Auckland Pride - Make Auckland Great Again

theprof

Safire

Controversial VAR call.  

watched the highlights and initially I thought Elliot had gone down way to easy. Bu on a second look the pull on the shirt was decent but I'm not sure it was enough to drag him to the ground.

I didn't understand this from the referee - I get it's not a huge shirt pull, but a shirt pull is a deliberate act, it's not like he accidentally clipped him running from behind and the contact was incidental - the player makes a decision to reach out and grab a shirt - therefore it should be called, in my opinion every time - it's also a non football challenge.

chopah

theprof

Safire

Controversial VAR call.  

watched the highlights and initially I thought Elliot had gone down way to easy. Bu on a second look the pull on the shirt was decent but I'm not sure it was enough to drag him to the ground.

I didn't understand this from the referee - I get it's not a huge shirt pull, but a shirt pull is a deliberate act, it's not like he accidentally clipped him running from behind and the contact was incidental - the player makes a decision to reach out and grab a shirt - therefore it should be called, in my opinion every time - it's also a non football challenge.

Its a foul anyday of the week. Unbelievable that the goal wasnt overturned.

I persuaded a friend who is a Warriors fan to watch some AL football. Hes enjoyed the games but recently commented on all the shirt pulling that goes on in football. He asked why dont the players wear skin tight shirts like they do in League and Union. Interesting point he made. It would immediately end shirt pulling which is a blight on the game imo.
Good away point for AFC. They will be there at the business end of the season.

AFC had 8 Kiwis in their starting lineup last night. All good for NZ football.

Nah but America's Cup is way more important sporting news pic.twitter.com/aGD7U7prrv

— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) January 22, 2025

Fenix

chopah

theprof

Safire

Controversial VAR call.  

watched the highlights and initially I thought Elliot had gone down way to easy. Bu on a second look the pull on the shirt was decent but I'm not sure it was enough to drag him to the ground.

I didn't understand this from the referee - I get it's not a huge shirt pull, but a shirt pull is a deliberate act, it's not like he accidentally clipped him running from behind and the contact was incidental - the player makes a decision to reach out and grab a shirt - therefore it should be called, in my opinion every time - it's also a non football challenge.

Its a foul anyday of the week. Unbelievable that the goal wasnt overturned.

Its honestly clear a foul in every single metric. This happens almost every single game against an attacker in the last 20 and yellow is given. It is quite literally astonishing this was not called. The ref literally decided the foul was not foul enough.

nixin

Shirt tug
Should rule out the goal. There's no reason for Elliot's shirt to be in Dukuly's hand.
Benefit of the doubt should be with the fouled player.
Awarding the goal gives the wrong message, ie do more shirt tugging, we're fine with it.
Automatic yellow and the problem goes away overnight.
De Fries, IMO is a strong A league player, maybe good enough for a higher level.
Makes you wonder what other talent is being overlooked in the regional leagues.
Entertaining game!

Yeah, for example De Vries - great talent too.

Wait hang on- de Vries was playing at a quite good level in Scandinavia recently yeh?

martinb

Wait hang on- de Vries was playing at a quite good level in Scandinavia recently yeh?

Yeah. If he didn't do his ACL and come home to rehab it, he would probably still have been over there I would imagine.

Mata v Mata.
Al-Taay will be hoping 3rd time's a charm against AFC.


Western Sydney Wanderers v Auckland FC
Sunday, January 26 – CommBank Stadium – 5pm AEDT

Western Sydney Wanderers Squad: 
4.Alex BONETIG, 6.Mohamed AL-TAAY, 7.Zac SAPSFORD, 9.Marcus ANTONSSON, 13.Dean PELEKANOS, 14.Nicolas MILANOVIC, 17.Jarrod CARLUCCIO, 18.Oscar PRIESTMAN, 19. Jack CLISBY, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (GK), 21.Aydan HAMMOND, 22.Anthony PANTAZOPOULOS, 23.Bozhidar KRAEV, 25.Josh BRILLANTE, 26.Brandon BORRELLO, 27.James TEMELKOVSKI, 30.Jordan HOLMES (GK), 31. Aidan SIMMONS, 64.Juan MATA

(One to be omitted)
INS: 6.Mohamed AL-TAAY (promoted – new signing)
OUTS: 10.Alex BADOLATO
UNAVAILABLE: 2.Gab CLEUR (injured), 5.Dylan SCICLUNA (injured), 8.Jeong TAE-WOOK (injured)

Auckland FC Squad:
1. Michael WOUD, 2. Hiroki SAKAI, 4. Nando PIJNAKER, 5. Tommy SMITH, 6. Louis VERSTRAETE, 7. Cam HOWIESON, 8. Luis TOOMEY, 9. Max MATA, 10. Guillermo MAY, 11. Marlee FRANÇOIS, 12. Alex PAULSEN, 14. Liam GILLION, 15. Francis DE VRIES, 17. Callan ELLIOT, 18. Finn MCKENLAY, 21. Jesse RANDALL, 22. Jake BRIMMER, 25. Neyder MORENO, 27. Logan ROGERSON, 28. Luis Felipe GALLEGOS

(Two to be omitted)
INS: Nil
OUTS: Nil
UNAVAILABLE: 23. Dan HALL

"not enough impact" changes things from objective to subjective.

