Argentina’s U20s, spurred on by a raucous home crowd with no pressure whatsoever on their shoulders, unleashed vicious carnage upon the poor Aotearoa contingent… but it didn’t matter because we’re through to the knockouts anyway
It’s always hard to know what to expect at these youth tournaments. The prestige of a nation’s senior team doesn’t necessarily translate to the younger levels and there’s never an abundance of pre-tourney games from outside the confederations to let anyone know how teams compare
Last week FCK needed a third central defender to match their opponents’ formation and Marko Stamenic was the bloke they leaned upon. Thus he was back in the mix just in time for a Danish Cup final against Aalborg.
After three consecutive knockout appearances at the Men’s U20 World Cup, there was no reason to think that this Class of 2023 should be aiming for anything less. Particularly not after those previous efforts earned them a second seed for the draw
On the one hand the Welly Nix blokes have made four out of the last five finals series and only missed out by one point in the other. On the other hand the Welly Nix blokes have been one-and-done in each of those knockout appearances and remain without a finals game since 2012
In both seasons so far the WahiNix have had to settle for wooden spoons. There’s been clear progress throughout each of those campaigns but solid finishes haven’t overcome slow starts.
In order to match their opponents, who’d debuted the back three against them a couple weeks ago, FCK decided upon a central defensive trio of their own. Which in turn meant finding another central defender... and Marko Stamenic was the bloke they settled upon
The World Cup kicks off on 20 July as the Football Ferns host Norway in Auckland. That’ll be quite a challenge against the highest ranked team in their group but the kiwis do play the Philippines in their next match, a side they beat 2-1 in September 2022…
Ah bollocks. The wait for another Wellington Phoenix finals win will have to continue on into another year and another manager as Ufuk Talay’s tenure ended with a 2-0 defeat away to Adelaide United
There have been so many goals and assists in Flying Kiwis lately that we were long overdue another from Alex Greive. After three goals in nine games to begin this season, Greivesy hadn’t hit the back of the net since
There is a U20 Football World Cup kicking off in a couple of weeks and once again there’s reason to be excited about the NZ fellas on their way to compete. There was no U20 World Cup two years ago due to the pandemic but in each of the previous three editions the New Zealand team made it out of their group and into the knockouts
The Ufuk Talay Era of Wellington Phoenix footy is almost over but before the torch is passed to assistant Giancarlo Italiano there’s one last chance to do something his Nix teams have never yet done: win a finals game.
Last week we were promised something very exciting: that Ria Percival would be named on the subs bench when Spurs hosted Brighton in a hugely important relegation six-pointer. Ready to rock after 13 months out of action recovering from an ACL/meniscus tear
Doesn’t really matter how they did it, the Wellington Phoenix had one task before them as they travelled to face Macarthur FC in the final round of the A-League Men’s regular season and they accomplished it
‘Tis the season for trophies. Not everywhere, as some leagues have only just started. But for most of the European ones in particular we’re ramping up towards the finales and for a selection of the privileged few there just so happen to be kiwi players involved
One more positive result, that’s all PEC Zwolle needed to confirm their promotion back to the top flight of Dutch football at the first time of asking
It wasn’t exactly a surprise when it was announced. The fact that the Wellington Phoenix confirmed last Friday that Ufuk Talay would be leaving at the conclusion of the season, as we’d all long anticipated/feared…
Might as well start planning ahead with these Max Mata goals, you can set your watch to them these days.
A month ago things seemed pretty swell for the Welly Nix lads. They’d just ground out close home wins against Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC (one in Wellington, one in Auckland) and were hanging about in a three-way tie for third place
Hypothetically, if the Football Ferns weren’t co-hosting this World Cup then what would your expectations be?