There was scrap, there was niggle, and there were flashes of high-quality A-League football for all to see. Nothing silly, just good competitive fun. Once upon a time the Wellington Phoenix couldn’t go two weeks without some joker demanding to know what the point of their existence was but right now the kiwi teams are the best thing about the A-League. Don’t even worry about it. Rivalries bring context to games. They frame and reinforce people’s fandom. This rivalry was by design but the way it has expressed itself has been completely authentic, completely honest, completely genuine. The appetite was there and the meal has been served accordingly.

What’s more, this whole Auckland FC vs Wellington Phoenix yarn seems to have pushed football to the front and centre of kiwi sporting conversations (and at a very convenient time, given that the Blackcaps have reverted to depressing mode to usher in the summer). Deadset guarantee there’ll be chat along these lines at holiday gatherings across the country over the coming weeks, who would have thunk it? No doubt there are Nix fans out there wondering why they weren’t getting this level of coverage before... but that’s the whole point: it’s not Auckland FC, it’s not Wellington Phoenix, it’s both of them.

And, just like the first time these two teams met, it was Auckland FC who bagged the three points. They did finally concede a goal in the process, Kosta Barbarouses breaking up the perpetual clean sheet, but earlier strikes via an Isaac Hughes own goal and Nando Pijnaker meant that AFC hung on for the 2-1 win to remain perfect through six weeks of the term. Fascinating football activities. Let us break it down further.

The Game

The thing about derby games is that the occasion often outweighs the game itself. You get heaps of emotion, passion, physicality... and not so much cutting-edge footy. Within sixty seconds of this one kicking off, Paolo Retre had already fouled Felipe Gallegos in a sign of things to come. The atmosphere was superb yet chances were pretty limited. It certainly wasn’t an ideal portent for AFC when Louis Verstraete had to be replaced after 22 minutes with back issues, leading to Cam Howieson playing a bit deeper than he has been lately. Meanwhile, the Nix were swinging the ball into the area and testing out Alex Paulsen. They seemed to be taking over in the wake of the Verstraete sub, picking up the tempo... until they conceded.

The opening goal emerged from a clever angled ball from Jake Brimmer to pierce the defence, picking out the run of Hiroki Sakai into the area. Slight mix up between Sam Sutton and Hideki Ishige as to who was marking whom - Sutton seemed to point Ishige onto Sakai but it was a gentle point and Ishige didn’t catch it. Sakai went untracked. Brimmer found him. Sakai drilled the ball across goal and Isaac Hughes was left in a tricky spot with Liam Gillion lurking behind him and, due to the power and proximity of the cross, only a split-second of reaction time to decide whether to go for the ball or to leave it. That power and proximity probably would have made it brutal for Gillion to do anything with it so maybe Hughes should have left it. But there’s no time to think in that situation and the instinct is always to do the proactive thing. Off the noggin and into the net. 1-0 to Auckland FC after 31 minutes and for the second time this season they’d scored via an own goal from a Sakai cross.

Believe it or not, that was the first time that the Nix have conceded prior to half-time this season. From there, AFC were able to assert some control with a lead intact. Some big headers won by the Nix defenders. Lots of blocked shots too. But other than the own goal there was only one shot on target in the opening half by either team and it was a tight-angle Gallegos strike from the left which Josh Oluwayemi saved with ease. The Nix didn’t even attempt a shot at all until Matt Sheridan and Alex Rufer each had wayward efforts in the 42nd min (though we surely know better by now than to measure Nix attacking fluency by shot counts).

Regardless, something had to change for the Phoenix and it did, with a sneaky alteration in shape for the second half (more on that soon) allowing them to keep more of the ball while committing more numbers forward. Ishige quickly pinged a shot over the top. This is where AFC’s superb defensive set-up came in handy... but there must have been some wobbles in faith because Tommy Smith was subbed on for the final twenty minutes. Smith’s been the closer off the bench, sent in late in games to seal the deal. He’s featured in every single game so far but those five previous appearances only added up to 29 minutes of action so for Steve Corica to be playing this card so soon suggested he was getting tetchy.

He needn’t have worried because as soon as Smithy joined the game, Hiroki Sakai swung a deep free kick towards the back post where Nando Pijnaker nodded in AFC’s second goal. Oluwayemi had thoughts of going for that ball in the air but got stuck in two minds and Pijnaker then dominated Sutton and Stefan Colakovski for the header and there ya go.

