Rise Of The Phoenix: A New Zealand Story

Wellington Phoenix: Season 2015/16

View attachment 286155

It was another dominating campaign for Wellington as the Nix scored a domestic Treble comfortably winning A-League Finals Series, Regular Season and FFA Cup. Get used to this because I can't see it changing anytime soon...

View attachment 286154View attachment 286153

Actually shocked that we didn't go unbeaten whole season! Our form was consistent all year and peaked during the Finals Series, when young loanee star Daniel De Silva took over scoring consecutive hat-tricks in semi final and Grand Final - his first goals for the club!

View attachment 286152View attachment 286151

I think after only two seasons Wellington Phoenix have reached a point where there are no more challenges for the club, considering our particular status (no continental football) and ASB Premiership irrelevance - without me (and my first team players) in charge the Reserves team had a pedestrian season in the NZ Football Championship. The real challenge is obviously developing the national team now.


Best Eleven & Top Perfomers

View attachment 286142View attachment 286138

Virtually every player on the roster performed at high level in a fantastic season for the club, as 9 Wellington Phoenix players were selected for A-League Team of the Season (should have been 11 or 12 really). Very hard for me to single out anyone in particular: Glen Moss had a very solid season and won Goalkeeper of the Year, right back Louis Fenton set a new team record for assists and was again the Nix Fans PoY, playmaker Mario Lucio won A-League PoY and was joint Top Scorer with 20 goals. My personal Player of the Year would be George Green: the young Englishman on loan from Everton had a terrific season, scoring 20 goals and creating many others as the team's main playmaker at striker or attacking midfielder position. Green often looked too good for this standard of football and is probably wasted in this league, though I'm certainly not complaining. Plus, he seems to be so happy here!

View attachment 286131



Up next: New Zealand preparing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.​
 
New Zealand National Team: 2016 Olympic Games

View attachment 285679

First taste of major international tournaments for New Zealand with the up-coming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Admittedly we didn't have a hard time qualifying from a weak Oceania confederation, things will be much different in Brazil though:

View attachment 285677View attachment 285676

An ultra tough group for the Oly-Whites, featuring Argentina, Italy and Nigeria. Argentina and Italy might be two of the strongest teams in the tournament and among favorites to go all the way - Argentina even decided to select Lionel Messi as an over-age player! - while Nigeria is not bad either and traditionally tends to do quite well in youth tournaments. No pressure for New Zealand, we'll learn from the experience and try to be competitive against world class teams; our team is in good shape and we're quietly confident we can do well and maybe upset the odds.

View attachment 285668View attachment 285667

The 18-man squad feature NZ young stars like Bill Tuiloma, Louis Fenton, Tyler Boyd, Ryan Thomas, Tim Payne, Dylan Burns and Cameron Howieson. These players are already part of the senior team and form the backbone of the Under 23 squad. Our over-age players will be Winston Reid, Marco Rojas and Chris Wood - one for each unit. Reid and Rojas are playing at high level in top European competitions and are New Zealand most established stars; Wood is having a tough time lately, struggling to score or find the form both with his club and the NT, and now looking for a new club after Leicester released him. He's easily the best striker in nation and I have to trust him. And maybe sign him...


A message from our goalkeeper:

View attachment 285657​
 
Last edited:
New Zealand National Team: 2016 Olympic Games Group Stage

View attachment 285377


First match of our group against a star-studded Argentina side featuring the likes of Mauro Icardi, Luciano Vietto, Juan Iturbe and Lucas Romero. Oh and some small guy with the No.10 shirt called Lionel Messi...


New Zealand VS Argentina

View attachment 285373

Tyler Boyd shocked Argentina (and me) with two early goals on the break for a 2-0 lead, and actually had another one disallowed for a dubious offside. Then Messi took over and absolutely dominated the game mostly from left wing assisting all goals of his side in a spectacular 6-3 win for Argentina. The Albiceleste basically played with 5 strikers and tried to attack for the whole 90 minutes, as Icardi scored 4 goals. We couldn't do much more against Argentina world class players, at least I was pleased that we scored three goals and showed we're not afraid of playing our football against the best in the world. In an ideal world I should be receiving offers for Boyd from clubs all over the world now...


New Zealand VS Italy

View attachment 285357

This was pretty special: New Zealand came back from behind as Marco Rojas scored a brace in a memorable 3-1 victory against Italy. A deserved win for the Oly-Whites as we simply were the better team on the pitch despite Italy having much better players (with the likes of senior team regulars like Marco Verratti, Domenico Berardi and Giacomo Bonaventura). Rojas was a joy to watch as he destroyed Italy with his ball skills and movement between the lines, while Winston Reid led a solid defence against quality attackers. A draw in final match against Nigeria would now be enough to advance to next round...


New Zealand VS Nigeria

View attachment 285356

... easier said than done though! Poor conditioning and even poorer finishing were the keys of a disappointing 4-2 defeat against Nigeria. In a somewhat close game Nigeria were simply more cynical in front of the goal and much more fit than us - poor fitness level really is an ongoing issue for NZ during international tournaments especially after 2-3 games, and that's something I can't really control. First choice strikers Chris Wood and Tyler Boyd did their job as they both scored, but a very unfit defence struggled against strong, physical Nigerian attackers.


View attachment 285355View attachment 285354


Argentina and Nigeria advanced to knock-out phase as hosts Brazil eventually won the elusive Olympic title for the first time in their history. All in all I was very pleased with our performances in the tournament, the win against Italy being particularly impressive. I honestly believe that with a better conditioning we could at least have drawn against Nigeria and qualify to quarter finals, nonetheless it's fair to say we did well in such a hard group. This generation of U23 players has really done a lot for the country, and many of these players will also be a key part of the future for the senior team - in some cases they are already.


