The last few weeks have been rough for the Wellington Phoenix blokes, beginning with the derby defeat away to Auckland FC. You don’t often need to pay attention to what the Aussie commentators say about the kiwi clubs but…
We just had one of the most open, competitive, and unpredictable Men’s National League seasons we’ve ever witnessed and would you believe it the damn thing ended with Auckland City as champions
After another thrilling season of National League football... the expected outcome prevailed for Auckland United to complete their quadruple and make it through the entire calendar year undefeated
A couple of weeks ago, CJ Bott and Liberato Cacace were each nominated for the FIFA Best Awards. Cacace followed that honour up by scoring his first goal for Empoli. Then, a few days later, CJ Bott did the same thing for Leicester City
It’s been a long time since Liberato Cacace last scored a goal at club level. He did score an important one for the All Whites in 2022 when he bagged the winner in the Oceania World Cup qualifying tournament semi-final against Tahiti
There was scrap, there was niggle, and there were flashes of high-quality A-League football for all to see. Nothing silly, just good competitive fun. The appetite was there and the meal has been served accordingly.
It has been a slow and steady build for Sarpreet Singh since he joined União de Leiria. They had to make sure he was at 100% fitness before letting him loose, meaning Singh had only got a couple of substitute appearances prior to the last international break
The Men’s Grand Final didn’t have the same clearly defined champ and challenger dynamic as the Women’s one did. For starters, the defending champs were Wellington Olympic and they didn’t even come close to qualifying this time
The stage was set at North Harbour Stadium, with Auckland United one game away from an absolutely unprecedented achievement. Not only were they on the brink of a quadruple but they were also ninety minutes (maybe more) away from going through the entire calendar year undefeated
Kate Taylor has always had the ability to score goals. She scored in each of her three seasons with the Wellington Phoenix and already has a couple of goals for the Football Ferns
The Men’s NL had four teams still with hopes of qualifying for the final as week nine began and none of them were playing each other so almost all of the games had ramifications. The WNL did not have such consequences
Right around the same time that the Cashmere-Birkenhead game reached it’s midpoint, this one was kicking off. Last year’s champions Wellington Olympic were at their Martin Luckie Park home trying to finish the season on a high
After scoring 16 goals across 180 minutes during this past window, the All Whites are only two further wins away from qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for just the third time in their history
Ten days after making her club debut at Sampdoria off the bench in a Coppa Italia match, Kiara Bercelli got to add a league debut to her list of milestones. And not only did she get her league debut, she got it as a starter. But wait there’s more…
The Phoenix Reserves have found some recent form as first team players have been freed up to participate. But like the Men’s Reserves, the academy goes way beyond those prospects with A-League contracts
Wellington Olympic didn’t get their best case scenario with those other results but a win against the WeeNix would at least keep them in with a mathematical chance of defending their 2023 championship
Maybe, just maybe, something might be changing at Empoli because Libby Cacace got another start this weekend. Two in three games after none in the previous ten Serie A matches
You know it’s going to be a good game when the bouncy castle is up. Western Springs hosted Cashmere Technical in the second game of a club double-header, their WNL side having earlier beaten Central 6-0…
It’s been a tricky campaign for Western Springs, dealing with a few too many injuries amidst what was already something of a rebuilding season, and that’s been reflected in a lot of close games delivering merely a single victory
There are a couple of things about Darren Bazeley’s selection tendencies that people should have picked up on by now. One of them is that Tommy Smith is going to be there no matter what