Hold up though, this game wasn’t quite over. Sutton made a great weaving run into the area and forced his old bro Paulsen into a good low save straight after the second goal. Matt Sheridan then somehow missed the follow-up with an open goal ahead of him but the ball ever so slightly behind him. Close call for the Phoenix. They’d eventually go closer than close when Alex Rufer stepped up and took the ball away from Gallegos just inside his own half and then stormed forward with a very nice pass threaded behind for Kosta Barbarouses to run onto. Kosta might have had trouble getting around Hall or Pijnaker but here it was Tommy Smith who had to track him. Fair play to Smithy but the lack of pace was drastic as Kosta dashed beyond and scored to make it 2-1 after 82’.

That gave the Nix hope. That gave them some confidence. What it didn’t give them, however, was much time left to work with and they soon ran out of it. Auckland FC perhaps got a bit sloppy with it after scoring the second goal, beginning to coast in front of a big home crowd, and the Wellington Phoenix threatened to rip the points away from them. But nah the Black Knights came through with yet another victory. They’ve finally conceded a goal but their record remains perfect. 18 points from a possible 18 points. The dream endures.

Auckland FC Just Keep Winning

Not really sure why people bring up the NZ Knights in relation to Auckland FC. The geographical aspect, sure, but AFC have no affiliation with the Knights (or Football Kingz) legacy and nor do the fans, many of whom probably don’t even remember those days. It’s entirely irrelevant. But just in case anyone’s wondering, Auckland FC have now matched the NZ Knights for total victories. The Knights won six games out of 42 matches. Auckland FC have won six games from six matches.

Hiroki Sakai was the main man here, setting up both goals and defending superbly throughout on his return to the side after a minor injury (Callan Elliot did hang on to a spot on the bench after a good showing in Sakai’s absence against Newcastle but didn’t feature). A bloke with Sakai’s pedigree is going to shine brightest in the most consequential games and that’s exactly what he did. The fact that AFC were able to adjust without Verstrate on the pitch for most of this thing is another sign of how organised and efficient they are.

And how about Nando Pijnaker? Two goals already and that’s on top of some huge contributions for the best defence in the competition through these first two months. Pijnaker has made 54 clearances at a rate of 9.0 per ninety minutes. He’s blocked seven shots at a rate of 1.2 per ninety. For context, Finn Surman was first and second respectively in those categories last season with 5.8 clearances/90 and 1.6 blocks/90. Enormous stuff from Nando... just don’t fall into the trap of thinking this has come out of nowhere. Pijnaker missed a chunk of the 2024 season with Sligo Rovers due to some broken ribs but he was in superb form when he was available. He played 14 League of Ireland games this year and from them Sligo Rovers took 1.97 points per game with a +11 goal difference. In the 22 games that he didn’t play, they averaged 1.00 pts/g with -22 goal difference. Took him awhile to find consistent playing time in his professional career but the performances were always pretty good... albeit at a level where it wasn’t easy to know how it’d translate to the A-League. Turns out it translates fine. He’s been incredible for AFC.

Sadly, we do have to put a halt on Alex Paulsen’s clean sheet streak. It took five games and 81 minutes for him to finally concede a goal for AFC. Chuck in his three All Whites clean sheets plus the last few minutes of last season for the Nix and this fella just polished off 819 minutes of senior football without conceding a goal. Bloody hell. Now, this is selectively discounting his Olympic Games stuff, being U23s and all, but even still that’s amazing. Clean sheets are team efforts but when one guy has kept as many of them as AP has over these past 18 months, and for several different teams, the evidence is undeniable.

Let us also not overlook the fact that this brand new team, with their 6/6 winning start to existence, has five separate New Zealanders who have started every game: Paulsen, Pijnaker, De Vries, Rogerson, Gillion. As their squad came together and the imports arrived, the expectation was that perhaps only Paulsen and Pijnaker would be able to hold down starting spots and that the rest of the starting team would be full of imports and Aussies. That’d still leave plenty of room for kiwi fizz off the bench... but instead the team is winning games with a heavy local influence. Cam Howieson and Tommy Smith have been key figures in there too. Callan Elliot did great in his lone opportunity. Luis Toomey is already a cult hero after three sub appearances. Max Mata and Michael Woud have been in most/all matchday squads. If there’s anyone left who doubts the abilities of New Zealand footballers then please educate yourself.

Chiefy’s Alterations

Auckland FC have nine players who’ve started all six matches, the Welly Nix have eight players who’ve started all six matches. Not a lot of rotation there from either side... yet you know exactly how AFC are going to shape up from the moment you see the teamsheet whereas the Phoenix are always full of surprises. Giancarlo Italiano spoke many times during the offseason about his desire to build a team that can flex between systems and shapes several times during any given fixture. He signed players who are versatile. He’s nurturing similar versatility in the lads coming through the academy – just look at Nathan Walker debuting at wing-back when he’s very much an attacking player, or Matt Sheridan getting starts all up that right edge already.