View attachment 285351View attachment 285350 View attachment 285349View attachment 285348





Meanwhile in Wellington:

View attachment 285347​
 
Last edited:
Wellington Phoenix: Pre-Season 2016/17

View attachment 284717

A very busy off-season for the Phoenix, with lots of things going on in Wellington before the start of next campaign: the club welcomes a new ownership as a group of local businessmen bought the two-times A-League champions at the start of september. Actually every club in the league except Melbourne Victory had changed ownership in recent weeks, likely due to bad finances that plague all Australian teams.

New owner cleared our 2M debt... with a 2M bank loan, so we still have to re-pay that for next 4 years.. No new funds were made available, but Junior Coaching was upgraded to excellent and has now maxed out, just like our extensive youth recruitment: this means Wellington Phoenix have now the best possible combo of youth coaching and recruitment, yay! Obviously this year youth intake was absolutely rubbish, the best prospect being a two stars midfielder that probably will never be of any use for club or NT. I still let the HoYD sign all the rubbish youth candidates because hey we're a great academy... Silly moments.

Club reputation also grew considerably as we're now second most reputable team in Australia, and we also announced a partnership with Ligue 1 side FC Lorient, our first parent club.

View attachment 284663

Hopefully this will spread some NZ/Australia knowledge abroad (Lorient are also a feeder club for Arsenal), possibly seeing the occasional NZ youngster produced at Lorient, and also help selling players to European clubs. Despite usual lack of funds we still managed several excellent signings, typically on loan and/or on a free:

View attachment 284661View attachment 284659

Adam Taggart was unattached after he left Fulham, he's first choice striker for Australia and will arguably be best striker in the A-League. 18 year old Panos Armenakas joins on loan from Udinese and will be another young, gifted attacker for the Nix free flowing brand of football; the left-footed playmaker looks absolutely amazing for his age.

First signing for the infamous NZ citizenship plan:

View attachment 284656

Argentinean winger Leonardo Ramirez joined as a free agent (surprisingly on a youth contract) and will stay in Wellington at least until he will gain NZ nationality! He's an 18 year old with great potential, and should be a fantastic addition for New Zealand when he'll be available via naturalization, i.e. in 5 years...



Transfers & Projected First Eleven:

View attachment 284638View attachment 284637

We have an amazing squad for A-League standard, actually we keep improving while the rest of the league can't seem to sign a single player while also struggling with finances. We finally sold a couple of players for peanuts, which gave us the small funds needed to pay some agents fees and complete all our excellent signings. Basically we keep getting much better in a league that keeps getting much worse, and we were already coming from consecutive titles and complete dominance. Lack of continental competitions only add to the frustration. Luckily there's the national team...



Up next: New Zealand facing key OFC Nations Cup games to close year 2016.




​
 
New Zealand National Team: OFC Nations Cup 2016 & Yearly Review

View attachment 284230

New Zealand senior team finally back in action with final games of OFC Nations Cup:

View attachment 284229View attachment 284227

All easy for the All Whites as we comfortably won all the matches we played in the tournament, dominating our group and then breezing through semi final (14-0 aggregate win against Papua New Guinea) and final (7-2 overall against New Caledonia). Obviously OFC teams are not much of a challenge for New Zealand at the moment as we were able to rotate players and test some youngsters while still dominating the competion. With this victory New Zealand qualifies for next Confederations Cup (Russia 2017) as Oceania champions, and will also proceed to the inter-confederation playoffs for 2018 World Cup. Finally, OFC Nations Cup was the first 'major' international success for world class manager Alberto Rossini...

View attachment 284210View attachment 284208

Cameron Howieson won both Top Scorer and Best Player of OFC Nations Cup awards scoring 9 goals in the tournament and averaging a fantastic 8.26 rating. The young attacker is only a fringe player at Wellington Phoenix but emerged as a key figure for the national team, eventually pushing supposed star striker Chris Wood out of starting eleven. Wood is still out of contract after leaving Leicester in the summer, and his wages demands are unfortunately out of reach for the Phoenix at the moment (same happens with fellow Kiwi star Michael McGlinchey who left the club after asking for outrageous wages). Not an ideal situation for our country's best striker.


Best Eleven & World Ranking

View attachment 284197View attachment 284195

Wellington goalkeeper Glen Moss won Oceania Player of the Year this time, continuing the Nix tradition in this award after McGlinchey's consecutive wins. New Zealand slipped a bit in World Ranking finishing the year at 105th place despite winning all competitive matches in 2016, clearly battering OFC teams doesn't do much in regards of FIFA points... We'll have a chance to change this at next Confederation Cup though as we're set to face some of the best NT's in the world:

View attachment 284192

Brazil, Germany and Iran: well this is going to be a good challenge for sure!


​
 
Phoenix No More?

Wellington, January 3rd 2017

View attachment 284015



Big shock in New Zealand after the latest rumours surrounding the future of Wellington Phoenix and their manager Alberto Rossini:

View attachment 284017

Sources close to the situation are reporting that Rossini snapped at Football Federation Australia board of directors during a scheduled meeting, calling them 'a bunch of puppets in the hands of AFC' and yelling he wants nothing to do with 'sellouts to sheiks and Korean mobsters'. ASB Premiership giants Auckland City are adding to the speculation revealing an unlikely, mutual interest between the club and Alberto Rossini.

Rossini could not be reached for any comment or official statement on the matter, and sources report he's currently in NZF headquarters discussing and planning future moves.

Further details will be forthcoming in the near future.


​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top