Really don't know why there were so many Olympic win predictions. Guessing those were more hopeful than anything?
To be fair, Olympic were all over them for that first half an hour. Save for the width of a post, it should've been at least 1-0.
Class shows through at the end of the day though, and Auckland are far more experienced & battle hardened when it comes down to the little things/finer details that win trophies.
Really don't know why there were so many Olympic win predictions. Guessing those were more hopeful than anything?
More hope than anything. Does anyone really like to see City win?
me :-)
Don't want to be mean or anything, but I did have a bit of a giggle when a few mouthed off about City only for their beloved Miramar to finish dead last. Don't blame anyone at all for wanting to take City down though - love the competition, just wish placement was fairer (Olympic should have topped the table on GD, but for some reason H2H was used in a one-round league)
Red was a clear red and a deserved upgrade but don't have real complaints about anything else
Superb game. Couldn't have asked for a better final, between two excellent teams. Was a treat to watch.
Congratulations to Auckland City - Bloody hard side to beat, even with a man down. Quality side all round, as you'd expect from a team who has swept all before them to win every trophy available this season. Class team and organisation.
Commiserations to Olympic too, a few calls going the other way and it's you guys up with your name in the spotlight. Fantastic campaign and a lot to like about this young, talented and driven squad. Your time will come.
Incredible end to the season, few months off over Summer and we're back into it in March.
Good game. Was at stadium, enjoyed it much more than North Harbour too.
I attend most City games in the hope that they lose. But I too laughed at some of the comments in this thread. People calling Olympic the best team in the country.
that wasn't the obvious offsite moment in the first goal. A few seconds later when #11 shoots, #10 is in a clear offside position. Even though the shot deflects off an Olympic player and goes to #10, #10 is still considered offside . Very similar to the incident at the end of the France v Tunisia game with Conger as the ref, although in this incident it is more obvious that the Olympic player has not made a deliberate play or whatever the wording is.
that wasn't the obvious offsite moment in the first goal. A few seconds later when #11 shoots, #10 is in a clear offside position. Even though the shot deflects off an Olympic player and goes to #10, #10 is still considered offside . Very similar to the incident at the end of the France v Tunisia game with Conger as the ref, although in this incident it is more obvious that the Olympic player has not made a deliberate play or whatever the wording is.
I thought it was at first to be honest because it seemed like Olympic stopped and we're calling for it then, and even then on the photo I posted it looked a marginal call too.
Realized it was more of a shout for Manickum's (10) shot from when the ball fell to him. Have just watched the replay on Sky Sports. That one was definitely offside. Linesman would've been right in line with it too.
Who was the MVP in the end? Thought the Auckland City Keeper was worth a shout?
Man of the Match in the final was Gerard Garriga for Auckland City, and, according to Friends of Football, though I haven't seen it anywhere else, Silvio Rodic (the Birkenhead goalkeeper) was MVP for the whole National League. If that is the case, it carries on the tradition of the MVP surprisingly going to a goalkeeper, rather than the league's best player. At least it wasn't the goalkeeper for the team that finished dead last like the last couple years.
Who was the MVP in the end? Thought the Auckland City Keeper was worth a shout?
Man of the Match in the final was Gerard Garriga for Auckland City, and, according to Friends of Football, though I haven't seen it anywhere else, Silvio Rodic (the Birkenhead goalkeeper) was MVP for the whole National League. If that is the case, it carries on the tradition of the MVP surprisingly going to a goalkeeper, rather than the league's best player. At least it wasn't the goalkeeper for the team that finished dead last like the last couple years.
"Just finally, NZ Football also maintained a long standing tradition when, during the presentation, it was announced that Birkenhead goalie Silvio Rodic had won the National League MVP award. Rodic wasn’t there to collect the trophy, you’d hope he was at least invited. But his selection maintains a proud streak of picking the wrong players to win these things.
