Wellington
Phoenix 6 Hawkes Bay United 1
Sunday 4th October
Wakefield
Park, Wellington
Attendance:
about 65
We are
at that odd time of year where winter football has all but wrapped
up, but the summer football is just kicking off, over the next few
months we have the A-League, ASB Premiership, National Youth &
National Women's league to look forward to.
 |
| C.Kirkberger & Jake Williams |
This
weekend saw the kickoff of the 15th season of the National
Youth League. Originally played between representative teams of the 7
Federations. In 2007 it became a competition between the youth teams
of National League franchises. Played on a regional basis with
various NZ development teams involved. It has now evolved
into a 12 team competition with the 8 National League franchises
(Auckland City, Waitakere United, WaiBOP United, Hawkes Bay United,
Team Wellington, Wellington Phoenix, Canterbury United & Southern
United) along with Auckland United, Heartland Wairarapa, Manawatu
United & current champions Nelson Marlborough Falcons.
Today's
game saw the debut of Wellington Phoenix in the competition, with
their reserve side in the National League being nicknamed the Weenix,
does that make this side the Weeweenix?
While
this is “summer” football, it is still spring and while most of
the country had severe weather warnings out for high winds, in
Wellington it could be described as a bit gusty!
So with
the wind dictating play both teams did well in keeping the ball on
the ground and trying to play football. It took the Phoenix just 4
minutes to open the scoring through Gianni Bouzoukis, it took until
just before half time for the Phoenix to increase their lead when
Bouzoukis got a 2nd. In the 2nd half the dominance of the Phoenix showed through and Bouzoukis got another 2
goals, while Ruairi Cahill-Fluery got 2 and Hawkes Bay got a
consolation goal through Ross Willox.
It's
always hard to work out who will be the teams to beat in the youth
league as due to the age restriction there is a high turn over of
players and as coaches change they select the players they think will
be best. Hawkes Bay United weren't really up to much, but even that I
think that the Weeweenix will be one of the teams challenging for the
title.
In fact
I will stick my neck out and make a prediction of what will happen
Title
contenders
Nelson -
defending champions, have reduced their squad size to 22 and lost 6 players from last
years the championship winning squad, but will still be challenging
for the title.
Weeweenix
– The academy team of the country's only professional club, they
should be there and you'd be a bit worried if they weren't
Waitakere
United – 2 time winners and last seasons runners up, have signed
NZU20 Noah Billingsey.
Auckland
City – 4 time winners, new coach and largely new team will be
looking to bounce back from last years worst ever performance of 8th placing
Almost
but not quite
Canterbury
United – 2 time winners, could cause a couple of upsets with last
seasons golden boot Ryan Stanley returning. Looking to the future
with three 15 year old's in the squad.
Team
Wellington – Having to compete with Wellington Phoenix for players
and with Western Suburbs not making any of their Ole Academy players
available, the team rely's a lot on coach Lloyd O'Keefe's Lower Hutt
club team for players, which could possibly help as they players all know each other and how they play.
Manawatu
United – The focus for National League football in Palmerston North
since Youngheart Manawatu were dropped from the ASB Premiership.
Finished 4th last year.
WaiBOP
United – Finished 5th last season, expect them to do the
same this time
The rest
all quite hard to say as there is very little information
provided by these teams
Southern
United – started with a 3-2 away win over Auckland City
Auckland
United – A squad that seems to truly reflect the cosmopolitan
nature of Auckland will no doubt be looking for a good performance as
they will be keen to get one of the 2 year licenses for National League
Heartland
Wairarapa – Struggled last year and will likely do the same this
year
Hawkes
Bay United – finished bottom last season, and based on what I saw
on Sunday will be doing the same again this season
So if you are looking for some live football to watch check out either
NZ Football or NZ Soccer Scoreboard for the next fixtures
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