It had been a while. 15 games without a win for the national women’s football team of Aotearoa, a streak stretching all the way back to 1 June 2019 and which encompassed two major tournaments.
Primetime Sarpreet is the business. This game took place on a Saturday morning NZT, it was Jahn Regensburg against Dynamo Dresden, and it was a great opportunity to bounce back after two defeats on the trot.
Last week we got a top of the table clash in the Team Welly Derby, this week we got a bottom of the table clash between two winless teams. The best chance that either the WeeNix or Selywn would get to put three points on the board being when they played each other.
In beating Capital last week, Southern took control of the SCS with three wins outta three. If they could repeat the dose in the home return fixture a week later then they’d be one win away from lifting the silverware.
The first half of this game, the Football Ferns were fantastic. As good of a sustained half of footy as you’ve seen from them in ages – maybe a little lacking in clear-cut chances to show for it but this was only the third game under new coach Jitka Klimková after all.
In the days leading up to the new A-League Men’s season, Alex Rufer was named the new Wellington Phoenix captain. Just the fifth full-time captain in club history, the second NZ international to earn that honour, and the first homegrown player.
Nature must be healing because after bagging a double for the All Whites in midweek, Chris Wood was back out for Burnley and nodding away his third goal of the Premier League season. 27th minute of the match, home to Crystal Palace, and a free kick was sent long into the penalty area…
The last time Miramar Rangers played Wellington Olympic was on 14 August in the penultimate round of the winter season and a 1-0 win for Olympic clinched them the title thanks to a 71st minute Kailan Gould goal. Three months later they were at it again in a new competition.
Things get pretty frantic in these short competitions, every game is massive when the entire thing is basically just a Champions League group stage. Especially in the women’s competition because by virtue of the extra round of fixtures they don’t have room for a grand final
Tell you what though, this squad that Jitka Klimková has named for her second camp with the Ferns... it’s a pretty fascinating one. Deserves more than a cursory yarn.
A new season is upon us. On Sunday evening the Wellington Phoenix begin their latest A-League Men campaign against Macarthur Bulls... where they’ll likely come up against Macarthur’s debutant Mexican playmaker
Three games post-hiatus for the All Whites, and three wins against three different nations from three different confederations. First they beat Curaçao 2-1, then they beat Bahrain 1-0, now they’ve beaten The Gambia 2-0.
Tough stuff this Women’s Super League. No sooner has Ria Percival scored a remarkable (if lucky) late equaliser against Manchester United than she’s gotta prepare for an even tougher test as Arsenal popped by for a bit of North London Derby action.
It was wet, it was windy, it was Wellington. Summer season footy at its slipperiest as Central League champs Wellington Olympic hosted the underdogs of the South Central Series in Selwyn United
They don’t call it The Land of the Long White Cloud for nothing. Seemed like no matter where you were in the country this week it was wet and windy and that made for some slippery National League footy.
In 51 previous WSL appearances, Ria Percival had not scored a goal. Sure she’d scored in League Cup action, she even scored for the Football Ferns not so long ago, but not in the Super League.
It is better to have some football than no football, not sure which of the great philosophers first said that – it might’ve been Socrates... or maybe Johan Cruyff? - but the wisdom lives on.
Here we are again, returning not entirely unspoiled from across that great ocean. The National League has arrived but it’s not the National League – it’s the South Central Series because a National League requires an entire nation
Say what you will about the ill-fated and short-lived tenure of Darije Kalezic as Wellington Phoenix manager... but the man undeniably did one thing right: he gave Liberato Cacace his Nix debut. Plucked him out of the reserves where he was playing as a defensive midfielder and converted him into a left fullback.
All the talk about this latest All Whites squad has been about which bloke is unvaccinated and that’s largely because there’s not a whole lot else going on here. The Aotearoa men’s national team will face The Gambia on Wednesday 17 November NZT.