Huawei Wellington United Phoenix Academy Football School of Excellence - WeeNix

Well played Fever Twin!

No, Park Island - Tamatea, Napier. Where they play the U19 tournament

1-0 Nix, goal by Joel Stevens 5 mins into 2nd half against run of play. The Aussie striker has just come on for stevens

1-1 Hailemariam chips Italiano from a lovely thru ball from Mulligan. all HB at the moment

Go Mully!

2-1 Nix, cracker of a goal by Gulley

Final, draw

Would of been unfair for HB to lose, better team on the day. No real stand outs for Nix.

Would have liked to see more of Milos Lucic. Didn't get any quality service at all.

Looks a big lad though. Good in the air and with ball at feet.

Was impressed with Nathaniel Hailemarian for HBU.

Definitely one to watch in my opinion.

The big Aussie looks like he would be a handful at ASB level anyway. I think even Bill Robertson started to struggle a bit with him I thought. At the other end, the big Aussie [who has just extended his contract] did alright as well. I'm going to the HBU thread to talk about them

This might not be the absolutely right spot to raise this but my thoughts come after watching the reserves game the other night. Now that Ernie has been here a while and signed a few from the ASBP do you think we might start to move away from bringing in these young Aussies who inevidibly end up playing reserve team football. Caira i can understand as he came from an A League club and is a current international but the red headed guy - Brindell-South? now he was outshone by most of the HBU team and I struggle to see why he might be selected for the club when any number of local players look more the goods than him. We've also had a few of similar ability in the RH years too haven't we? The ASBP is essentially ours to recruit from, the other A League teams won't bother, we should be thrashing the life out of it, getting these players in and giving them the flick in short orde rif they're not up to it and bring in some new ones. We've had enough A League quality players come out of the ASBP to beklieve we can have some success with them surely?

This. Lovemore & Mosquera for two should be working their arses off in training as well as on the pitch if they want to be noticed.

My suspicion is the Sherminator was signed as a favour to someone.

"We have squad spot 22 free, most likely not going to play...."

Think you are way off the mark there JV. Wild accusation.

Yeah I agree it is "wild speculation" - the very thing this place excels in! :o)

Do I think its true? Nope but it is a rather odd signing and that's the only thing I can come up with to explain him. How else does that guy end up here when Justin Gulley would have probably been as effective at spot 22, if not more when Ernie talks about picking and developing Kiwis and he played a fair chunk of preseason.

All its takes is a conversation along the lines of 'I've got this kid here whom you should take a look at that could be worth a sniff' and someone going 'well I know that guy so I'll roll with that'. Its happened many times before in football.

From memory he was well regarded in the Queensland Premier League.  He was here for a trial but think he got injured fairly early on. I think he was probably a rushed signing because we had no other fullback. The injury to him probably prevented Merrick from seeing him more before signing him. Bit of gamble that hasn't come off.

I'd prefer to go with 2ndBest's theory, that makes sense. I'm only basing what I said on seeing him play once. He may of had a quiet game [did some long stretching with the physio before the game too] he might have been worth a punt but I'm thinking the talent pool looks to be just as good here without all those other fishermen [other A League Clubs] putting their rods in the water.

Yeah 2nd Best theory does make sense more so than mine.

I would have thought that Gulley would have been the one you take the gamble on. Develop the Kiwi and not the Aussie and all that when its a head to head.

could have been affirmative action for gingas

  Tuesday 21st 

o 6pm TW vs Phoenix A  Gate charge  $5.00 adults - Children under 15 free  (Show Nix season pass for free entry)

BBQ on from 6 pm 

Game cancelled 

The above game has been cancelled 

Even less game time for our fringe players... not good.

Canterbury United v Wellington Phoenix A Reserves - Wednesday 12 February, 7.30pm @ ASB Football Park (English Park) Cranford St.

Entry: Adults $10; Canterbury United Season Ticket Holders: free

Canterbury United won 3-2 last time they met on 28 November 2012 (Clapham; Yamamoto 2) v (Watson, Sanchez)

Details of that game:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASB_Phoenix_Challenge#Canterbury_United_vs_Wellington_Phoenix

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/sport/8011225/Canterbury-upset-Wellington-Phoenix-reserves

Clapham only played the first half but impressed, as did 18 year-old Ken Yamamoto (former NZ u-17 player) who came on at halftime and scored twice. The Bulgarian Bayrev brothers were shaping up well but went home at Christmas due to homesickness. I remember Hamish Watson throwing himself around well for Wellington, Sanchez and Boxall were okay, but other than that, they were pretty average.

Last season I think Phoenix A payed four challenge games against ASB sides and only won one (v Waitakere). Lost to Canterbury, Auckland and Team Wellington.

CANTERBURY UNITED:
GK	1	Tom Batty
DF	2	Dan Terris
DF	3	Vladimir Bayrev		77'
DF	4	Nick Wortleboer
DF	5	Tom Schwarz		42'
MF	6	Chris Murphy		80'
MF	7	Darren White		70'
MF	8	Aaron Clapham		45'
FW	10	Dimitar Bayrev
FW	12	Andy Barton		62'
MF	16	Ashley Welborn		74'
Substitutions:
FW	9	Russell Kamo		74'  77'
MF	11	Michael Fifii		70'
FW	20	Ken Yamamoto		45'
FW	21	Tristan Nicol		62'
MF	24	Cory Mitchell		80'
Manager:
Keith Braithwaite

PHOENIX RESERVES:
GK	30	Scott Basalaj
DF	2	Jimmy Downey
DF	3	Luke Rowe
DF	5	Michael Boxall
DF	4	Alec Solomons
DF	17	Cameron Lindsay
MF	16	Dani Sánchez		55'
MF	19	Tom Biss
FW	10	Hamish Watson
FW	7	Ricardo Clarke
FW	9	Tyler Boyd		45'
Substitutions:
MF	6	Tom Doyle
MF	14	Tobias Bertsch
MF	11	Benjamin Totori
MF	12	Justin Gulley
Manager:
Jonathan Gould  Chris Greenacre

So is there no school of excellence at all any more? Well what was the point in that?

PHOENIX ACADEMY | Ernie's at the first day of the Phoenix Football Academy training sharing some of his knowledge.

Well these kids look young.

Without a regular competition to play in, they scratch around for games, right?
This discussion has been had before on this or the FSE/academy thread. Will always end up with just 2 options: play in a NZ league or play in Aussie NYL. I don't think loan deals are an option.

The new Phoenix academy kids are aged 13-15 (they didn't want anyone older) and will have to sort out with CF what league they play in too -esp. if they play as a team. They may just play in various grades at miramar, similar to Ole Academy kids (aged 11-19) at wests.

Looking forward to seeing the reserves play in CHCH, be good to see our depth and future talent in action.

$10 to watch a training game...

I imagine it will be standard ASB Prem pricing, if so Adults $10, Students $5, U16s Free.

But sadly will probably be Canterbury Utd biggest attendance of the season to watch a couple of fringe players and a load of Team Wellington wannabes