Many Football Ferns were handled with care by their clubs after returning from the international window. But not CJ Bott. She had an FA Cup semi-final to play and 180 minutes for the national team plus a couple of long-haul flights weren’t going to keep her out of that one.
There was wind, there was rain, and there was the Wellington Phoenix. There were defensive blocks, there were more defensive blocks, there was a begrudging acceptance that a draw was probably a fair result on the basis of the game... and then there was Finn Surman
The Wellington Phoenix Wahine have been a team of constant progress and development since they joined the A-League, though perhaps it’s been slower progress and development than hoped for
What did we need to see from the Football Ferns in these games? Goals, victories, and a confident/ruthless attitude against a weaker opponent. Did we see those things? Yeah, we did... in the first game
It was Cacace who instigated the move with that one-two. He then stuck with it after the defender had seemed to get goalside of him. Never gave up on the lost cause and then crept around the edge to keep the ball in play at the byline.
In potentially the biggest regular season game that the Wellington Phoenix have ever played, they were dealt gut punch as Mikael Doka cut inside and buried a stoppage time winner for Central Coast Mariners. A brilliant goal, to be fair, though that didn’t make it any less brutal of a loss
Once again, it was Christopher Wood for Nottingham Forest. A niggly injury combined with Forest’s precarious Premier League position meant he had to miss the All Whites games, but…
After that pesky loss against Egypt on Saturday morning NZT, the All Whites knew they’d have a much more achievable mission ahead of them against Tunisia four days later.
Leat had already deputised for DVD on several occasions, whilst also playing all of the cup games that she was available for. Last week we covered her performance in the 2-1 win against Everton in the WSL. Prior to that she’d played in the 4-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Conti Cup semi-final
There’s something increasingly familiar about an All Whites game in which the lads play some really silky football, passing smoothly through the midfield, battling hard at the back, bringing all of the energy, only to still lose anyway
The famous line is the attack wins games but defence wins championships. The Wellington Phoenix blokes must be out there trying to win a championship because they just so happen to have the best defence in the A-League Men’s
Eight months after the World Cup, the Football Ferns are returning to Aotearoa with a pair of games against Thailand. Both games will be hosted in Christchurch, which didn’t get any World Cup matched yet after this series will have hosted as many home games as any other city over the past five years
The Woodsman’s return from injury turned out to be a timely one because as soon as he did, Nottm Forest’s other main striker Taiwo Awoniyi was immediately ruled out for what’s expected to be a number of weeks
What exactly is a W Cup, you ask? It’s not really anything. The ‘W’ stands for ‘Winsunited’ which sort of sounds like someone asked ChatGPT to design a football competition but this these are still just glorified friendlies
They said he would miss 7-8 weeks. Instead Chris Wood was back playing for Nottingham Forest within six, returning just in time to also sneak into the latest All Whites squad
Following the Wellington Phoenix’s 3-2 win over Adelaide, in which Ben Old scored twice and helped create the other goal, Nix head coach Giancarlo Italiano spoke on how the onus is on the kiwi media to build up the hype around his double goal-scorer
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