Phoenix A to play Auckland City

It was announced at the game against Canterbury United (ACFC won 5-2 in case you were too busy with your knitting) that Auckland City would be playing Phoenix A at Kiwitea Street on Wednesday at 5.30pm.

Does anyone know who will be in the Phoenix A side? Looking forward to the game by the way.

5.30 on a weekday. Don't they know that aucklanders work?

I imagine the nix guys are travelling back down after the game. It's just a friendly. 

We have a Phoenix A?

Auckland, Manawatu, Waitakere set the pace

"The Phoenix Challenge returns after a two-year hiatus on Wednesday evening when Auckland City entertain Wellington Phoenix 'A' at Kiwitea Street, with kick-off set for 5.30pm.

Team Wellington and Canterbury United feature in an A-League curtain-raiser next Sunday before the Wellington Phoenix clash with the Central Coast Mariners."

I would hope Clarke will get a go here

Might see players like Lia, Moss and Boyd also get 90 mins. 

Sounds like Sanchez will get a run here, will be interested to see how he's looking

That's a bit mean AJ13. We regularily get 500-800 to Kiwitea Street for ACFC home games in the ASB premiership and upwards of 1500-2000 for big games. It might not seem a lot by A League standards but this is in the face of complete neglect by NZF, no TV coverage and little publicity. Having the game at 5.30pm will make it hard on spectators to get there from work but there should still be a few hundred.

A full game between ACFC and the Phoenix on a weekend would attract a lot of attention. My guess is it would attract a big crowd, not least because the media would take an interest. Apparently ACFC have offered the challenge several times but Ricki has refused, probably because he has too much face to lose. Pity.

TV coverage is one of the only benefits of playing that game before the Nix.

Hmm, itd also get a few interested people in to watch it. If they advertised it. If it was done long term, I could see big benefits.

Would be a good pre-season game. We could give some of our City youngsters a run to give them a sporting chance Ali. I know the Phoenix don't play at as high a level as the Fifa Club World Cup but I'm sure we'd take that into account. Might even give them a wee cheer.

It's sad that the only ASB Premiership game that is getting any regular season TV coverage is tied to opening for the Phoenix. Shows how lowly the national league is held by the football powers in NZ. Good for Team Wellington for scoring this one, I hope all you YF fans will watch it so it gets a decent rating. Might spur some interest from SKY in televising other ASBP games.

Is it true that the postmark on the Auckland City's invite said "Espana"?

and welly fans may be at the game so we need even more support from other regions

Good point, we need a good turnout for this televised national league game so it's not played in front of acres of empty seats. All football fans in the country should tune in so the tv ratings look good. Pity about the Waitakere result TW but it's early days.

Still would love to see a full ACFC vs Phoenix game, an end of season challenge would be better rather than pre-season. The standard would be higher. Is there any way YF could suggest it to the powers that be?

Lets hope the game against Phoenix A is a cracker, might spur interest in a full match-up.

Only if City are forced to abide by the A-League import rules <insert smiley>

Si senoir.

Wellington Phoenix ‘A’ (from): 1-Daniel CLARKE (GK), 2-Jimmy DOWNEY, 3-Luke ROWE, 5-Alec SOLOMONS, 6-Tom DOYLE, 7-Ricardo CLARKE, 9-Tyler BOYD, 10-Tobias BERTSCH, 11-Benjamin TOTORI, 12-Justin GULLEY, 14-Hamish WATSON, 15-Taban MAKOII, 16-Dani SANCHEZ, 17-Cameron LINDSAY, 18-Nathan HAILEMARIAM, 19-Tom BISS, 30-Scott BASALAJ (GK)

http://aucklandcityfc.com/news/article.asp?ID=455

Shouldn't Moss get a run? Lia and Boxall could also use some more game time. Interesting to see Totori named but not the others.

Interesting that we are giving Totori a run.

Couple new names there, any one know much about the #15 & #18?

Pity more of the Phoenix first team aren't included like Boxall, Moss and Lia. Will be interesting to see how Sanchez and Clarke go, at least they'll feel right at home in the language department. A lot of the others we've played in TW and Waikato United etc teams. I think such a scratch team thrown together without much preparation will struggle against ACFC who really found their stride against a good Canterbury side last weekend. Hope City give a run to some of their own youngsters like Simon Arms, Carmichael and Mario Illich.

Pretty fair summary. It'll be an interesting game for sure. Surprised moss isn't getting game time,but perhaps it's not worth risking losing your reserve keeper to injury? Boxall has just come off 90mins and probably doesn't need the match fitness. Thought they'd give lia some minutes,but he did travel to Melbourne,and maybe is pushing for a starting spot this weekend?

I wonder if the some of the players stayed on for the Cup today and won't be home in time.  Boxall, Moss, Lia.

Probably not Totori's thing.

Ricki will have stayed for cup carnival 

I spoke to a current player recently,and he said that they had to organise a sweepstake themselves. Ricki did nothing.