WPM R24 vs Brisbane Roar | Sun 16th April | 3:00pm | Eden Park / Morningside Tavern

Must win huh.
Morningside Tavern are back hosting us. 

If I hadn't bought tickets already, I would give this one a pass. Past disappointed with this team, this coach, this club, and no hope that next season will be any better.

Doloras

If I hadn't bought tickets already, I would give this one a pass. Past disappointed with this team, this coach, this club, and no hope that next season will be any better.

Presumably then you are very reluctantly going to any Football Ferns games at Eden Park. If you have given up on Talay & the Nix who have a 50% (8W & 8L) record this season, how can you support a Klimkova coached Ferns who have won 3 in 23!

coochiee

Doloras

If I hadn't bought tickets already, I would give this one a pass. Past disappointed with this team, this coach, this club, and no hope that next season will be any better.

Presumably then you are very reluctantly going to any Football Ferns games at Eden Park. If you have given up on Talay & the Nix who have a 50% (8W & 8L) record this season, how can you support a Klimkova coached Ferns who have won 3 in 23!

Well, yes. I thought that that's how everyone felt. I'm trying to avoid the impending WWC disaster.

Doloras

coochiee

Doloras

If I hadn't bought tickets already, I would give this one a pass. Past disappointed with this team, this coach, this club, and no hope that next season will be any better.

Presumably then you are very reluctantly going to any Football Ferns games at Eden Park. If you have given up on Talay & the Nix who have a 50% (8W & 8L) record this season, how can you support a Klimkova coached Ferns who have won 3 in 23!

Well, yes. I thought that that's how everyone felt. I'm trying to avoid the impending WWC disaster.

I am generally positive about most things but yes this will be a disaster.

The event itself will be great though! Just pick another team to support and completely forget about our girls because they may not even score a damn goal in the pool matches. 

The Americans should be good to watch in a packed Eden Park with all their fans!

Talay needs to wake-up & address our crap defending, and do it bloody quickly if we want to make the playoffs.

adidasbloke

Talay needs to wake-up & address our crap defending, and do it bloody quickly if we want to make the playoffs.

Will def be a bit of a shake up. as Laws out and expect Wootoon also out.
Be good if Boxall and Surman can step up and take there chance. 

Ranix

adidasbloke

Talay needs to wake-up & address our crap defending, and do it bloody quickly if we want to make the playoffs.

Will def be a bit of a shake up. as Laws out and expect Wootoon also out.
Be good if Boxall and Surman can step up and take there chance. 

Likely Brisbane would exploit their lack of time on the pitch together. I expect Talay will play Payne with Boxall at CB and Surman on the pine.

Really wishing i hadnt spent all that money to attend this away game.

We'll win this, we are much better team than Brisbane.
This will be the when they get all their shark together and go on an unrepresented run into the finals.

ballane

Really wishing i hadnt spent all that money to attend this away game.

To be fair, the beer specials look pretty good this hit out. A bit jealous tbh. And I’m coming from a place where Kirin on tap comes standard. 

Low expectations and plenty of good beer- two outcomes 
1) they’re bad, but you were expecting that and you’ve had some good beers, a bit of a sing and a decent road trip.
2) they do all right or better, in which case, f- yeh! Good beers good footie and finals football here we come!

We are the Phoenix, the Mighty Phoenix, we’re not the Kings or Knights! 

I would play Surman CB, the kid did nothing wrong in the past games, it was Sails fault.
More important, we need Lewis back,  a full 90 min shift to ignite create spark forward. We need more goals, this is easier to fix than the defendingissues, if we score 4, I don’t mind 3 plunders at the back.
Everyone should stop being depressed from the last games. Every game is a blank slate and I’m pretty sure the team wants to win again and job is to support them.
Fire up!

Ranix

adidasbloke

Talay needs to wake-up & address our crap defending, and do it bloody quickly if we want to make the playoffs.

Will def be a bit of a shake up. as Laws out and expect Wootoon also out.
Be good if Boxall and Surman can step up and take there chance. 

Yeah, be good if both of them can step up to perform their roles well, it's also about all our defenders stepping up too... when one of the opposition players have the ball our defender can't afford to back-pedal, just allows their player to keep moving forward too easily, that defender needs to keep moving forward at them gradually, which shuts down the space of their player, forcing him to pass across or back, also all our other defenders should be marking their players off the ball really well, so their player that has possession has very few options to pass it forward, that's when we can create turnovers.

number8

I would play Surman CB, the kid did nothing wrong in the past games, it was Sails fault.
More important, we need Lewis back,  a full 90 min shift to ignite create spark forward. We need more goals, this is easier to fix than the defendingissues, if we score 4, I don’t mind 3 plunders at the back.
Everyone should stop being depressed from the last games. Every game is a blank slate and I’m pretty sure the team wants to win again and job is to support them.
Fire up!