Intentionally pulling a player's shirt from behind with no intend to play the ball should objectively be a foul regardless, now it's up to the referee to say whether he feels like a foul or not, when where do you draw the line.

Safire

"not enough impact" changes things from objective to subjective.

Intentionally pulling a player's shirt from behind with no intend to play the ball should objectively be a foul regardless, now it's up to the referee to say whether he feels like a foul or not, when where do you draw the line.

Well sounds like an invitation to openly just make it up as you go along, which suits those c- just fine. 

I mean only Mexicans and Kiwis are cheats. Aussies can’t be, everyone knows that. So start from that and make up the rules to suit that requirement…

The underarm was perfectly legal remember. Cricket authorities just assumed there’d be no one c-ish enough to do it.

A league refs determining the foul continuum: 

Thanks Mainland, *Vries, noted! We got a new Spelling Ref?

Sakai, Brimmer and/or Howieson to start??
Galloway might get some mins as well. FDV looked a bit buggered at the end of the Adelaide match.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360558797/western-sydney-wanderers-v-auckland-fc-all-you-need-know

The return of captain and star right back Hiroki Sakai from concussion is timely, with Auckland playing their third game in eight days.

Can’t see FDV having a week off. 

He is the main man in that team assisting goals and his defense isn’t bad

AucklandPhoenix

Can’t see FDV having a week off. 

He is the main man in that team assisting goals and his defense isn’t bad

Yeh, but Saka…

AucklandPhoenix

Can’t see FDV having a week off. 

He is the main man in that team assisting goals and his defense isn’t bad

Yes FDV to start but may not finish the game for once

Auckland a better team so far than WSW but AFC playing more recently than WSW may have an impact on their fitness.

Auckland plays with a lot of positivity and their press is relentless, but big ask for their fitness, unsure they could last 90

Unfortunate miss for Rogerson. That was a tap in opportunity wasted.

Need chances to fall to quality players. Eventually one did.
 My 2c: François, Randell not there yet.
Would like to see more of Toomey.

Maybe this lineup
Paulsen

Sakai Smith Pijnaker De Vries

Howieson Verstraete Gallegos.

Brimmer Moreno
May

Subs

Galloway if fit, Toomey, Gillion, Rogerson, Elliot, Mata, Woud

Pretty old lineup!

Great late result, well deserved. On top again.

So good to watch their relentless attacking play

screenshot-1737882359887.png 1.48 MB

I think the last few rounds have done it for me.  I’m still gonna buy nix merch etc (coz they need all the help they can get).  Outwardly, I’m still totally a nix fan.  But spiritually, I’ll support whoever is doing the best on the league table ^^;;

Banzai!...AIEEE!!!

I think the last few rounds have done it for me.  I’m still gonna buy nix merch etc (coz they need all the help they can get).  Outwardly, I’m still totally a nix fan.  But spiritually, I’ll support whoever is doing the best on the league table ^^;;

Good luck with that. I'll stick with believing your outward appearance!

Safire

Auckland plays with a lot of positivity and their press is relentless, but big ask for their fitness, unsure they could last 90

How many games have AFC literally won past 90' ?

Banzai!...AIEEE!!!

I think the last few rounds have done it for me.  I’m still gonna buy nix merch etc (coz they need all the help they can get).  Outwardly, I’m still totally a nix fan.  But spiritually, I’ll support whoever is doing the best on the league table ^^;;

Supporting AFC, even provisionally and to support a good cause from young people, feels a bit like cheating on my long-term partner

Doloras

Safire

Auckland plays with a lot of positivity and their press is relentless, but big ask for their fitness, unsure they could last 90

How many games have AFC literally won past 90' ?

More than any other team in the A League. They're a 95 minute side and speaks well for them. Credit when and where it is due.

Doloras

Safire

Auckland plays with a lot of positivity and their press is relentless, but big ask for their fitness, unsure they could last 90

How many games have AFC literally won past 90' ?

Sydney and West Sydney were both past 90’.

Think the Nix away wasn’t quite at 90’ when Brimmer got his first, but very close. May be wrong though.

They’ve also earned draws against City and Adelaide past 90’.

Whilst there is a fair amount of luck in doing so, it does speak volumes about their attitude and mentality.

5 (including this win) according to the Aussies on the box.

