WPM R20 vs Auckland | Sat 22nd Feb | 5pm | FeverTua to Mt Smart

Guys, I had a dream where it was announced that Chico wasn't available to play at the derby because he had gone olive picking with Olu.

queenofthequail

Guys, I had a dream where it was announced that Chico wasn't available to play at the derby because he had gone olive picking with Olu.

That’s terrifying on so many different levels.

I'd go May over Ishige. Ironically the Nix get 2 attackers named

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360582561/how-many-phoenix-players-would-make-combined-auckland-fc-wellington-phoenix-xi

Alex Paulsen (Auckland)

coochiee

I'd go May over Ishige. Ironically the Nix get 2 attackers named

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360582561/how-many-phoenix-players-would-make-combined-auckland-fc-wellington-phoenix-xi

Alex Paulsen (Auckland)

Hiroki Sakai (Auckland)

Dan Hall (Auckland)

Nando Pijnaker (Auckland)

Francis de Vries (Auckland)

Alex Rufer (Phoenix)

Louis Verstraete (Auckland)

Jake Brimmer (Auckland)

Neyder Moreno (Auckland)

Kosta Barbarouses (Phoenix)

Hideki Ishige (Phoenix)

Kosta has been class and Ishige has been decent to be fair, they've just been completely let down by the rest of the team in an attacking sense. 

Aucklands attack much more balanced, and I think May is probably competing with Kosta for the CF position and you gotta still go with Kosta.

We still have one of the best defensive records and Wootton was outstanding last season - on current form I understand Hall and De Vries being ahead but imo he's a superior footballer overall to both.

BrockieTheGOAT

Anyone else get South Bay tickets? Hopefully there's enough of us around we can establish a mini away bay!

My suggestion is to keep an eye on the away bay. Suspect there will be more than a few Auckland fans, and apparently there is a process to move them along (not convinced security will actually do this), so there might be some gaps you can come fill.

I'm expecting a tight game for the first 45-60 and then for it to open up and we get hammered 3-0

So, because I expect that, we'll probably win 1-0 off a deflected goal or something

Sutton is a big out. It was noticable v MV that he was the only player who could play out of our half confidently and consistently. 

May should definitely be in the combined side without a doubt. He has proved to be a good quality import while Ishige has been average at best. Can also stand up physically which I haven’t yet seen from Ishige.

Kosta on the right is fine. It’s where he has played most of his football. 

Ishige has more goal contributions than May and Barbarouses. 

If he's gonna pick injured players in his XI, I guess it's his call, but if you have playing players: Wootton over Hall. 

Hoping to see this at some point.
AKH
Payne Hughes Wootton LKH
Rufer Chico  Nagasawa
LBS Kosta Ishige

nixin

Hoping to see this at some point.
AKH
Payne Hughes Wootton LKH
Rufer Chico  Nagasawa
LBS Kosta Ishige

Yes I like that a lot, I think that would be a very effective team. Sutton for LKH when available.

nixin

Hoping to see this at some point.
AKH
Payne Hughes Wootton LKH
Rufer Chico  Nagasawa
LBS Kosta Ishige

Rogerson, Brimmer & Sakai are definitely going to target LKH.

2ndBest

Ishige has more goal contributions than May and Barbarouses. 

The hate he's getting this season is nuts... Phoenix fans seem to have a track record of crying out for creative players then overcriticising them when we get them and they're not consistent (most creative players in this league aren't). Same thing happened to Sandoval (didn't help he was played out of position).

Make no mistake about it - without Kosta and Ishige we would easily be a bottom two wooden spoon battle team.

The weather is coming to the party.

rain-nzni-2025022000-048.gif 89.96 KB

Marco and Chico added to the squad for the weekend.

Just another day in Chiefyland. Last month Marco was out for the season, earlier this week he was maybe back sometime in March, today he is in the squad for the weekend. What's the point of all the misdirection 

Auckland FC squad: 1. Michael WOUD, 2. Hiroki SAKAI, 4. Nando PIJNAKER, 5. Tommy SMITH, 6. Louis VERSTRAETE, 7. Cameron HOWIESON, 8. Luis TOOMEY, 9. Max MATA, 10. Guillermo MAY, 11. Marlee FRANÇOIS, 12. Alex PAULSEN, 14. Liam GILLION, 15. Francis DE VRIES, 17. Callan ELLIOT, 18. Finn MCKENLAY, 21. Jesse RANDALL, 22. Jake BRIMMER, 25. Neyder MORENO, 27. Logan ROGERSON, 28. Luis Felipe GALLEGOS

(Two to be omitted)

Ins: 6. Louis VERSTRAETE
Outs: Nil

Unavailable: 23. Dan HALL

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 12. Chico GERALDES, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 21. Marco ROJAS, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER

(Two to be omitted)

Ins: 12. Chico GERALDES (new signing), 21. Marco ROJAS (returning from injury)
Outs: 19. Sam SUTTON (suspended), 36. Xuan LOKE (omitted)
Unavailable: 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES (injured), 19. Sam SUTTON (suspended)

With Ben Abraham as referee

AKL: 2 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses

WEL: 4 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses

imanixsupporter

Just another day in Chiefyland. Last month Marco was out for the season, earlier this week he was maybe back sometime in March, today he is in the squad for the weekend. What's the point of all the misdirection 

Could just be that he ain't yet truly ready, and he'll be one of the 2 omitted on game day. But keeps Auckland guessing somewhat, and no harm in that.

coochiee

imanixsupporter

Just another day in Chiefyland. Last month Marco was out for the season, earlier this week he was maybe back sometime in March, today he is in the squad for the weekend. What's the point of all the misdirection 

Could just be that he ain't yet truly ready, and he'll be one of the 2 omitted on game day. But keeps Auckland guessing somewhat, and no harm in that.

Agreed, why does it matter? Opposition never actually know until the line up is announced.

capitalbikes

nixin

Hoping to see this at some point.
AKH
Payne Hughes Wootton LKH
Rufer Chico  Nagasawa
LBS Kosta Ishige

Yes I like that a lot, I think that would be a very effective team. Sutton for LKH when available.

I think we will see something more like this. Might even see Nagasawa play infront of the other two or play by Chico (fudge, I hope Chico is good!). 
AKH
Payne Hughes Wootton LKH
Rufer Retre Nagasawa 
Chico 
Kosta Ishige

Then for the last 30 bring on Marco for Retre, and easy money 3 points in the bag! 

WanderingSheep

coochiee

imanixsupporter

Just another day in Chiefyland. Last month Marco was out for the season, earlier this week he was maybe back sometime in March, today he is in the squad for the weekend. What's the point of all the misdirection 

Could just be that he ain't yet truly ready, and he'll be one of the 2 omitted on game day. But keeps Auckland guessing somewhat, and no harm in that.

Agreed, why does it matter? Opposition never actually know until the line up is announced.

I also don't buy this narrative that Chiefy is lying or misdirecting. Could it simply be that he is telling us the best knowledge he has available to him from the medical team at the time? Players can unexpectedly recover, it is not unusual and with the equipment we have at their training facility maybe something worked wonders on him.

With old Ufuk you'd probably just get "he'll be back when he's ready" or just a grunt maybe. Different ways of doing things from different coaches. Chief prefers to give us info straight and as he sees it. Until there is genuine proof of that not being the case ill assume he is honest.

Chief seems fairly extroverted. He likes to talk his ideas.

I think all that is happening is he tells us what he knows and is thinking, while being careful not to undermine the confidence of any player, all as he sees it at the time and given the info he has at the time.

And then things change.  His thoughts develop. He gets new feedback on how an injury is progressing. 

Life isn't static. A coach can honestly give a view at one time and change their thoughts shortly after.  Introverts hate extroverts doing this. 
:-) 

coochiee

nixin

Hoping to see this at some point.
AKH
Payne Hughes Wootton LKH
Rufer Chico  Nagasawa
LBS Kosta Ishige

Rogerson, Brimmer & Sakai are definitely going to target LKH.

Yeh I wonder if we might see Sheridan or… at LB for this reason. It seems madness not to trust LKH at LB and then drop him in it against the top of the table. 

Perhaps even Loke if he’s ready? Recall he played well a long time ago in the Australia Cup.

If we can only attack down one side, we’ll be too predictable. 

The idea that Marco may be back AND we've got Chico AND Kosta is still fit AND Payne is back AND Sutton will be back next game AND Rufer is back.

Doing my head in, in a good way.  Maybe its too early to get too excited about all that but fudge it, I'm just going to go ahead and get too excited about all that.

LT01

2ndBest

Ishige has more goal contributions than May and Barbarouses. 

The hate he's getting this season is nuts... Phoenix fans seem to have a track record of crying out for creative players then overcriticising them when we get them and they're not consistent (most creative players in this league aren't). Same thing happened to Sandoval (didn't help he was played out of position).

Make no mistake about it - without Kosta and Ishige we would easily be a bottom two wooden spoon battle team.

Ishige has definitely been over hated with the amount of goal contributions hes provided with a lacklustre attack around him and Rufer being out. But he's also the type of attacker that can't hold the attack on its own or be the puppet master like a Davila so even though he'll contribute with assists he can go a bit missing/not affecting the game a lot. 

He reminds a bit of Sandoval, where he had a lot of goal contributions but he was also invisible a lot and not controlling games.

A fair few of his assists are delivery on set pieces. 