"There’s a reason for that. Assuming they’re still using the same format, what they do is get opposing coaches to vote for the best player on the other team (or an ordered top three, can’t remember exactly) and then tally up the votes over the course of a season. But the thing about coaches is they’re focused on their own teams. Not the other teams. They’d be the ideal people to survey if they were watching all the games impartially but that’s not their job and nor should it be. Hence there’s been a curious trend of goalkeepers winning this award – in fact this was the third season in a row that it’s happened.
"Silvio Rodic had a solid season for Birkenhead and he’s an excellent goalie. No shade... but he wasn’t even a top three candidate on his own team. Dino Botica, Luke Jorgensen, and Corban Piper were all more influential for that club. Plus there were at least six players in this grand final more MVP-worthy. One more consequence of a flawed voting system."
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
A lot of what youre asking for takes money - which NZF does not have. If it were to become a professional league someone has to fund it, and the sponsors arent exactly falling over themselves to throw money at the league.
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
Rubbish take. A-League is generally around League One or League Two level for starters, and Sasse/Pennington are pretty average quality players in it.
Very strange to act shocked when fit professional full-time players stand out against midtable amateur opposition who don't train nearly as much and have been slogging out a long hard season.
If it's so bad then how come the Nix Reserves always do poorly even with all these super promising players we keep bringing into the A-League squad? Your logic is completely flawed and unnecessarily negative.
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
ok I'll bite, while it's not up there, 10th tier english, which is basically pub leagues is very harsh - It was only 8 years ago Auckland City finished 3rd at the Club World Cup
In 2022 New Zealand used 34 players and 30 of them had their start in the NZ National League - 1 of them still plays there (Howieson) the rest have moved overseas (or to the Phoenix which technically is overseas) eg Garbett, Cacace, Singh, Bell, Waine, Boxall, Barabarouses, Stamenic, Sail....
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
The 10th tier in England features teams up to 1067th on the football pyramid, across 17 leagues, I don't think the level would be that low, considering England only has ten times the population of New Zealand. I haven't watched any of that level obviously, but that seems far too low, given the A League typically gets comparisons to English League One.
It's also easy to say the level is low, that's a fairly unanimous view, but it's a lot more difficult to improve it. The players can't just choose to be better than what they are, so how does the level improve? Bringing in imports isn't feasible given that it's an amateur league, and of course the amateur nature means players don't train full time unlike their foreign counterparts. On page 109 of the FIFA report on New Zealand released last year it shows that young players in the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings train double the minutes NZ players do and play double the games at some age levels. That's just at youth-level ages, where both here and abroad they are in school, let alone the gap once they become adults.
It becomes apparent why the level is lower when the countries with bigger populations, better infrastructure and better coaching are training twice as much as New Zealanders do at the same age. That obviously flows on to the national team, where the opposition players have a headstart right from primary-school-age. Ultimately, it can't really change without money, and that money doesn't exist and if it did it wouldn't be sustainably earned.
We all want our players to progress into better professional leagues, but that isn't very easily achievable. Locally, the Phoenix are the only team that might sign (non Aus citizen) NZ local players in the A League, and even then that depends on squad availability and whether or not a reserves player can be brought in. Aside from that, almost all leagues in Asia have tight foreign player restrictions, so the strong teams won't really gamble on an NZ amateur, and the leagues that will probably aren't really financially appealing. US/Canada is another route, but with similar obstacles of foreign player rules and low pay/short contracts (outside MLS). Really, having a second passport if one of the most important things a player needs unfortunately. Europe is the other, but everyone wants to be there, and when you're starting from behind players in your age group, you have to be exceptional to catch up.
Thanks guys for those responses. I got a lot more reaction than I expected. The difference of course between NZ and England is that there is an overwhelming amount of money spent by Premier League clubs and on downwards to League Two on academy systems. A lot of those players flow out of the academies at 18 and will play in clubs all the way down to the 10th tier. 10th tier clubs are far from being Pub sides. Most Universities play their top sides in the 10th tier. I recently watched a match between a 10th tier side and Sunderland reserves, the 10th tier side won 3-1, admittedly Sunderland reserves were mostly youngsters (17-19).
