Lurking at the far post, poking a toe ahead of his marker, Myer Bevan made a bit of history this week. That goal was the first by a Cavalry player in the Concacaf Champions Cup and it was also just the second goal ever scored by a New Zealander in this competition
Every year the local footy swings back around way before anybody’s ready for it. 2024 has been no different, with the first competitive game of the new campaign pitting National League champions Wellington Olympic against Chatham Cup champions Christchurch United in the freshly revived Charity Cup
The MLS is underway for 2024, featuring all of your favourite players from Lionel Messi to Michael Boxall. Messi scored a brilliant late equaliser for Inter Miami but, far more importantly. Minnesota United got going with a 2-1 win away to Austin FC
If you managed to stay up until 2am NZT watching the Wellington Phoenix lads draw nil-all away to Perth Glory then congratulations, you’ve unlocked the Hearty Fan badge
The Football Ferns are going to the Olympics. As expected, they burst through the Oceania qualifying tournament winning every game and scoring a bunch of goals. They got progressively more efficient from game to game
On the brink of the new League of Ireland season came an unexpected, but understandable, bit of breaking news: Max Mata was loaned back to Sligo Rovers
We knew that the Wellington Phoenix lads were going to lean heavily on their academy players this season. We knew that because they told us they would. It wasn’t a secret. It was spoken loud and proud.
For the first time since December, Empoli are out of the relegation zone. They’ve been experiencing a funky uptick of results since Davide Nicola took over as manager, with the latest being a 3-1 win over last-placed Salernitana
Happy days as CJ Bott retuned to the starting line-up for Leicester City this week. Her first start since December, when she’d gotten injured early in a 2-2 draw against Brighton
There are few aspects of the New Zealand football experience more unique than going to Samoa, winning a few double-digit victories, and thus qualifying for a major tournament that only 12 nations on the planet get to participate in
All of that considered, it was time to throw Meikayla Moore back into the starting eleven. That’s exactly what happened, and what’s more it took a mere 15 seconds for that decision to pay dividends. Fifteen seconds.
Let us begin at the top of the table where Melbourne City are being boosted by pair of Football Ferns icons who share a couple hundred caps between them. Rebekah Stott also happens to be an A-League legend having played more than a century of games and won four championships
Managerial changes happen all the time in the ruthless world of professional football. The average job-span of a Premier League manager is roughly two years and that’s clearly skewed by the few successful fellas at the top of the ladder
It’s a good week of Flying Kiwis action when we get to dine upon a Chris Wood winning goal. These days every week is a good week of Flying Kiwis action but it’s even better when this is the case
The Wellington Phoenix women lost again this past weekend, repeating a pattern that’s become quite concerning. Despite taking a very early lead against Central Coast Mariners (the Main Train arriving on schedule), they ended up losing 2-1
Bet you didn’t see this one coming: Ria Percival has joined Crystal Palace on loan for the remainder of the season. It’s a move very clearly angled at getting her the game-time that she’s struggled for with Spurs lately.
It was five years in November. Five years since the only NZ Football team of any age grade, male or female, to win a knockout game at a FIFA tournament. Not only did they win one, they won two. Including a third-placed playoff.
The first Flying Kiwis write-up of 2024 brings us another does of Chris Wood as headliner… as well as an Alex Greive loan, Meikayla Moore’s return from injury, Ben Waine in the FA Cup, Max Crocombe’s big form, and heaps more
It was roughly eleven minutes into the Wellington Phoenix’s game away against Adelaide United. The Nix were steadily knocking the ball around at the back but were gently being nudged further towards their own goal.
There’s not a lot of football going on at the moment... unless you happen to be a bloke in England in which case there’s way too much. And a few New Zealand exports have been up to some magnificent activities.