies and that this was how it was always likely to go.
Oh captain my captain. Tommy Smith has been announced as the man to lead Colchester United out full time by new manager Hayden Mullins (who had joined the club as interim manager down the stretch last time and has since been made the permanent boss).
We are, currently, one week away from the beginning of the Tokyo 2020 (2021 Redux) Olympic Games and all that event entails. The two kiwi football squads are basically ready to go, most of them having been training together in Japan since early in the month.
Now we’re talking. Ryan Thomas is working his way back from ankle surgery that ended his last season, so when preseason started he was one of a couple fellas not at full participation levels as they eased him back up in.
There would have already been a SheNix team last season if it weren’t for some poorly timed shenanigans. The Wellington Phoenix were all set to make an announcement about it.