R1 vs Melbourne City | Sat 8 Oct | 7.35pm | Westpac Stadium

1 month to go. Fire up!

And then quickly cool down as you realise Mossy, Doyle, Louis, WeeMac and Kosta will all be in the US. 

And there'll be no Timmy to abuse...

A MATCH THREAD!

EEEKKKKK!!!!

Kosta will be missed...

I know you're keen, but shouldn't we at least have our pre-season game against City before we start talking about our regular season game?

Wake me up when September ends

With a few players out what do you think our starting line up might be?

Assuming Kosta, Weemac, Moss and Fenton out from the starting 11?

Might be a good chance for Parkhouse.

Will Watto be called up? If not, could see him up front with Krishna and Parkhouse on wings. 

FFS

Start of season scuttled then

Do Fiji have any games?

Italiano

Fox--Dura--Rossi--Doyle

Roly--Lia--A-Rod

Krishna--Watson--Parkhouse

Bench:

Sail, Ridenton/Rogerson, Rufer, Gulley/new defensive cover

All the people
So many people
And hey all go hand-in-hand
Hand-in-hand to our Parkhouse

Is Gui going to be called into the All Whites too?

This will be interesting. There is now competition of sorts for this spot with Colvey, Roux (depending on how his recovery is going), Boxall, Tuiloma (potentially) etc.

Merrick might ask Hudson to leave Doyle at home if there are other genuine options.

Oops!

Probably drop Parkhouse to the bench and bring Gui in as a false 9 behind Krishna and Watson

Hurry up October 8!

FFA and Aussie coming to the party? Yeah Right.

Gourdie on Twitter says that NZF have advised the Nix that 5 players will be selected for their tour.

Who will that 5 be?

Kosta, McGlinchey, Fenton, Ridenton, Moss?

Will Krishna be away for Round 1 as well?

Guessing it will be Moss, Durante (if what Piney has heard is right), Doyle, McGlinchey and Kosta.

Tim Cahill's been named in the Socceroos squad, so he won't be in Wellington for the opening A-League fixture.

— Simon Hampton (@SimonHampton9) September 20, 2016

Rufer a chance... was involved prior to injury.

Doyle must be there or there abouts as our number one lb currently.

So the FFA stump up some money so Cahill can be in the league to attract fans to "ALL" the games.  However he along with 1/2 the Nix wont be available for round one.  Well done FFA - another example of you showing that you want the game to grow

Because the FFA are cods!

Because some fudgeen dickhead could not read an international calendar? It really pisses me with the international windows being a global Fifa endorse agenda, yet the FFA consistently ignore them. Fifa, really need to come down hard on them for this....but they won't. Who runs football? Fifa or Fox??

Ernie said today that if weeMac was called up they have Ridenton to come in as for him. Would indicate Ridenton will be available. Fenton's injured so he won't be called up.

To much pre season back slapping going on in media etc....just focus on winning the first game and sorting out the defence please.

We'll be lucky to get a plucky draw.

Jets beat City in a friendly too so we shouldn't get too smug about that result

So we're without Dura, WeeMac, Ridenton and Kosta for the first game of the season. We can still have a solid squad to come up against City then. 

three main players in Weemac, Dura and Kosta. Could have been Worse. Could have included Doyle and Moss. My prediction is Doyle is fit for the opener.

Doyle wasn't picks (along with Fenton) because of injury but could we still see them start for the Nix

So,

Moss

Tratt/Fenton -- Fox -- Rossi -- Parkhouse/Doyle

Vinnie -- Roly -- A-Rod

Gui

Roy -- Watson

Bench largely depending on injuries, I would imagine Doyle & Fenton would start over Tratt & Parkhouse if fit. Although with (some) defensive cover, could Louis revert back to being a winger?