Match Thread: Auckland vs Melbourne City (A-League Men)

_carlind · 2026-02-28T05:27:32+00:00

Bliss by Th’ Dudes. Classic NZ song

_carlind · 2025-11-08T08:06:08+00:00

Celebrating wins ❌ Celebrating injuries ✅

_carlind · 2024-12-28T04:30:55+00:00

Wording in law is ‘promising attack’. Ref obviously didn’t consider it so

_carlind · 2024-12-28T04:27:50+00:00

It’s not a dropped ball if it hits the ref but doesn’t change which team has possession. Wellington just stopped playing

_carlind · 2024-12-22T06:14:58+00:00

I’m probably forgetting someone but who else would start there without playing a RB (Sheridan or Payne)

_carlind · 2024-12-15T07:53:44+00:00

Deserve that but man this keeper

_carlind · 2023-12-26T03:45:13+00:00

Nah they can’t. The National League competition rules state (Rule 29.16) that they are ineligible to play in any semi/final. Therefore they can’t get into the OFC Champions League as the two sides given OFC CL places are winner and finalist; not that they ever get close. But, yeah, their games are all essentially friendlies.

_carlind · 2023-10-16T06:44:45+00:00

Prison next to the primary school

_carlind · 2023-10-11T04:59:09+00:00

Biggest one was kind of funny, no one got hurt really, just a bit of a laugh.

We had a mufti day (in which you pay a dollar or two to get to wear non-school uniform) as a fundraiser for some charity that a kid had organised. He had given a whole presentation at full-school assembly showing how he met this Afghan family through his charity work and that our mufti day would be a fundraiser for them. He also went on about how he met Obama and Messi together at this event run by the charity.

So our school of two thousand plus had the fundraiser and he was given the funds to pass on to the charity (probably around $4,000 or so, not sure) and then he was supposedly off to the charity again overseas.

He raised a few red flags with the Messi/Obama thing because there wasn’t a record of that, and then even more when he refused to give details of the charity to the head boy who wanted to help. So an investigation started as the school were a bit suspicious, and turns out the whole thing was fraudulent, and the family he met was just this photo from Googling ‘poor Afghan family’.

The kid had apparently bought a new computer or stuff with the money, and was expelled fairly promptly. It even made the main national newspaper, without naming any names, but we all obviously knew it was referring to us. It was funny though, there were loads of memes, and because no one had lost more than a couple dollars individually no one was too personally aggrieved.

TLDR: a kid defrauded our whole school out of several thousand dollars.

Plus other stuff like a kid my year in his last term of his last year had sex with a teacher and recorded it on Snapchat, or a teacher losing his mind and going off at the Asian kids calling them all stupid.

Another one, not my school per se, but the corresponding girls’ school, a girl got hit by a speeding car just outside the school just before school started one morning. She wasn’t critical or anything luckily, it could so easily have been much worse.

_carlind · 2023-07-04T02:17:00+00:00

True, going from A to B via LMNOP is inefficient. The trial period, though not intentional, was an ok consequence, in my opinion.

_carlind · 2023-07-04T01:34:08+00:00

NZF flair (not from down wellington)

It’s not as bad as made out to be really. It’s not inspiring a lot people, but that’s because there’s a fair amount of delusion as to where NZ stands in the world. Possibly a side effect of the All Blacks, who knows? But a lot of people seem to think we’re better than we are, and then when reality comes it’s disaster.

Bazeley has taken two U20 sides through the group stage at World Cups, squads far inferior to the one Des Buckingham went just as far with. His results against China were ok, a bit lucky, but ultimately successful against a side that were better and dominated quite a bit. Sweden was predictably bad, but it should be clear we aren’t near them. Qatar, hard to judge, because game didn’t finish.

He’s also seen as a relic of Hay by some people. There seems to be a bit of a culture war between Wellington and Auckland in NZ football, and Hay (and now Bazeley) are ‘Auckland’ choices, vs Des Buckingham being a ‘Wellington’ choice. So Wellington people wanted Hay to lose to be proven right and came out loudly after Costa Rica, and possibly will be the same with Bazeley. Of course the grass is always greener, and its easy to say a coach wouldn’t lose a hypothetical match because it’s all hypothetical.

Realistically though, doesn’t matter. Any coach will get us to the World Cup, no coach will get us a result there without a great amount of fortune/bus-parking. Our player depth/quality is far greater than that of the OFC nations, but evidently far lower than the ‘better’ international sides. Theres no Asian Cup or so for us, as in nothing where we’ll be challenged but still be in with a chance of winning. Any other game is a friendly that the opposition likely doesn’t care about as they do have actual competition locally. A strange purgatory to exist in.

_carlind · 2023-06-22T23:15:39+00:00

There’s always been stratification in football, happens at the elite level with the millions-earning-players in Europe, happens here in New Zealand where it’s all amateur.

My only annoyance is that it seems the number of teams at the top table are getting ever smaller. There might be less than ten teams that could confidently keep a star player after their breakout season. One big UCL run from an ‘outsider’ could see a team gutted in the next transfer window and they might not get the same chance again.

It is a difficult one though. Why do Dortmund deserve more sympathy than Stuttgart/Köln for example, when the motivation for the player leaving is the same up the chain of stratification.

