English chat with Rogerson, pre Haka's Conference League game. I imagine Finnish (similar Russian?) is a tough language to learn. Sounds like the Sligo guys might head up Belfast to watch the away tie next week.
English chat with Rogerson, pre Haka's Conference League game. I imagine Finnish (similar Russian?) is a tough language to learn. Sounds like the Sligo guys might head up Belfast to watch the away tie next week.
Russian is fairly different, it's a Slavic-family language, so similar to most of Eastern Europe down through to the Balkans (excluding the likes of Hungarian, Romanian, Albanian, Greek). Finnish is Uralic (Finnic more specifically) - so possibly among the most difficult European languages to learn as there's little resemblance to the more widespread languages like how there is in Germanic, Romance and Slavic family languages - and is in between Hungarian and Estonian as the most spoken Uralic language. As it is we rarely hear New Zealanders in Europe trying to speak the local tongue, let alone one of the hardest to learn, though of course speaking is (usually) the most difficult of the four foreign language communications.
Back to football, Rogerson wasn't the only New Zealander to play today, Zac Jones and Haverfordwest had their trip to Skopje to play North Macedonian side Shkendija. Haverfordwest went down 1-0, but that looks like a decent result based on the stats, as they conceded 20 shots and only had two of their own, with only 34% of the ball. Hopefully that means Jones did well, even if the team was a bit outclassed.
Elsewhere, fellow Finnish side Honka went down 2-1 away in Kazakhstan to Tobol Kostanay, while the other Welsh side Penybont came from behind to draw 1-1 at home to Andorran side Santa Coloma. As for the Irish sides: Derry City, who beat Sligo last weekend and were recently priced out of signing Max Mata, drew 0-0 away to HB Torshavn there in the Faroe Islands; Dundalk drew 0-0 away in Gibraltar to Bruno's Magpies; while St Patrick's Athletic lost 2-1 away to Luxembourgers Dudelange yesterday.
English chat with Rogerson, pre Haka's Conference League game. I imagine Finnish (similar Russian?) is a tough language to learn. Sounds like the Sligo guys might head up Belfast to watch the away tie next week.
Unfortunately Haka out of the Conference League with a 1-0 loss in Belfast. Both Kiwis started, with Rogerson off at 77 mins, and Whyte off just after at 83 mins.
Rogerson starting and Whyte on the bench in what could be an important game for Haka, as they try and create some breathing room at the foot of the Veikkausliiga.
And he gets his 2nd goal of the league season - tidy finish that.
FC Haka’s win here means they’ve only lost one of their last ten, digging themselves all the way out of the relegation battle when it mattered#FlyingKiwishttps://t.co/wGeN0RB0zX
Rogerson, good enough for Auckland FC & the ALM? From this week's Niche Cache Flying Kiwis. Interesting that maybe Whyte will be staying with Haka but Logan not?? 25 yr old Rogerson was more a regular starter in 2023. His best year with Haka was 2022, and he came back into the AWs for awhile then.
Not a lot of happenings this past fortnight so we’ll serve up some more gossip. This was already mentioned in our Substack email newsletter last Friday so deffo subscribe to that bad boy if you want the ongoing transfer yarns as we find them. Usually Flying Kiwis is just for the more substantial efforts, confirmed transfers and on-field performances and what not. But we’re short this week so here we go with a couple of kiwi pros who may or may not be on the move very soon.
Neither Logan Rogerson nor Ollie Whyte have contracts with FC Haka in Finland for the upcoming season. Haka had a stinker of a year and are moving onto a new coach (former Northern Irish international Andy Smith). The club have talked about making big changes to the playing staff, with 15 players under contract as things stand. Whyte has still been training with the club despite not having a current deal. No mention of Rogerson, although guess who’s also got a fresh highlights package on the interwebs..
Who's picked that one? First Kiwi to play in Armenia.
Rogerson was also part of FC Noah's recent mid-season camp in Qatar prior to the announcement. He played 30 minutes off the bench against Russian club Zenit St Petersburg in a 0-0 draw, and logged 90 minutes and a goal in their 1-1 draw with Qatari Stars League side Al-Markhiya. So they kept all that under wraps pretty well.
The Armenian Premier League resumes again next week, with Noah taking on 4th place Urartu FC.