I was kind of taken aback by how high his assists were too. But maybe we’ve scored a lot of set piece goals? It’s not a route to goal we’ve considered for a long time due to not doing them well, so now it’s worked it’s a bit of a shock. 

I think he’s a bit like a gun striker. He pops up with a piece of genius that breaks through, but has periods of anonymity. Thinking of his assist for Nagasawa’s goal! Awesomeness. (And his two over heads- one for a goal and one that beat the defenders but not the keeper.) 

I feel like Sandoval was almost laconic in action, but that he definitely got on the ball and controlled our transition play and often took responsibility and shot too. 

Don’t think we’ve had a player like Ishige before. Maybe we’ll see a bit more from him when Chico and or Marco can start to make space for him.

Their so called fans are the most annoying in the league by far and this is their first season haha smh.  Obviously not been the best of times for the Phoenix this year but hopefully in a game such as this we come out, get at them, and upset the apple cart as it were.

Going along to support the T-AFC crew after 15 years following the Nix is like cheating on my wife. And going to the derby is going to be like cheating on my wife and my wife walks in. :(

I'll be waving at you from Bay 25.

Doloras

Going along to support the T-AFC crew after 15 years following the Nix is like cheating on my wife. And going to the derby is going to be like cheating on my wife and my wife walks in. :(

I'll be waving at you from Bay 25.

You could still come join us for the march - you know, get the walk of shame over and done with early :p

Doloras

Going along to support the T-AFC crew after 15 years following the Nix is like cheating on my wife. And going to the derby is going to be like cheating on my wife and my wife walks in. :(

I'll be waving at you from Bay 25.

LOL you're on fire today, humourwise. Nice double play with the words. That you get to go to the game is great for you. Should be a decent atmosphere. 

One question I have, next year, will Wellington have two "Home" games against AFC - assuming Canberra are not up and running??

LG

Doloras

Going along to support the T-AFC crew after 15 years following the Nix is like cheating on my wife. And going to the derby is going to be like cheating on my wife and my wife walks in. :(

I'll be waving at you from Bay 25.

LOL you're on fire today, humourwise. Nice double play with the words. That you get to go to the game is great for you. Should be a decent atmosphere. 

One question I have, next year, will Wellington have two "Home" games against AFC - assuming Canberra are not up and running??

If we dont get 2 home derbies vs Auckland, assuming we have byes next season, with Canberra expected in 27, then we'd have pretty solid reason to suggest APL were favouring AFC and Foley.

If no Canberra, then surely is again yes 3 derby games. But they could take the 3rd one to ChCh. New downtown stadium to be completed April next year. ALM regular season to finish around early May

They would sell out the ground if they could make it work. Lots of traveling fans to check out NZ’s latest sparkly exciting new stadium. Be quite the road trip event

coochiee

If no Canberra, then surely is again yes 3 derby games. But they could take the 3rd one to ChCh. New downtown stadium to finish April next year. ALM regular season to finish around early May

They would sell out the ground if they could make it work. Lots of traveling fans to check out NZ’s latest sparkly exciting new stadium 

I'm ok with the third derby going to another region, even splitting the revenue/costs 50/50.
Hopefully it's only an issue for this and next season.

I'd like to see two games at Sky. If we can break 25k per game it would set us up financially for a few months.

theprof

coochiee

If no Canberra, then surely is again yes 3 derby games. But they could take the 3rd one to ChCh. New downtown stadium to finish April next year. ALM regular season to finish around early May

They would sell out the ground if they could make it work. Lots of traveling fans to check out NZ’s latest sparkly exciting new stadium 

I'm ok with the third derby going to another region, even splitting the revenue/costs 50/50.
Hopefully it's only an issue for this and next season.

 Yes that would be great. Half way is approx Taupo, but idk if they have a stadium. Hamilton does, but its much close to Aucks

LG

I'd like to see two games at Sky. If we can break 25k per game it would set us up financially for a few months.

I think we deserve that after they’ve had two themselves this season. After that, sure, spread the love once a season. 

Definitely deserve and need two derby’s next season. Dome has said before when they took games to Eden Park, that a 20k crowd makes their season financially. Therefore two 20 plus crowds at the cake tin where the rental will be substantially less, should mean plenty of dosh for new decent imports!!!

No excuse Dome, your previous comments are on record!!!

Unlike Trump we don’t expect or deserve BS!!

Is the ground rental at the ROF substantially lower than Eden Park?

I remember a few years back the Eden Park Trust CEO Saunter, saying they were offering attractive terms to lure events to EP.

The Nix should definitely get to host 2 of the 3 derbies, if there is 3 next season. But yeah the Phoenix taking a 'home' derby to ChCh if they can sneak one into the late season schedule April/May 2026, might be an attractive financial proposition.