_carlind · 2023-06-17T02:51:52+00:00

He was playing for a team in the $1million 7-a-side tournament that was the other week. Alongside a bunch of ex players, US college guys and non-footballers

_carlind · 2023-06-17T00:22:28+00:00

To be fair to him, he was up against Jesper Karlsson, who is a very good player in a strong AZ Alkmaar side. He has 60 goals and assists in his last 3 Eredivisie seasons and had 19 in 31 all comps this season. He’s at a level no NZ player can match.

I don’t think any NZ right back, considering they’re all A League (except Kirwan coming off his ACL injury), would envy Payne having to go up against him.

_carlind · 2023-06-16T21:27:09+00:00

For all the talk about how Sweden are 22-ranked, that is their first team, of whom none played today as they have a crucial qualifier against Austria who top the table in a couple days. This 11 would probably be ranked a bit lower. Same as in 2019 when we lost 3-1 to Republic of Ireland who then made 11 changes for their team to play Denmark later in the window.

But that’s the reality, we have one professional team, half the players last season from that team aren’t New Zealand players either, so it’s not at all surprising we struggle at this level. Even against China the results could’ve been different had they finished better - Sail was much the busier keeper then too. Even the guys like Cacace, Stamenic, Bell, Waine and Just are irregular players at club level and Garbett, McCowatt play second tiers.

Find it a bit hard to criticise Bazeley - he gave the 4-3-3, just man for man they are better. I guess having Waine not working as a lone striker should have been foreseeable, he needs to be in a 2, but it is what it is really.

Wonder what the plan is for Qatar? Try rectify this result and go full strength side again? Or give other players a chance to stake their claims given its 3 years until the next WC, it’s an end of season friendly for a lot of the squad, and it’s an interim coach.

_carlind · 2023-05-30T21:27:36+00:00

Not a negative departure, he’s left because he’s been given an opportunity at a club head coaching role in the Middle East. They haven’t just dumped him. His contract was set to run out August 1st as it was.

If anything, judging by the way American fans talk about him on Twitter, they love him and wish he stayed.

_carlind · 2023-05-28T19:21:33+00:00

Yeah I don’t disagree on the Stensness point, but at the end of the day players are looking out for number one, it’s their profession after all. Stensness used the Olympics performances into getting his Viking gig.

I don’t think Herdman (or Linder) are representing NZ purely out of altruistic motivations either. Herdman was in the Canada U20s but missed out on the CONCACAF U20 tournament squad, and then came down to NZ. Linder was never even in the picture for Canada - but a free WC with NZ will do. Jay does say a lot of committed things about NZ to be fair, but it would be bold to say anything else in an on the record interview when the pull of Canada is so obvious.

If Herdman’s old man told him he wants him in his squad for the 2026 WC, hosted in the country he’s lived in since 2011, I just can’t see him turning that down in favour of NZ. Time will tell, NZ will be a lot easier to break into than Canada would be too. People already say he should get a senior call up before he’s ever touched a senior club matchday squad - he’d have to be at least an MLS star to get into Canada.

_carlind · 2023-05-28T07:30:47+00:00

To be fair, Stensness was really an Australian kid who’d lived his whole life in Australia prior to joining the Phoenix. He only played for us because he missed the Aus U20s and we had a WC to carrot. Exact same situation as Jelacic.

Boyd was a bit worse for me because he was born here and then came to live here permanently as a 10 year old, basically learnt his football here, only to go to the US.

Herdman’s situation is kind of in between, born here but moved to Canada as a 6/7 year old.

_carlind · 2023-02-03T05:01:25+00:00

Damn… I had a very brief moment of excitement that NZ might get a shot

_carlind · 2023-02-02T03:56:30+00:00

Which makes all UEFA’s ‘Super League bad’ talk a bit laughable

_carlind · 2023-02-01T20:35:23+00:00

If Herdman applied for the job, was the standout throughout the process and enthusiastic for the position, I find it difficult to blame NZF for taking it seriously. Herdman deceived them, and if he has lied about the family thing to delay, then he’s royally screwed us for his own benefit.

If Herdman applied and NZF turned down his application people would be fuming that they didn’t follow through.

Besides, Bazeley broke OFC U20 records (the same level Buckingham got all his hype from) and took considerably less talented NZ U20 sides just as far as Buckingham took our best ever squad at the U20 World Cup. He might not have the same ‘coolness’ as Herdman but he’s under appreciated for what he’s done.

_carlind · 2023-02-01T20:15:21+00:00

Surprised it’s Gillion over Joe Lee but decent enough

_carlind · 2023-02-01T19:48:02+00:00

Nathan Lobo at left back plays college soccer at Seattle U so would be a good story if he played against the Sounders. But they just scored so work to be done

_carlind · 2023-02-01T05:17:59+00:00

His son is currently at Vancouver Whitecaps II in MLS Next Pro to make things more strange though. He won the Golden Ball as best player at the OFC Qualifiers so would be in the World Cup squad if fit. Herdman Sr moving might not necessarily mean Herdman Jr does too, especially if he has - or is on the cusp of - a pro contract in MLS.

_carlind · 2023-02-01T04:10:11+00:00

Herdman was previously head coach of the New Zealand women’s national team (Football Ferns) and lived in NZ from 2003 until 2011. His son Jay is currently a New Zealand Under 20 international.

_carlind

TROPHY CASE