R18 v Perth Glory | Fri 7th Feb | 11:45pm | SS7

Late kick off. Steinmann back from suspension. 

Going to watch this on Saturday morning.....no spoilers please! :)

Game of the season imo. This will show us where we stand and whether we're cut out to challenge the best teams in the league. I'll take a draw, a loss means we're not GF material. A win will mean we can go all the way.

Away games in Perth are always tough,  And we have to go there twice before the season ends. I wouldn't read too much into the result of this one. I'd like to see some improvement in possesion from the last couple of outings, and will be happy if we can put them under some sustained periods of pressure and nick a goal or two.

A win means we're fighting for 2nd. A loss means we could be 6th by the end of the round. 

It's a weird season - I feel like we've played really well for the last few months (though the last month we've had a few unconvincing performances) but one loss could throw us back amongst the pack again, two losses and we could be scrapping to hold onto 6th.

I know we have a good team and gave them a real run for their money earlier in the season, but this is one of those few games where I'd settle for a draw!

I see this one as a really awesome game. Two top teams going head to head. SPANISH MAESTRO VS MEXICAN MAGICIAN

Got a hell of a month coming up, at the end of it, it could be the difference between being 2nd or fighting to stay in the playoffs

Perth in Perth, City in Auckland, Western United finally home again and then Sydney in Sydney.

We can't catch Sydney even if we win all them and they lose all but it would be huge if we get to the Sydney game having claimed 9 points, as it would be cementing our place for a home final and a week off. Then even beating Sydney in Sydney would also be big for probably facing them in the Grand Final. (Yes this is all getting ahead of myself)

Piscopo back from U-23s

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/119225241

Hopefully we're using the bye to adjust for the timezone differences, maybe even travel early to adjust

the team was training on Sunday at Martin Luckie so I'm guessing they may have flown out today?

Yep, the phoenix YouTube channel has an interview with Taylor from Wellington Airport today.

The Phoenix flew to Perth on Monday, two days earlier than usual in order to acclimatise to the warmer conditions.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/119225241/wellington-phoenix-welcome-back-australias-olyroos-star-reno-piscopo

You can't acclimatise in such a short time. 

Helps a bit with the time difference though. Kick off is 11.45pm NZ time. 

So Piscopo will be benched along with Sotirio for this game, just great!.

Hopefully they've also been using that environment chamber at otago Universities Wellington campus

Not a kid friendly game if it's  R18

But you can sleep the trip off and start training late afternoons from next day.

You need a day for every hour that you lose/gain to get your body back on the right time zone. So travelling on the Monday is a sensible decision given that Perth is 5 hours behind us at this time of year. It means that come Friday they will be good to go.

I'd love a 1-1 or a 2-2 draw out of this game. Given that Victory exposed a few of Perth's defensive frailties, I think we have the firepower upfront to do the same.

Just hope that DeVere, Taylor and Payne and The Kiwiman#1 can keep things tight.

Honestly, flying out on Monday for a Friday night game is as much time as we've ever had on the ground to prepare. Sure beats getting there on Wednesday night for a Friday kick off.

Why?

I feel like we did this once before and got absolutely smashed. Can anyone else recall? Might have been with Rudan? 5-0?

Anyway, thought we were a bit unlucky last game against them - no reason we can't win this. They did look very good against MV at times (even without Castro)

That's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is that they're away from their comforts for more days than is usual - their families, home, local cafe etc.

I don't know, I used to travel for meetings in London quite frequently and you can get over jetlag in a couple of days if you do it right. You're not 100% peak though but you should be able to do 5 hours quicker than 5 days and still work at peak.

To be fair, basketballers play in enclosed air-conditioned arenas, so they have much less to acclimatise to compared to football or league players for example.

That would be all fine and good if the Nix were heading to Perth for a couple of boardroom meetings. 

Sure, but we're also comparing 12 hours in a couple of days to 5 hours in more than that.

For a little reality check, the Hurricanes will take about a day to travel from Cape Town (where they played the Stormers), to Buenos Aires to play the Jaguares in Super Rugby.

Cape Town-Jo Burg-Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires. That's tough.

The Nix have had 2 weeks to prepare. Apart from the heat there will be no excuses.

The Hurricanes also got smoked in the first outing, something we're trying to avoid.

Jetlag is a terrible thing, but it takes some serious time differences, like Ryan's to make it a nightmare.

5 hours should be a walk in the park - or running in their case

Getting used to 40 degrees is more of a worry than jetlag

what's worse, 28 and high humidity or 40 and low humidity?

The heat shouldn't be as big of an issue as some are making it out to be.

Where I live, I play futsal outdoors for an hour in 32 degrees this time of year at about 35% humidity. I'll run the full hour with no issues, not any different than playing in the mid to low 20's at low humidity. During monsoon its still 32 degrees but about 90% humidity and my legs give up after about 40 minutes. You can almost literally feel the moisture in the air like wading in a swimming pool at that point.

Definitely better to have high temps and low humidity. High humidity essentially means your sweat doesn't dry so you continue to overheat as you play.

I'd take 35 degrees and 20% humidity, over 25 degrees and 60% humidity

Well, looks like itll be 30-32 degrees with pretty high humidity, so good luck to them.

I think this will be a strategic game by the Nix, can't see it be free flowing.

Lots of studies show that when you play relative to your normal circadian rhythm has an impact on results, such as for the NFL that play only once a week:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prefrontal...

And for basketball with more games it is pronounced:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/26/slee...