Although the Nix began this game in a 3-5-2 formation (or something close to that... formations are always open to interpretation), they didn’t often stick to it. And when they returned for the second half needing to fix a situation that had them 1-0 down with very few scoring chances to that point, they appeared in something resembling a 4-2-4 shape with Kazuki Nagasawa pushing forward and Barbarouses drifting wide and, most drastically, Tim Payne hanging around up top. Throughout this match there was a clear intention to get T.Payne way up there (in the 1H you’d see Sutton tucking in to a four quite often so that Payne could push up on the other side)... but this one bordered on overthinking things. Hard to say without knowing the intention. Best guess is that Chief wanted Payne’s physicality against the big bodies of Dan Hall and Nando Pijnaker – old mate Kosta did plenty of good work up there but he and Ishige were severely outweighed in those battles... and there just isn’t anyone else (of the Oskar Zawada mould) in the squad who could do that job. But the experiment only lasted fifteen minutes before Colakovski and Rojas were sent on.

Rojas, after a slow start, was really beginning to get it cooking in the last ten mins as the Nix chased in vain for an equaliser. Again, they ran out of time... but that’s the thing with this Nix team: they still feel like they’re only scratching the surface of their capabilities. So many of their selections across these six games have had the impression of compensatory moves made because Plan A wasn’t possible. Mostly because of Rojas (plus a bit of Retre and Cola) not being fit enough to start. Last game they also missed both fullbacks (Sutton & Payne). This is a team that should grow smoothly into the season. They already have been.

Heaps of promise in there... but also some messiness. Conceding from a set piece is unusual for this team. Also unusual was how many bookings they got. The five bookings they got in this one single game was as many as they’d gotten in five previous games combined - and that doesn’t even include the yellow shown to Italiano on the Nix bench. There was some extra emotion in this match and it seems as though the home side handled it better. Barbarouses crashing into Paulsen for an aerial is not a normal sight. Alex Rufer kicking at Luis Toomey is less out-of-character for a midfield enforcer but still notable. And throughout the game there were body language things that betrayed a level of frustration that probably didn’t help the cause. Something to learn from.

Moments of Rivalry Gold

• When Alex Paulsen dwelled on the ball early on and the Phoenix fans started booing, then the Auckland fans drowned them out with even louder cheers.

• Alex Paulsen getting clattered at least three times going up for aerials, ranging from genuinely accidental (Sutton) to competitive but a bit reckless (Wootton and Barbarouses). Note that Paulsen cleaned up all three of those moments.

• Giancarlo Italiano saying during the week that AFC had been lucky with their fixtures and were vulnerable.

• Alex Rufer kicking the crap out of Luis Toomey, who himself had taunted Josh Oluwayemi after his mistake in the first derby. The ball was there but the whistle had gone and Roof knew what he was doing. Got away with a yellow card too.

• The crowd figure being reported as exactly one person more than the crowd that turned up for the first game between these two sides a month earlier in Wellington.

• AFC fans doing the shirts-off-if-we’re-winning thing in the last ten minutes, turning the Nix’s iconic celebration back around on them.

• Auckland FC having five dudes in their matchday squad with significant Welly Nix histories in Alex Paulsen, Luis Toomey, Max Mata, Callan Elliot, and Logan Rogerson. Coincidentally, Mata joined the Nix Academy alongside Sarpreet Singh on scholarships funded by Winston Reid... who is now a minority investor in AFC.

• Alex Paulsen being announced on the loud speakers as Man of the Match.

• The Wellington Phoenix being the team to break the perpetual clean sheet of Auckland FC and thus becoming the first team ever to score against AFC. In doing so, by the way, Kosta Barbarouses has now scored against 15 separate A-League clubs... some of which don’t even exist any more. The only one he never scored against is... the NZ Knights, how about that? They didn’t last long enough for Kosta to come around. Also, off topic here, but one of NZK’s old records is under threat: they and Melbourne City (née Heart) share the ALM record streak of 19 games in a row without a win but Perth Glory are up to 17 games winless and closing in fast.

Lucky Auckland?

Giancarlo Italiano (cheekily) suggested during the week that Auckland FC had been lucky with their fixtures so far and that he saw vulnerabilities to target, despite the flawless first five weeks. His point was that his team had already played, and beat, both of last season’s grand finalists. On Aussie soil no less (though the Melbourne Victory game was during Unite Round). In contrast, even Auckland FC fans would have to admit they were a little fortunate to squeeze past Sydney FC and other than that the Welly Nix are easily the best team they’ve faced.