Noah in 2nd place - A European Conference League playoff spot, 6 points off the top of the table Pyunik, or 'Phoenix'
Floored me when I first saw the announcement, but they're a really decent club tbh - a definite step up. Some names on the squad list that I immediately recognised include:
Dieumerci Mbokani, 38 now but absolutely annihilated the Belgian league for a good decade or so, with spells at Dynamo Kyiv and the EPL (Norwich and Hull) in between. Scored well over 200 league goals in his career
Alfred N'Diaye, 33, Senegalese international with spells in La Liga (Villarreal, Betis) and England (Hull, Wolves
Pablo Santos, a Brazilian midfielder last at Braga in Portugal - very decent level
I worry for his gametime considering the firepower they have up top - no less than five other *foreign* forwards, let alone the domestic ones.
Floored me when I first saw the announcement, but they're a really decent club tbh - a definite step up. Some names on the squad list that I immediately recognised include:
Dieumerci Mbokani, 38 now but absolutely annihilated the Belgian league for a good decade or so, with spells at Dynamo Kyiv and the EPL (Norwich and Hull) in between. Scored well over 200 league goals in his career
Alfred N'Diaye, 33, Senegalese international with spells in La Liga (Villarreal, Betis) and England (Hull, Wolves
Pablo Santos, a Brazilian midfielder last at Braga in Portugal - very decent level
I worry for his gametime considering the firepower they have up top - no less than five other *foreign* forwards, let alone the domestic ones.
Glad to hear it’s a step up and that he’s prepared to go to unfamiliar places to push his career forward. Hope to see him in white if he can make a go of it. Seemed a popular lad when he was here.
Floored me when I first saw the announcement, but they're a really decent club tbh - a definite step up. Some names on the squad list that I immediately recognised include:
Dieumerci Mbokani, 38 now but absolutely annihilated the Belgian league for a good decade or so, with spells at Dynamo Kyiv and the EPL (Norwich and Hull) in between. Scored well over 200 league goals in his career
Alfred N'Diaye, 33, Senegalese international with spells in La Liga (Villarreal, Betis) and England (Hull, Wolves
Pablo Santos, a Brazilian midfielder last at Braga in Portugal - very decent level
I worry for his gametime considering the firepower they have up top - no less than five other *foreign* forwards, let alone the domestic ones.
There's some options there for sure. But it's good that he's getting good game time already - Even if it is only a mid season camp. It could potentially be a renewal of their lineup with an injection of youth? (well youth by comparison).
They went to great lengths to hide his announcement too because it's been about a week and a half since the deal was signed. 😂
And now with only 3 or 4 months left in the season, it's a nice short, sharp introduction to life in Armenia. Actually looks quite a nice place, especially in and around the capital city Yerevan.
Club debut for Rogerson this morning - Coming on at H/T for FC Noah (1-0) in their 1-1 draw with Urartu FC, as the Armenian Premier League resumed after their winter break.
Noah stay 2nd for now having played a game more. 15 matches left in the season to try and chase down table toppers Pyunik - The Armenian Phoenix. 😆
Made an effort to watch given the starting role for Rogerson, who was eventually subbed off after 80 minutes. Industrious performance down that right wing, with a few nice touches and interplay. Created a great chance towards the backend of the first half, beating his man close to the byline and cutting back only to see the striker skew the finish and have an Alashkert player clear off the line.
Decent performance. Standard of the Alashkert pitch looked questionable. Refereeing at times looked the same too.
Rogerson subbed off just prior to the hour mark (1-1) - The games coming thick and fast after the winter break, that's Noah's fifth game in 18 days since the season resumed.
They'll face the same opponent later on this week in league action as well.
Made an effort to watch given the starting role for Rogerson, who was eventually subbed off after 80 minutes. Industrious performance down that right wing, with a few nice touches and interplay. Created a great chance towards the backend of the first half, beating his man close to the byline and cutting back only to see the striker skew the finish and have an Alashkert player clear off the line.
Decent performance. Standard of the Alashkert pitch looked questionable. Refereeing at times looked the same too.
Anyone who watches Armenian football, and isn't Armenian, probably needs to re-examine their life choices!
Made an effort to watch given the starting role for Rogerson, who was eventually subbed off after 80 minutes. Industrious performance down that right wing, with a few nice touches and interplay. Created a great chance towards the backend of the first half, beating his man close to the byline and cutting back only to see the striker skew the finish and have an Alashkert player clear off the line.
Decent performance. Standard of the Alashkert pitch looked questionable. Refereeing at times looked the same too.
Anyone who watches Armenian football, and isn't Armenian, probably needs to re-examine their life choices!
I'll follow along to see most Kiwi players. There's not many around who do to be fair...
And it hurts no one since I could watch it at work. So I was well paid to be doing it too.
I'd rephrase that to anyone who is both well-paid and able to watch Armenian football on the company dime has made the right life choices. The rest of us need to take a hard look at ourselves.
