Team Wellington... no longer an association with Ole. Chur

starting XI: O'Keeffe (GK), Rosenthal, Robertson, Fa'arodo, Bechar, Gwyther, Feneridis, Musa, Fleming, Morris, Cowan #WSvTW

Half time 1 - 1 at Bill McKinley Park

52' Fleming makes it 2-1 for TW

61' TW 3 Wanders 1 

just under 80' TW score again 4-1 Wanders falling apart

FT TW 4-1

Flem on the scoreboard, they must've been sharke!

It's great to see him back playing for TW though....how long is Peverley out for?

We are top of the league, say we are top of the league.

A little birdie told me that the CWC money will come in very handy for TW who were struggling to finance their O League campaign. There may also be some Phoenix players turning out for TW at the tournament…

Pretty good news all round for TW fans

They also get a slightly larger chuck of the pie as an OCL team than the other franchises.

Would have thought a tournament based competition would have lower the costs against a home and away format.

Will the money come in straight away?

The squad they have, the recruitment doesn't seem to have been "far reaching", pretty much all players have been around in previous seasons or playing in Wellington with a few from Auckland.

Nice job.

I've thought this as possibility for the regular season.

ACFC have bought in players as well so no reason why they can't do the same.

True. I had not thought of that. As you were.

Good God - no! Works the other way does it not? Albert, Krishna, Hicks etc?

Lindsay?

5th of January.

Interesting

Tantalising

Good on TeeDubs for picking this up but why oh why can the AWs not get these gigs?  

There's enough half decent AWs in Australasia for us to put on at least a NZ A team against these sides instead of ACFC, TeeDubs etc.  

Does not even need to be recognised as a friendly, just a kick about but gives fringe players a chance to show themselves off without the pressure of a proper AW match (even better for Hudson really).

Surely with the $$$ / €€€ that Fifa pays Oceania, Waitak, ACFC and TWs costs in the O League should have been covered.  Are these costs mentioned above for (unofficially) paying players on short term contracts?

"Qatar approached New Zealand Football about the match, and Team Wellington coach Matt Calcott says it was then offered to them. "Given the time of the year, it means that a number of players couldn't be released from club commitments and the like, which meant that the opportunity's been provided to Team Wellington and we're really excited about it."

Phoenix would have played 3 games in a week. the last on 31 Dec so can't imagine they would be too keen to release their players. 

Thus you'd be looking at an ASBP XI but ACFC have a game too so would rule out a couple more. Pretty hard to pull together a half decent team. 

Thats a smart move of NZF. You would think they would have gone through Hudson first. Outside the window etc, this makes sense.

Cheers for clearing that up although ACFC doesn't provide many AW (fringe or otherwise) anyway.  Might have been a good opportunity for an ASBP XI.

A team used to playing together is likely to be more competitive though

Yup. Doubt Qatar would be willing to pay for a makeshift team to come out.

Game Day TW v Waitakere United - David  Farrington Park Miramar Kick off 3 pm

Score updates?

1-1 after 55 mins.....Musa has been sent off

Lost 2-1....TW down to 9 men.....massive opportunity lost

Looked very good first half and let it slip.

Both CBs off.

Very questionable sendings offs. TeeDubs looked better side in the first half. Started slowly in the second half and conceded shortly after. Then after the first red it was pretty hard to see TeeDubs getting anything outta it.

what was Musa's second for?

Hand ball.

what's the YF elite's problem with the ref exactly? Was prob at least one handball in that goalmouth melee - but was at a rapid pace so hard to pick.

Good money on Waitak at $4.50