Auckland City FC - Thanks a Trillion

Caledonian today, not FB.

From the stands the decision looked pretty farcical, the pitch was wet but there only seemed to be two puddles that didn't seem to warrant calling it off. I've seen games at a simialr level and higher play through what appeared to be worse. The decision seemed worse as the rain stopped as we were leaving. To be fair though I didn't walk across the pitch, so I could only see it from the Grandstand. 

As an example this Chatham Cup Game was far on a completely different level https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/football/football-tech...

I'm not unhappy though, assuming City come down again, it'll be good to watch both sides in "ideal" conditions. Frustrating for Auckland to have travel this far again and obviously not good for the the competition's budget.

Looking forward to the game today. 

2-1 win over Hawke's Bay today in blustery conditions at Kiwitea Street goalless first half where Auckland City struggled a bit Bay created some pretty good chances for themselves Sam Mason-Smith in particular was dangerous. Deadlock broken in the 67th minute through Dylan Manickum who had just come on as a substitute a tap in at close range. Soon after Micah Lea'alafa with a rocket doubling the score then came a bit of a Bay renaissance scoring in the first minute of stoppage time through Sam Mason-Smith led to a scary final 5 minutes of stoppage time with Bay all over City towards the end. In happier news it was good to see David Browne at the club today and looking well considering the head clash a couple of weeks ago he inferred that he should be back in a few weeks. 

Think HBU might be a bit disappointed not taking anything away from the game. Had the better chances in the first half but went 2-0 down in the second half. Got one back in the first of six minutes of injury time and might have got a second in the remaining time. Sets up a clash next weekend at Riverhills against Eastern Suburbs

Not a classic game today though a good one to get the points.  A bit blustery and not the perfect surface that Kiwitea normally looks like.  Pretty flat game the whole first half with Hawkes Bay possibly having best chance of the half.  It was tailor made for Manickum to be introduced and he does exactly what's expected, delivering the breakthrough goal.  Great for Lea'alafa to get the assist and a cracking goal for himself as well because he looked the only other guy today likely to ignite the game.  Lopez pretty untidy today, kept dropping deep when he might be better off keeping a high position.

Interesting that all 3 subbed off today were left sided.  Rodgers first with Manickum coming on and Morgan moving from more centrally to the wing back role.   Then Morgan himself replaced by Iwata.  Bilen also dragged from the left of a back 3 replaced by Kaltak.

Kaltak looked a bit uncomfortable there and Bilen mostly just played back to CB Hudson-Wihongi.  I would probably choose 2 of the other 3 to do the left-sided duties.

Pretty average game from City today. Could barely string two passes together and HBC genuinely looked the better team most of the match (First half in particular). City looked a shell of themselves which was disappointing. Rarely exploited space and spent a lot of the game retaining posession, breaking down their own attacks to do so, then resorting to long balls. Defensively they were shocking in the first half Mario & Angel got found out of position and beaten on pace several times. 

Cam had an excellent game, but noone else really stood out. 

Selection wise, I found it strange they started Alfie over Iwata/Morgan at LB and Reid Drake doesn't really offer much. 

I would agree HBU were the better of the two teams today and deserved at least a point if not all three. Mason-Smith particularly impressive could have had a hat-trick. They should have made it 2-2 right at the death when Kaltak gave up the ball to Paul Ifill right in front of goal no idea how he didn't score off that. 

Caught the game at Riverhills yesterday thought it was a cracker Suburbs certainly the better team in the first 15 minutes or so up until Zubikarai saved the De Jong penalty. Great goal from Dylan Manickum and I'm certainly pleased goal line technology isn't a thing in this league cause I was pretty sure that Tim Payne's header had crossed the line. 

Also caught the game and also thought I was an absolute cracker.  Riverhills scrubbed up well also (although I heard it looked awful on TV).  Kevin Fallon's comments in his blog were disappointing but unsurprising.  Will be a great return fixture at Auckland City.  

Fallon was right about the state of the ground. It's laughable that a shoddy place like that hosts a game between 2 of the top teams in NZ, and it's on TV.

The pitch looked awful on TV and I lost count of the amount of possession turned over because players couldn't get the ball under control.

Was still better than the sandpit at Madills Farm for the first game of the season, but only just.

I've played on better pitches in Cap10.

The pitch is not awful, but the facilities haven't been upgraded since the 80s. Just shows what happens when NRFL clubs "invest" all their money in paying players

A few years ago, as a senior player at a local (Wellington) club, I was asked what the club should do to attract good players. 