It sucks that the nix arnt going to be the first NZ team to get silverware but at least one NZ team will. Auckland have depth and quality, I'd say they are favourites at this point.

As a non-kiwi and a resident and fan in the Wellington region, I can't be happy about it. It needed to be us to do it first, so this is the worst possible outcome. 

Will I give them credit? Absolutely, fair play to them, they've got a good thing going and built correctly, but am I happy about it? Absolutely not. It sucks balls.

Doloras

Banzai!...AIEEE!!!

I think the last few rounds have done it for me.  I’m still gonna buy nix merch etc (coz they need all the help they can get).  Outwardly, I’m still totally a nix fan.  But spiritually, I’ll support whoever is doing the best on the league table ^^;;

Supporting AFC, even provisionally and to support a good cause from young people, feels a bit like cheating on my long-term partner

I never thought I would see "cheating on my long-term partner" and "to support a good cause from young people" in one single sentence.  
The YF Forum, creating modern literary gems to express the existential anguish of Monday mornings.

coochiee

One of the great A-League shirt swaps. pic.twitter.com/IhiZKzJ6VO

— Phillip Rollo (@ByPhillipRollo) January 26, 2025

Juan is so lucky

Juan to the Max

Attracted by the toy boys D?

I wondered where my heart was going to fall since I had lived in Auckland for most of my life but supported the Nix from Day 0.

I now know:

1. I love watching Auckland play.
2. I don’t particularly like their active support (based on social media postings).
3. I watch both team’s games every week.
4. I want AFC to finish as high as they can.
5. I am definitely Phoenix til I die, the Nix is in my blood now and they are my favourite child in the family.

The NZ football landscape is really great at the moment, great time to support football here. 

Doloras

Banzai!...AIEEE!!!

I think the last few rounds have done it for me.  I’m still gonna buy nix merch etc (coz they need all the help they can get).  Outwardly, I’m still totally a nix fan.  But spiritually, I’ll support whoever is doing the best on the league table ^^;;

Supporting AFC, even provisionally and to support a good cause from young people, feels a bit like cheating on my long-term partner

Are we in danger of being “Spursy”?

WanderingSheep

As a non-kiwi and a resident and fan in the Wellington region, I can't be happy about it. It needed to be us to do it first, so this is the worst possible outcome. 

Will I give them credit? Absolutely, fair play to them, they've got a good thing going and built correctly, but am I happy about it? Absolutely not. It sucks balls.

" Attracted by the toy boys D? "

Liam Gillion is the adopted little cuddly rat boy of Tāmaki AFC, if that's what you mean

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360561795/its-becoming-habit-auckland-fc-continue-deliver-late-drama-during-dream-league-men-debut

Coach Steve Corica hailed his team’s character following their latest dramatic escape.

“We kept pushing for the goal, which is amazing, and Neyder scored another late goal for us,” Corica said.

“It’s just the culture and the attitude of the players. We work hard at training, we drive them really hard physically and I think it shows by the end of the game that we run over a lot of the teams in the second half and score late goals.

Here are the six occasions where Auckland have struck late to earn points this season.

R2: Auckland FC 1 (Nando Pijnaker 97’) Sydney FC 0.

R3: Auckland FC 2 (Jake Brimmer 88’, 90+6’) Wellington Phoenix 0.

R6: Auckland FC 2 (Neyder Moreno 83’, Francis de Vries 89’) Newcastle Jets 0.

R8: Auckland FC 2 (Neyder Moreno 90+5’) Melbourne City 2.

R14: Auckland FC 2 (Logan Rogerson 90+9’) Adelaide United 2

R16: Auckland FC 1 (Neyder Moreno 90+5’) Western Sydney Wanderers 0.

Napier Phoenix

Attracted by the toy boys D?

I wondered where my heart was going to fall since I had lived in Auckland for most of my life but supported the Nix from Day 0.

I now know:

1. I love watching Auckland play.
2. I don’t particularly like their active support (based on social media postings).
3. I watch both team’s games every week.
4. I want AFC to finish as high as they can.
5. I am definitely Phoenix til I die, the Nix is in my blood now and they are my favourite child in the family.

The NZ football landscape is really great at the moment, great time to support football here. 

Doloras

Banzai!...AIEEE!!!

I think the last few rounds have done it for me.  I’m still gonna buy nix merch etc (coz they need all the help they can get).  Outwardly, I’m still totally a nix fan.  But spiritually, I’ll support whoever is doing the best on the league table ^^;;

Supporting AFC, even provisionally and to support a good cause from young people, feels a bit like cheating on my long-term partner

This is exactly me too, although have no issue with The Port from what I've observed...
I 100% want the Nix to beat AFC, but I 100% want AFC to win each week. 

Three articles on AFC on the herald website today. Shame 2 are behind a paywall.

If anyone has a subscription love a copy and paste.