Reckon everyone is peeved off that we're not learning from our mistakes.

Will they be in yellow and black though?!

Why did the squad wear the away kit at the last match at Eden Park? Does the team not consider games in Auckland as 'home games'?

number8

I would play Surman CB, the kid did nothing wrong in the past games, it was Sails fault.
More important, we need Lewis back,  a full 90 min shift to ignite create spark forward. We need more goals, this is easier to fix than the defendingissues, if we score 4, I don’t mind 3 plunders at the back.
Everyone should stop being depressed from the last games. Every game is a blank slate and I’m pretty sure the team wants to win again and job is to support them.
Fire up!

I would be surprised if Payne does not start at CB.
Agree about Lewis being the missing key in previous games.

From The Niche Cache's latest good article:

" Whichever way they go probably has less to do with tactics or technique and much more to do with psychology. Finishing chances is a confidence game, for example. The more negative energy you’re carrying, the more doubt in your mind, the more likely you are to miss "

Psychology. That's the ticket. This whole club just has a negative, self-defeating mindset. And I think we always have, it's endemic to the club culture in a way which probably defies organisational analysis. Great players come here, lose their confidence and become mediocre. Ernie Merrick called us "the nicest bunch of losers I'd ever met", and that's still true 10 or so years later.

Doloras

From The Niche Cache's latest good article:

" Whichever way they go probably has less to do with tactics or technique and much more to do with psychology. Finishing chances is a confidence game, for example. The more negative energy you’re carrying, the more doubt in your mind, the more likely you are to miss "

Psychology. That's the ticket. This whole club just has a negative, self-defeating mindset. And I think we always have, it's endemic to the club culture in a way which probably defies organisational analysis. Great players come here, lose their confidence and become mediocre. Ernie Merrick called us "the nicest bunch of losers I'd ever met", and that's still true 10 or so years later.

It's not just a Phoenix problem, it's a NZ sports problem (other than the All Blacks I guess). See the NZ cricket team anytime they play Australia... mostly they never turn up or if they get in a good position in an important match they mentally choke and lack any killer instinct.

Doloras

From The Niche Cache's latest good article:

" Whichever way they go probably has less to do with tactics or technique and much more to do with psychology. Finishing chances is a confidence game, for example. The more negative energy you’re carrying, the more doubt in your mind, the more likely you are to miss "

Psychology. That's the ticket. This whole club just has a negative, self-defeating mindset. And I think we always have, it's endemic to the club culture in a way which probably defies organisational analysis. Great players come here, lose their confidence and become mediocre. Ernie Merrick called us "the nicest bunch of losers I'd ever met", and that's still true 10 or so years later.

Lol. How many great players came here and got worse? Finkler and Hernandez? Both were very much at the end of their careers and were poor signing before they even played. Maybe you could add McGlinchey and Kosta?

What about Taylor and Ifill?

And all the players that got better here? Hemed, Devlin, Davilla, Zawada, Krishna, Cacace, Singh, Burns.

And players that got worse after leaving us. Piscopoo, Sotorio, Bonevacia.

All right, waiting to hear a better explanation of why we have never reached a GF, unlike every other existing club, and why we have year after year of mid-table mediocrity interspersed with bottom-tier embarrassment, no matter the coaches, no matter the players, no matter the budget. The only common factor is club culture/psychology.

The only real exception to the rule is Ifill. Taylor quit as soon as he got a half-decent offer from somewhere else, like Davila. Barbarouses is a classic example of what I'm talking about. An actual superstar in Melbourne and Sydney. Here? Maybe all his rellies are on the phone to him all the time putting him off or something, but I prefer to explain it as club culture/psychology.

Doloras

All right, waiting to hear a better explanation of why we have never reached a GF, unlike every other existing club, and why we have year after year of mid-table mediocrity interspersed with bottom-tier embarrassment, no matter the coaches, no matter the players, no matter the budget. The only common factor is club culture/psychology.

The only real exception to the rule is Ifill. Taylor quit as soon as he got a half-decent offer from somewhere else, like Davila. Barbarouses is a classic example of what I'm talking about. An actual superstar in Melbourne and Sydney. Here? Maybe all his rellies are on the phone to him all the time putting him off or something, but I prefer to explain it as club culture/psychology.

Kosta has not been an "actual superstar" for quite some time now. I don't think anybody at the club was under the impression that we would be getting peak Kosta, he's the old boy coming home to see out his career and give the squad some depth. His powers waining has nothing to do with coming back, and everything to do with age

Deviating a bit from the above - got a couple tickets today PAX 5410. 