My response was to recruit and pay two imported players to be paid and fully employed (as in actually employed, not just on paper) by the club and to focus on building the type of facilities that would attract the 'right' type of player for all of the right reasons. We would have been the only club in Wellington who was saying 'come and play for us, and enjoy amazing training and playing facilities'

Short term-ism took over and the club blew it all on recruitment

I don't really care what the facilities are like, I'm there to watch quality football and I expect a decent pitch.

I agree, the pitch could be better, but as an overall facility it falls way short of what should be expected at this level, even more so because it's on TV

Must have been sometime ago. In the last 10 to 15 years the facilities of many Wellington  Clubs have improved out of sight. Especially playing and training fields. Mostly due to various  Councils coming to the party. 

Yeah, it was. The facilities are generally so much better now. 

ACFC beat Canterbury 4-1 in a pretty dominant performance. Canterbury score first in the 9th minute against the run of play from a pretty nice half volley, but don’t really look dangerous for the rest of the match. Parked the bus until the 44th minute when Auckland scored two in quick succession, unraveling their game plan. Game was even for a while after the break until Canterbury tired out and Auckland completely controlled the game for the last 20 minutes scoring another two.

Yeah I thought Auckland City were pretty dominant. Adam Thurston definetly sunk his own team getting two yellow cards in a short space of time one for a complete act of stupidity. Otherwise well done Navy Blues. 

Yeah forgot to mention the red haha. Happened in the first 20 minutes i think, didn’t help the team’s chances at holding their lead

Couple of blue glasses around here!

Canterbury by far the better side until the red card. Were pressing Auckland very well and Auckland were not dealing with it.

After red card all Auckland.

Thought Auckland were set to be embarrassed otherwise.

Uh.. that happened in the first 22mins of the game and deservedly so.

Football is a 90 minute game. To say that ACFC were going to be embarrassed is speculative. 

Yes it is speculative, but they turned up with a game plan, were 1 goal up, well structured, and looking very very tidy.

Speculation is just another word for my opinion, so here it is. :)

I fully admit the Cantabs were on top for the first 20 minutes or so until the Red Card then Adam Thurston had his little brain snap and sunk his team's chances and then it was all ACFC. It would have been interesting had it stayed 11 v 11 as Thurston looked good for the brief time he was on the pitch. 

We could say, it looked like Canterbury were maybe going to make a game of it? :)

Rather than clogging up the Tasman thread, what do people think about Auckland's prices this season?

15pp seems far too steep for what's on offer, especially when compared to Suburbs (free) or Waitakere (5$)

Seems like a case of the club thinking they have a captive market and trying to squeeze as much $$ out of the fans as possible.

Quite hard to justify to a group of casual fans who just want to watch some football though - especially when ITM cup games are $10 at Eden park (or free)

its nothing new though is it? thought its been $15 at Auckland for quite a while now

I think $15 is extortionate.

But then I still go every week ....

Mind you, I bring the missus along because she still has her student ID, and so it's only $5 for her. But $30 for the two of us starts to look really stupid.

Last time I went to Waitakere it was $15

How do Eastern Suburbs survive with no gate takings?

they have a large amount of reserves and also make a fair bit of money from selling kits - when they joined the league they produced documents showing they had a turnover of close to $1 million and I think it was a key factor in them getting the league spot as opposed to the North Shore or South Auckland bids

Very much this. I've got a season pass for $90 which gets me 9 home games and OFC champions league games including finals. 

That's $10 per home game even less if you inc other games. Reasonable imo. 

Fairly lucky to grab a late 1-0 win over Hamilton Wanderers today at Porritt Stadium Wanderers pressed high and didn't allow Auckland City to play out like they usually do Tommy Semmy and Stafford Dowling looked particularly threatening for them today. I actually think Auckland City started to get the better of things when they went down to 10 men when Dylan Manickum received his second yellow card within the space of a few minutes. Maro Bonsu-Maro scored in the final three minutes to make it 1-0 and 7 wins from 7 the best start to the season in the modern national league era and four points clear at the top of the table. 

Thought Manickum's red card was a little harsh, then I saw the Phoenix game!

Dylan's first yellow was bad refereeing.

Thought Dan Morgan had an off game, which was unlike him. Kept turning the ball over and I don't know if he actually managed a pass to his teammates. 

I stupidly turned it off with 5mins to go (it was a scrappy game all up) only to find out today they scored almost immediately after and won haha.

Why was it bad refereeing? You can't stop someone from taking a free kick like that, your always going to get a yellow. (1min 34 sec in)

The only bad refereeing is that we don't see refs give cards for doing this more often.