In order to improve our Football standing in the World, I think that we need to pay close attention to countries like Iceland who in recent years have punched well above their 300,000 Population weight. I don't know what they do but they have high pedigree players, playing throughout Europe. So I presume they have an absolutely superb academy system. Another example would be Croatia who I'm sure have less money to spend on player development than NZ would.
Thanks guys for those responses. I got a lot more reaction than I expected. The difference of course between NZ and England is that there is an overwhelming amount of money spent by Premier League clubs and on downwards to League Two on academy systems. A lot of those players flow out of the academies at 18 and will play in clubs all the way down to the 10th tier. 10th tier clubs are far from being Pub sides. Most Universities play their top sides in the 10th tier. I recently watched a match between a 10th tier side and Sunderland reserves, the 10th tier side won 3-1, admittedly Sunderland reserves were mostly youngsters (17-19).
In order to improve our Football standing in the World, I think that we need to pay close attention to countries like Iceland who in recent years have punched well above their 300,000 Population weight. I don't know what they do but they have high pedigree players, playing throughout Europe. So I presume they have an absolutely superb academy system. Another example would be Croatia who I'm sure have less money to spend on player development than NZ would.
Oh I see you are counting 10th tier as down from the PL, so really you are talking about step 6, where as step 10, which is what I thought you meant, is pub leagues.
Countries like Iceland & Croatia have two things going for them that NZ doesn't 1 - Historically strong football culture 2 - they are in Europe If the Icelandic champions get to the group stage of the UCL (or even before it) they get to play some fairly big clubs and learn from that experience In Oceania we are the fairly big clubs The Icelandic government did invest a lot of money in facilities and coaching, but everyone is football mad in Iceland, whereas in NZ the government tend to give the money to sailors and rugby players
Thanks guys for those responses. I got a lot more reaction than I expected. The difference of course between NZ and England is that there is an overwhelming amount of money spent by Premier League clubs and on downwards to League Two on academy systems. A lot of those players flow out of the academies at 18 and will play in clubs all the way down to the 10th tier. 10th tier clubs are far from being Pub sides. Most Universities play their top sides in the 10th tier. I recently watched a match between a 10th tier side and Sunderland reserves, the 10th tier side won 3-1, admittedly Sunderland reserves were mostly youngsters (17-19).
In order to improve our Football standing in the World, I think that we need to pay close attention to countries like Iceland who in recent years have punched well above their 300,000 Population weight. I don't know what they do but they have high pedigree players, playing throughout Europe. So I presume they have an absolutely superb academy system. Another example would be Croatia who I'm sure have less money to spend on player development than NZ would.
Oh I see you are counting 10th tier as down from the PL, so really you are talking about step 6, where as step 10, which is what I thought you meant, is pub leagues.
Countries like Iceland & Croatia have two things going for them that NZ doesn't 1 - Historically strong football culture 2 - they are in Europe If the Icelandic champions get to the group stage of the UCL (or even before it) they get to play some fairly big clubs and learn from that experience In Oceania we are the fairly big clubs The Icelandic government did invest a lot of money in facilities and coaching, but everyone is football mad in Iceland, whereas in NZ the government tend to give the money to sailors and rugby players
You are right. I'd forgotten that they changed the way they number the Football pyramid.
I know that I'll get the due incoming but the NZ national league is not where it needs to be in my opinion. If we're going to send star players abroad we need them to develop in a good quality league. This league is currently 10th tier in England. Sasse and Pennington both looked a 100 miles ahead of this level and they're not more than English National league level.
10th tier English football is the better level village teams, mostly amateur but with a few semi pro teams.
The 10th tier in England features teams up to 1067th on the football pyramid, across 17 leagues, I don't think the level would be that low, considering England only has ten times the population of New Zealand. I haven't watched any of that level obviously, but that seems far too low, given the A League typically gets comparisons to English League One.