Even more to the point, AFC’s first six games have included exactly one which took place in Australia and that was a neutral Unite Round clash. They did play Macarthur that week so it was a Sydney team in Sydney. But they played them at Allianz Stadium as part of a double-header with the Nix vs Victory game for which there weren’t even 5000 people in the stands.

Here’s a peek at the respective fixtures of both sides so far, including the current ranking of the opponents on the A-League ladder...

Is it luck that Auckland FC have gone six games without an away game in Australia? Seems more like the league might have juked it to give them more of a chance of starting with some good momentum. They definitely wanted the derby nice and early for ticketing purposes (though not in week one which was guaranteed a big crowd anyway as the inaugural match). Having said that, catching their Unite Round fixture in what would have otherwise been an away game was surely a nice stroke of luck. Compare that to the Nix who lost a home fixture for Unite Round and therefore haven’t played at Sky Stadium since losing to AFC the first time at the start of November (they’re back home next week vs Macarthur). Both teams have already had their first bye.

These are early season debates. It all balances out over the course of a 26-game league season. Auckland FC have played 4/6 games at Mt Smart which means they only have 9/20 games left at the venue and the slog begins next week when they face Melbourne City away. But as far as the strength of schedule goes, well, Auckland FC can pretty reasonably claim that the teams they’ve faced are all outside the top four because they beat them. They are the reason for this. It’s direct correlation. In no case is that more true than for the Wellington Phoenix themselves who would be first if they’d won both derbies but are fifth because they lost both derbies (their only defeats so far). In other words, Auckland FC have made this an easier schedule by being so damn good... and the away games will balance out in due course.

The Crowd Figure

During the week prior to this game, AFC bossman Nick Becker went on the radio to explain how the club had worked with Mt Smart officials to open up the northern embankment for family seating after having already sold out every literal seat in the ground. This way they were able to expand capacity to a very specific number of...

Nick Becker: “26,253 which is, funnily enough, just one more than the previous record set by the largest regular season A-League attendance at the last derby down in Wellington, which was 26,252.”

With that in mind, it was easy to be a wee bit sceptical when this figure flashed up at the ground and on the telly coverage...

An official crowd figure of exactly 26,253 punters which, like Becker said, is one more than the figure from the first derby down in Wellington. Yes, funny that.

But crowd figures can be sneaky and from observing the debates around this particular number it’s pretty clear that most people (including me) don’t actually know how crowd numbers are collated. Like, is it total tickets sold? It it people in attendance? How are free tickets and hospitality stuff accounted for? What about season ticket holders? The one argument you don’t want to indulge in is to call shenanigans because you could see “empty seats” – concessions lines are long and plenty of people don’t watch the game from their designated seat, especially at a ground like Mt Smart where you can otherwise get very close to the action (or go sit on the grass banks). That claim tells us nothing useful.

The Warriors sold out all ten of their games at Mt Smart Stadium last NRL season and yet had ten unique attendance figures, ranging from 22,711 to 24,495... a difference of almost two-thousand people (they got 26,083 for the home finals game against the Knights in 2022). Note that “sell-out” specifically refers to tickets sold not gameday attendance though. Not everybody with a ticket turns up... and there still could easily have been some goosing getting to those capacities. Ticket giveaways to sponsors, schools, local clubs, media, etc. (where those people often don’t even show). We know that Auckland FC goosed it to get to that capacity number. We also know they promoted this as a sell-out crowd.

So did they goose the final figure? Yeah probably... in the same way that everybody does. English Premier League clubs often claim attendance figures significantly higher than local law enforcement estimates (sometimes by an excess of 10k people). When the NRL went to Las Vegas to begin its 2024 season, league chief Peter V’landys said that a crowd of 40k for the double-header was the marker for success and lo and behold they came through with 40,746. However, figures reported by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority later came through at 31,927, nearly 9k below the NRL’s mark. In fairness, there was an NFL game held there two months earlier which was around 7k below the official stated attendance so... when in Rome? You don’t even want to get started on the wormhole of how they do things in commercially-obsessed America.

Just keep in mind that this is a widespread thing and the numbers are not supposed to be scientific, they serve no purpose other than curiosity and self-promotion and therefore there are no rules to ensure that everyone’s counting crowds in the same way. Even in an era when digital ticket scanning makes the job so much easier than it was in the old days, it remains extremely normal for sports teams to juke the numbers by adding in team staff, event workers, and complementaries (like VIPs). Chalk it down as one more example of rivalry shenanigans.

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