Match 25 vs Perth Glory | Sun 30th May | 3:35pm | Eden Park

Jazzy Jeff

Aaaaaand we're still alive for the season. Game on at Eden Park. This reeks of everything hinging on the final match against Macarthur

The win tonight will add a few thousand on the gate and the weather forecast is improving. 
A decent day and that's another couple of thousand. 
Mind you, 24,000 in Eden Park and it looks half empty, mainly because it is!

Jazzy Jeff

Aaaaaand we're still alive for the season. Game on at Eden Park. This reeks of everything hinging on the final match against Macarthur

Don't want to get too cocky against Perth though. There form since losing to us has been very good and they have some excellent players.

In a must win situation, This game has everything going for it. The more the merrier and let's all be the 12th player so to speak. Carry the lads forward. You couldnt write a better script so long as we have a good fair to both side referee and not Ams or Griffith-Jones.

Nervous if we don’t have Reno or Uli. Keep on rolling!

martinb

Nervous if we don’t have Reno or Uli. Keep on rolling!

Just cross the ball towards Hemed and we will be fine! Not his biggest fan but that is now 9 goals in his last 12 games, he is finding form at the right time of the season.

Davila expected to be back for this weekend.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/125258726/phoenix-star-reno-piscopo-taken-to-hospital-for-scans-after-injuring-shoulder

a draw between CCM and MacArthur would be perfect tonight, puts them both on 37, which we can get to when we beat Perth on Sunday. WSW could do us a huge favour by beating Roar on Sunday and that would put four teams on 37 going into the last weekend.

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with some quick math, we could reach 4th if we keep winning and results go our way. If this four all finish on 40 points we could steal 4th of Roar on GD if we beat Perth and Macarthur well with clean sheets and Roar lose without scoring against Sydney and win 1-0 against Perth.

theprof

a draw between CCM and MacArthur would be perfect tonight, puts them both on 37, which we can get to when we beat Perth on Sunday. WSW could do us a huge favour by beating Roar on Sunday and that would put four teams on 37 going into the last weekend.

37.PNG 10.22 KB

with some quick math, we could reach 4th if we keep winning and results go our way. If this four all finish on 40 points we could steal 4th of Roar on GD if we beat Perth and Macarthur well with clean sheets and Roar lose without scoring against Sydney and win 1-0 against Perth.

I see how that scenario gives us the absolute best outcome, but it relies on so many results going our way.

I want a CCM win. So that its simple - 2 wins and we are in. It gives us the best chance of making the 6. 

I think our run is too late to be hoping for 4th and 5th.

CCM host easy beats Newcastle & WU in their last 2 games. They will be hard to catch. Plus they are the good guys this season, that I'm happy to see make the playoffs. I'd favour a CCM win tonight.

It really looks like catching Macarthur is the Nix's best hope of cracking the 6. Want Bulls to get as few points as possible from their 2 games (CCM & WU), before playing the Nix.

Roar also yes could possibly overtake, esp if they lose to WSW. But they finish by hosting the Glory (who will be flat after losing in Auckland!, and tired from lots of travel), and a depleted Sydney. Going on the way they touched up Melb City, hard to see them slipping up.

Also Victoria is about to go into Covid lockdown (likely 7 days). Expect further disruptions to the A League schedule.

Nix of course should be fine. Though Macarthur are scheduled to visit WU next Monday, before hosting the Nix next weekend.

https://us.soccerway.com/national/australia/a-league/20202021/regular-season/r59845/

theprof

a draw between CCM and MacArthur would be perfect tonight, puts them both on 37, which we can get to when we beat Perth on Sunday. WSW could do us a huge favour by beating Roar on Sunday and that would put four teams on 37 going into the last weekend.

37.PNG 10.22 KB

with some quick math, we could reach 4th if we keep winning and results go our way. If this four all finish on 40 points we could steal 4th of Roar on GD if we beat Perth and Macarthur well with clean sheets and Roar lose without scoring against Sydney and win 1-0 against Perth.

Could even finish third! It's not impossible. 
Seriously though, an upset from WSW against Adelaide in the last round could see us through. I don't really see Adelaide beating Sydney...
If Macarthur beat CCM we might be relying on it. 
Crazy how tight this table is.

Perth will have the legs on us, but will have made the flight over so who knows.
We should have the legs on Macarthur who play Thursday, Monday, Friday.

Up the fudgeen Mariners tonight.

If CCM beat McArthur then we definitely get through if we win our last two, seeing as we play McArthur in our last match. So I think that would actually be a better result than a draw, which would mean we could still mathematically miss out even if we won our last 2 (but still unlikely since we have a good goal difference).

siac

If CCM beat McArthur then we definitely get through if we win our last two, seeing as we play McArthur in our last match. So I think that would actually be a better result than a draw, which would mean we could still mathematically miss out even if we won our last 2 (but still unlikely since we have a good goal difference).

Macarthur would have to beat Western United by 8, plus whatever they lose to the Phoenix by, to get into the top six ahead of the Phoenix on goal difference in the case of them both finishing on 40 points. A draw tonight's as good as a loss (and arguably better, because it keeps more paths open for the Phoenix).

Ain't gonna be pretty.

Look, all we need to do is win both games. Then if it's meant to be it will be.

nufc_nz

Look, all we need to do is win both games. Then if it's meant to be it will be.

