Busy times up North. They always are over Easter Weekend. Busy times often mean crazy times and that’s exactly what we got with a full slate of Northern League fixtures held on Good Friday and then a whole other set on Easter Monday.
This article was supposed to be a recap of the Football Ferns tour of Chinese Taipei... but in the end there was nothing to recap.
If you read last week’s edition, you’ll know all about Joe Bell’s borderline addiction to kiwifruit – he claims to eat 20-40 of them per week (with the skins on too!). Well, fresh produce imports must be booming in Norway because Joe Bell has clearly not been going hungry.
Saturday was a very busy day for Auckland City Football Club. At 3pm they hosted Western Springs at Kiwitea Street in Auckland and then at 7pm they faced Hekari United of Papua New Guinea at National Stadium in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
It’s hard to imagine how the last few weeks could have gone any better for Finn Surman. He may have had some reluctance about skipping out on the last All Whites tour but it’s proven to be the best thing for him.
It’s been the question on everyone’s lips lately (if not then it should have been): Is Anna Leat actually playing as an outfielder for Hibiscus Coast? The answer is yes.
Every week there are goals being scored by the talented assortment of kiwi footballers around the world. Every single week... but rarely does anyone score a goal as spectacular as the one Moses Dyer just scored for Galway United.
Last week we got the two Northern competitions (properly) underway and this week the rest of the country got its turn with the other four top tier comps all kicking off
Maggie Jenkins was one of the unluckier absentees when the squad for the Chinese Taipei trip was confirmed recently but that only seems to have motivated her because look what she did on the weekend.
And with that, the All Whites are going back to the FIFA World Cup. There was 1982, there was 2010, there will be 2026.
The Northern League actually began a week ago as Auckland City crammed in a couple quick fixtures to clear up space for their imminent trip to the Oceania Champions League. With a Club World Cup jaunt in June, it’s shaping to be a very busy year for Auckland City.
You’d be forgiven for having missed this one but the Football Ferns are off to Taiwan for a couple of games in early April. The first of those games is behind closed doors. The coaching staff is still on an interim basis for this one last tour. The squad is very similar to last time…
Macey Fraser didn’t join the Royals until after their 2024 campaign had already begun due to the overlap with her Wellington Phoenix season, very quickly made a positive impact for struggling team, and then promptly hurt her ankle
In 1982, it was China. In 2009, it was Bahrain. In 2025, it will (hopefully) be Fiji followed by either Tahiti or New Caledonia. Among the many consequences of FIFA expanding the World Cup from 32 teams to 48 teams is that there’s now room for an automatic entry from Oceania
Michael Boxall, aged 36, is laying down bars in interviews. There’s no stopping the bloke. It only took him two attempts to waltz into an MLS Team of the Week selection and now he’s done it twice in a row
Clearly, this season was one challenge too much for the Wellington Phoenix. In hindsight, there’s no reason to think a team that lost half of its starting line-up, and then struggled with injuries on top of that, should have any hope whatsoever of reclaiming a semi-finals berth
Empoli Football Club had failed to win any of their previous 11 Serie A matches, dropping into the relegation zone as a consequence, when they lined up for a Coppa Italia clash with heavyweights Juventus
After going seven months without any fixtures following the Paris Olympics, a two-match tour of Costa Rica felt very much like the start of a fresh chapter for the Football Ferns
It took a long time for Finn Surman to finally debut for Portland Timbers. He joined them midseason and they allowed him as much room as possible to settle into his surroundings before finally chucking him onto the pitch
For the third time out of three, Auckland FC emerged from the NZ Derby with three points... but this win was not like the others. This win was a dismantling