That was gruelling. But from somewhere amidst a fog of fouls, Liberato Cacace popped up with his first senior international goal to give the All Whites a 1-0 win over Tahiti in the semi-finals of the Oceania World Cup qualifiers
Imagine being New Caledonia coach Dominique Wacalie. There’s twenty minutes to go in your game against New Zealand, the lads have served up a pretty commendable account of themselves to have things at 3-1 and you turn around to see this…
When Hannah Wilkinson signed with Melbourne City in the A-League, a competition which has provided a welcome shot of energy into many a kiwi footballer’s career over the years, it was bound to be a good thing. Yet few could have predicted exactly how good of a thing it would prove to be.
The theme of game one’s article was not to worry about anything other than the three points... and game two showed exactly why. Chuck Chris Wood and Marko Stamenic into the pot and it’s an entirely different stew.
And thus Ali Riley returned to her home state of California where not only did she immediately slide into the left-back position of their first ever starting line-up but they even made her captain...
The important thing is that the All Whites got what they needed out of the match against Papua New Guinea with a 1-0 victory and if they end up returning to Qatar in November for the World Cup then nobody, absolutely nobody, not a soul in existence, is going to care about what happened in their first game of qualifying
When Alex Rufer was helped off the park during the first half of the Wellington Phoenix’s defeat against Brisbane Roar – snapping the seven-game unbeaten streak that has reinvigorated their season – it wasn’t immediately clear that something serious had happened
It was only ever going to be a matter of time. Chris Wood had been delivering excellent performances without scoring a goal, finally he delivered an excellent performance in which he did score a goal.
Okay so first of all we’ve gotta set the scene here because this is not a normal All Whites squad. Ordinarily we could look at who’s in and who’s out and draw some conclusions about where everyone is in the depth chart but it feels reckless to do that in such crazy circumstances
It’s not often that a team finishes last and you can still call the season an overwhelming success. One more reason why the inaugural Wellington Phoenix women’s team are such trailblazers
CJB to the WSL, that’s what we wanna see. Bott had recently teased a move to England, after leaving Vålerenga in November at the conclusion of her second season there, and this is a pretty great one. Signing on permanent terms with top flight club Leicester City. Up the Foxes
They say no sooner does one season end than the next one begins... however it’s probably taking that idea a bit too literally when you play last season’s cup final during the following preseason
Once upon a time Juventus wanted to sign Liberato Cacace all for themselves. They liked what they’d seen from him in the Belgian Pro League and were keen to hoard him up for their under-23s squad. However Cacace stared them down and said: nah bro
There were many talking points from the Football Ferns’ three-game SheBelieves Cup tour but the one that should always get top billing is Rebekah Stott’s return to the international stage
Six weeks ago the Wellington Phoenix fellas were in a rough space after four straight defeats and a covid outbreak. To be fair there was an FFA Cup semi-final run at the same time which offered a slight salve for the wounds... but overall it was pretty ugly.
It was a warm welcome to the Danish Superliga for Joe Zen Robert Bell. Back from a few training games in Portugal and immediately into the starting eleven for Brøndby for the first game back after the winter break.
The Wellington Phoenix won their first ever A-League Women’s match last Friday night and, despite the nine consecutive defeats that preceded it, that 3-0 win over Canberra United did not come out of the blue. It was a victory that was eleven games in the making, plus a little bit of preseason before that
There ya go. Alex Greive not only scored the winner for St Mirren in that game, a lovely bit of movement to the back post to earn a simple finish on the end of a superb Greg Kiltie cross, but he also won the penalty that equalised things for them late in the first half
This, apparently, is just what the Welly Nix fellas do. They begin each season with a stumble-and-trip out of the starting blocks, giving everyone else a jump as they dust themselves off, but then eventually they get into their stride and by the end of the race they’ve caught right up with the pack
There are two main things to say about this Football Ferns squad which has been named for the She Believes Cup, a friendly tournament to be hosted by the USA in a few weeks offering up three great fixtures for the Ferns on their third tour of Jitka Klimková’s coaching reign