I know we've been playing pretty average last few games but would be good to get to 10k for what looks to be our last home game this season. 

samtheman

Will they be in yellow and black though?!

Why did the squad wear the away kit at the last match at Eden Park? Does the team not consider games in Auckland as 'home games'?

Reason 1: Different sponsor logo on the front so they'd be wanting to maximise their advertising
Reason 2: We're wearing (navy) blue to represent Auckland's colours (apparently idk I'm from Australia).

It seems like The team can't handle the pressure, and the weight of not winning the thing must play into that. But, that's different from being "negative" Ufuk even said his lasting legacy is that the club no longer has an under dog mentality.


That's why the team has sports psychiatrists on the payroll this season.

Ryan

It seems like The team can't handle the pressure, and the weight of not winning the thing must play into that. But, that's different from being "negative" Ufuk even said his lasting legacy is that the club no longer has an under dog mentality.


That's why the team has sports psychiatrists on the payroll this season.

Couldnt say they have been that successful,not sure there is any evidence to say any underdog mentality has gone either. Results in Melbourne suggest not. 

Ryan

It seems like The team can't handle the pressure, and the weight of not winning the thing must play into that. But, that's different from being "negative" Ufuk even said his lasting legacy is that the club no longer has an under dog mentality.


That's why the team has sports psychiatrists on the payroll this season.

I don't know what mentality it is when you lose to the bottom team in the league twice, but it's still not an appropriate one. And you're telling me they didn't have sports psychs before? I hope that's not true, that would be amateurish

Or it’s a salary capped league where teams like Sydney can be close to the wooden spoon and then shoot halfway up the table. 

https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/events/wellington-phoenix-matches-2023/

Gotta pay for public transport to the game.

Just realised that 4th place is still plausible. First of all, we need to win our remaining three games. Of course our current form would make that appear impossible but Brisbane at Eden Park is as winnable a game as they come and that could turn the tide. Then the 4th place six pointer vs WSW. A win in that game after defeating Brisbane would leave us 1 point behind WSW going into the final round, where we play Macarthur (who in theory we should be able to beat and who you would back us to beat if we had just won the previous two) and WSW are away to Melbourne City so of course it is feasible they don't pick up all 3 points. A City draw would be enough for us, we would finish on 40, WSW 39. We wouldn't even have to worry about goal difference, just win our own games and hope for one reasonably likely result (City avoid defeat at home against WSW). Goal difference would come into play if we beat WSW, they lose to City & we only get 4 points from Brisbane & macarthur, but that's no good for us as their goal difference is currently +13 and we are -3. 

Come on boys, let's smash Brisbane and keep the home playoff dream alive for one more week!

Buzzing for this one. Will be familiar conditions for the lads with the wind today, hopefully that will play into our hands

Fire up Farken etc…

lukemstanton

Buzzing for this one. Will be familiar conditions for the lads with the wind today, hopefully that will play into our hands

Our defending needs to be far better though, otherwise it's going to be another painful watch.

Reckon we should just play all our home matches on one ground, in this case Sky Stadium... if the team was called Auckland Phoenix play all the matches at Eden Park in Auckland, better for the players to get use to familiar surroundings & atmosphere at one ground etc. 

Doloras

Ryan

It seems like The team can't handle the pressure, and the weight of not winning the thing must play into that. But, that's different from being "negative" Ufuk even said his lasting legacy is that the club no longer has an under dog mentality.


That's why the team has sports psychiatrists on the payroll this season.

I don't know what mentality it is when you lose to the bottom team in the league twice, but it's still not an appropriate one. And you're telling me they didn't have sports psychs before? I hope that's not true, that would be amateurish

I've got no idea if they had sports psychologists before, all I know is Ufuk said they've hired some to get to the bottom of the team giving up leads and losing to teams who are below them on the ladder.

If you look at the interviews that the team does there is no mentality of being the underdog or negativity. The only negativity comes from the fanbase...

I have a feeling we let this slip....

Finished all my chores, worked out and had a delicious lunch. I'm ready for some champagne football!

This bit, from Voerman's article, is what I hope is still motivating this team. Tick Brisbane off and the last two games are also gettable. It's set up with winnable games for a run to the playoffs. Get out there and do it guys.

And then, as Voerman's says, 
"if the Phoenix do get a playoff win, it will be their first such success since 2012, and a massive box ticked by the outgoing coach. At that point, with four teams remaining, anything will be possible." 

It starts today if the guys want to keep that alive. 

COYN. 

Curious

Can’t see how Kosta or sasse deserve their spots a head of BK, but for the next 3 weeks, in uffie we trust