That's an awfully sensible comment. Are you sure you're in the right blog?

harrymc55

nufc_nz

Look, all we need to do is win both games. Then if it's meant to be it will be.

That's an awfully sensible comment. Are you sure you're in the right blog?

He's been listening to Uffie

I wonder how we will line up. I imagine Reno is out and Uli only has 20mins in him so there will need to be a reshuffle because of that. But this will be the third game in 8 days for the rest. 
Rufer in for Lewis? 
Mcgarry in for sutts? 

I did not have much expectation of Sutton's fitness as he is a young bloke, but he surprised me by still zipping about late in the game against the WSW.  To a degree he was more able to make a difference than Waine (to do with the relentless marking).
We may still need McGarry on the field at some point as shown by his introduction last night.

Having to start Sotiro now, with Piscopo out & Davila likely restricted to a cameo role - makes the bench look even thinner than usual. Talay not showing much faith in Ngoy, by bringing Mcgarry (did a pretty good job too) on as a pseudo forward last night.

Uffie has limited options. Imagine Sotiro replacing Piscopo, and Davila onto the bench are the only changes. Training will be very light heading into Sunday, and then you just hope that the energy from playing in front of a big home crowd, plus knowing the season is on the line, makes the players forget they are playing 3 times in 8 days.

Then if Nix are chasing a 2nd half goal(s) they have Davila to throw on hopefully.


Re Ngoy, out of curiosity I note Watto has scored 1 goal from 4 games for Dandenong Thunder (10th of 14 teams) in the Victorian NPL.

If you are interested, a couple of us are thinking of doing the Breakers game at Spark Arena after the Nix. I've created a thread here https://yellowfever.co.nz/categories/dangerous-liaisons/topics/double-header-nix-and-breakers-in-auckland

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Pax alert, 17,000 sold. Two full days of ticket sales to go.

Reno looked a bit more upbeat on Newshub tonight. Showed the team at Auckland Airport. Reno said X-ray was ok but still needs to get an MRI done.
Arm not in a sling. You gotta think Sunday will be too soon, but if MRI comes back ok maybe we see him against Macarthur.
Never know.

Weather potentially looking bit better than earlier forecast. Light short showers at worst maybe. 
https://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/locations/auckland/extended

The big question for those watching it home, is who will replace Piney if he continues to be stuck in Melbourne (Get back home Piney!!)

aitkenmike

The big question for those watching it home, is who will replace Piney if he continues to be stuck in Melbourne (Get back home Piney!!)

Thought both Speed & Harper were excellent last night. 

CCM playing there reserve/youth side tonight no doubt.

aitkenmike

The big question for those watching it home, is who will replace Piney if he continues to be stuck in Melbourne (Get back home Piney!!)

I'm hoping GGW will be given the chance to call the game, I like his style very subtle and flows with the game. Imagine if Auckland get an A-league team that Piney will cover Welly and GGW will cover Auckland

Sancho

aitkenmike

The big question for those watching it home, is who will replace Piney if he continues to be stuck in Melbourne (Get back home Piney!!)

I'm hoping GGW will be given the chance to call the game, I like his style very subtle and flows with the game. Imagine if Auckland get an A-league team that Piney will cover Welly and GGW will cover Auckland

 That would be great, but 90% it's gonna be Dewhurst

ffs, Mac are 1-0 up

1-1 now could’ve been 2-1 CCM looks like CCM will win this or a draw which will be great for us

Ended with CCM beating the Cowbells 2:1

This is huge. We don't need to worry about any other results now, it's entirely in our own hands. Never would have thought 6ish weeks ago that we would still be well in the hunt for top 6 by this point. The fight in this team is unreal. Also so much is happening at the moment that I feel like it's been glossed over that we are once again (for the 3rd year in a row) on our longest ever unbeaten streak and on the cusp of getting to 10 matches without an L on Sunday. Given everything that's happened this season that's a huge achievement, regardless of whether we win or not.

This is huge from two perspectives.The first is obviously the maths.The second is psychological.
It now enables the whole squad and management team to focus on the final two games without the distraction of the what ifs.
Thats powerful.
Im bringing 3 others up from the Bay of Plenty. Cant wait.

If we get through these next two games with Davila back and the undefeated streak still going you would have to say we will give the play offs a good stab.

Too early to speculate, but if Davila is joining the Rams next season, he wants to impress them with a stupendous performance against them, no?

Playing a blinder here tbh, Aussie teams love to neutralise the Nix by kicking our playmaker off the park, right?

Our only playmaker left is Sotirio, and he's so fast they'll exhaust themselves running around after him.

tactical masterclass from Uffie

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Pax update, Family Zone and Gold are now completely sold out. Block 325 in the South that went on sale yesterday is 14 tickets short of selling out, 412 and 413 in the North have about 4 seats between them.

Block 324 south has 2 tickets in and Block 318 has two tickets left.

If there's a decent walkup crowd of 3 - 4k, the East lower will fill up as well. 

Looking good then. If the Nix ever scored these attendances at EVERY home game, imagine the atmosphere and how the team would respond. Some clubs would be soooooo jealous. Proud to be a Nix fan!

"Our only playmaker left is Sotirio, and he's so fast they'll exhaust themselves running around after him."
I like him but think thats a bit hopeful.LOL