It's also easy to say the level is low, that's a fairly unanimous view, but it's a lot more difficult to improve it. The players can't just choose to be better than what they are, so how does the level improve? Bringing in imports isn't feasible given that it's an amateur league, and of course the amateur nature means players don't train full time unlike their foreign counterparts. On page 109 of the FIFA report on New Zealand released last year it shows that young players in the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings train double the minutes NZ players do and play double the games at some age levels. That's just at youth-level ages, where both here and abroad they are in school, let alone the gap once they become adults.
It becomes apparent why the level is lower when the countries with bigger populations, better infrastructure and better coaching are training twice as much as New Zealanders do at the same age. That obviously flows on to the national team, where the opposition players have a headstart right from primary-school-age. Ultimately, it can't really change without money, and that money doesn't exist and if it did it wouldn't be sustainably earned.
We all want our players to progress into better professional leagues, but that isn't very easily achievable. Locally, the Phoenix are the only team that might sign (non Aus citizen) NZ local players in the A League, and even then that depends on squad availability and whether or not a reserves player can be brought in. Aside from that, almost all leagues in Asia have tight foreign player restrictions, so the strong teams won't really gamble on an NZ amateur, and the leagues that will probably aren't really financially appealing. US/Canada is another route, but with similar obstacles of foreign player rules and low pay/short contracts (outside MLS). Really, having a second passport if one of the most important things a player needs unfortunately. Europe is the other, but everyone wants to be there, and when you're starting from behind players in your age group, you have to be exceptional to catch up.
I come into every thought-provoking thread now expecting a well-constructed Carlin response. Always great reads, kudos mate
Yeah 10th tier is harsh. I know for Mainland Football we have had players from the following areas that have been top players in the regional league:
Conference National Players (England)
League Of Ireland
Ex-Football League Club academies (England)
Dutch second division
Various USA levels below MLS
And so on. When stepped up to the national league these players have been ‘decent’ to ‘good’ standard of a NL player but not often set the league a light due to the standard of the NL.
In terms of Iceland, as someone mentioned above, there are many factors here.
One of the biggest reasons for me is that we are a rugby nation. Iceland are football mad, and all their athletes funnel towards football. In NZ, we share our athlete population with Rugby, Cricket etc. Imagine if all those athletes that are playing rugby had started playing football from a young age.
NZ has often relied on imports in one way or other to boost the local game, whether that be coming to NZ for football specifically or not. The huge net migration loss over the years has seen the domestic league weaken in recent years in my eyes. These players boost the local game in quantity and/or quality. This is also not helped by the fact we do not have National League Franchises bringing in foreign players who trickle down and boost the winter league.
In Mainland it feels there is very much a talent gap between the ages of 25-30. Which I feel is heavily influenced by the migration of kiwis heading over seas and not many coming here. I know many clubs are after 'experienced' SIL/NL players for 2023 but they seem to be scarce in that age bracket. This is the age range where careers away from football start taking off and either have to take a step back from football or are heading overseas.
The final table for the 2022 Men’s National League has been adjusted after the result of the round nine game between Christchurch United and Cashmere Technical has been overturned.
NZ Football have announced that the matchday result of a 4-1 win to Christchurch United will now be recorded as a 0-3 loss.
This follows confirmation that Christchurch United mistakenly sent a player onto the pitch as a second-half substitute when he was not on the official team sheet.
“Following the match, the club admitted and acknowledged the mistake,” NZF’s statement says.
The revised result means Cashmere Technical gains three points but remains in seventh place.
Napier City Rovers move up a place, into eighth spot, while Christchurch United drop to ninth.
Matchday result
Game played Friday November 25, 2022
Christchurch United 4 (Joel Peterson 25′, 88′, Eddie Wilkinson 26′, 90’+6′) Cashmere Technical 1 (Lyle Matthysen 90+5′)
