2015/16 Preseason - v Auckland City | 2pm Sat 26th September | Home & Garden Show @ Westpac Stadium

Goal! Appiah this time on end of Krishna cross and its 2-0 v @CapFootball Select XI

— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) August 30, 2015

Ifill playing?

GOOOAAAALLL!!! An amazing run along the by line and cut back to the top of the box and then Mambo left with no chance 2-1 to the Nix

— Brandon Clarke (@kiwibardy) August 30, 2015

Scored by Sam Mason-Smith

Goal.-Viera finishes past Italiano to make it 2-2!

— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) August 30, 2015

Appiah taps in a 3rd after great work from Joel Stevens. 3-2 Nix

— Brandon Clarke (@kiwibardy) August 30, 2015

3-3 at Weka Park. Central League XI with a lovely goal that draws a lot of applause

— Brandon Clarke (@kiwibardy) August 30, 2015

Corrales

Maybe Ernie is focussing on attacking combinations at the expense of a few insignificant goals today...

Ends 3-3

For me it's just that deeper issue that we're playing a back 3 when we only have 2 natural CBs. I hope Ernie isn't too far away from signing us another defender or 2 because you really want them to get a bit of preseason under their belt with the rest of the squad - regardless of whether we start the season proper playing with 3 CBs or 2.

Better to rest them and perhaps concede a few goals than to wear them out in preseason? Bear in mind that the players are closely monitored for fitness etc etc.

Stand outs for the Capital side?

ifill. absolutely class.  made it look easy

khair jones looked decent and no one could keep up with luis corrales

the phoenix looked pretty dire TBH.  i know they were missing a few, but they were very disjointed.  roly was doing it all in midfield.  

at times the back three were wide open.  at one point the invitation side had 2 attempts on goal with acres of time and space each time - hardly a phoenix defender in sight

there was also never a 'next pass'.  i.e. they'd connect with one pass and no one was already on the move for the next pass.  as a result they never really strung anything together uinless it was accross the back

Who were the back three?  And everyone else?

first half lineup: italiano - lia, riera, muscat - blake, bonevacia, ridenton, dimairo - powell - krishna, appiah

second half it changed a bit with more younger dudes including rufer and sail

Thanks.  How did Tam Dimairo look?

quiet but relatively efficient. didn't seem to move much and often wasn't in a good place to receive a short clearance out from the back.  that whole left side got slaughtered by corrales and ifill kept slinging long balls in behind him

can't understate how awesoem ifill was.  does anyone else who saw the game agree?

he was playing centre mid.  kept skinning players, lovely touch, played team mates into space with deft touches.  pure class  looked like he was having fun taking the mick too

As context. Last year at this fixture the Phoenix dominated. Not so much on the score sheet, but they really bossed the match from beginning to end, attacking at will etc.

I had a hilarious convo with Iffy a couple of weeks ago. He said that when Ernie took over he told Iffs to stop whipping in crosses and stop playing long cross field diagonals. And Iffs said to him "I don't actually do anything else!"

But jeeze, he sure can do those things pretty damn well.

and....he's an amazing youth coach - really, really good.

Yeah, not quite panic stations yet, but we obviously need a few more bodies asap. We've lost a hell of a lot of depth.

This Ifill bloke sounds pretty good. Sign him up.

I thought Dimario had a good game!  He was pushed up high in attack and then had to sprint like buggery to get back in defence.

He mostly covered LB  OK and was very good going forward either to run on to through balls or some quick passing through the mid.

Rufer didn't play. Cahill-Fluery came on in the second half in a Rufer shirt though.

Full review in #PhoenixCity on Tuesday night.

Didn't quite have the speed to get away from players, but his vision and passing was class as you'd expect.

Certainly seemed to be having some fun - laughed off a pretty dodgy challenge in the second half.

Thanks - I didn't think it was Rufer.

Highlight for me after a nice day out at Weka was passing the YF mobile coming back into Wgtn (before Tawa).

Rufer was in Auckland on the drink!

I think they finishd with:

                            Sail

          Stroud   Vinniesta   Bell

Blake     (Someone Else)   Singh     DiMairo

      Powell     Cahill-Fluery     Stevens

No, no

It was pootling along under 100 kph.  I only noticed it because a hoon overtook us and then under-took YLWFVR to go onto an off-ramp.

ChelskiLiz was driving, but we overtook pretty quickly. Afterwards I said to Jnr Jnr that we should have waved a YF bucket hat out the window.

Was McGarry involved I thought he was broken after he came of injured in the WeeNix game last week?

Pretty sure he didn't play.

Have to say our pre-season form has been absolutely terrible!