It was a ding dong battle, as the rugby-folk say, when Portland and LAFC met in the final round of the MLS Is Back Tournament group stages. Portland were already through but needed to avoid defeat to get the top seeding in the group and as such avoid playing local rivals Seattle Sounders in the knockouts.
These post-pando restart projects are pretty ruthless for the players involved. Let’s not kid ourselves, the competitive nature of pro sportsfolk is one thing but it’s the financial incentives/threats which are demanding these leagues find a television-friendly conclusion.
The game against Sydney FC was basically a freebie. The two best teams facing off but without any decent stakes to the contest. For Welly Nix Title Quest purposes the proper resumption was this Perth game.
Down by a goal, into stoppage time. Burnley pressing to salvage something from the match to keep their hopes of European football alive. In those desperate last moments you turn towards your most trusted players and in this case, needing a goal, that means your top scoring striker.
For about seventy-five minutes that was an incredible, enthralling, enjoyable, and encouraging performance from the Nixies... and then it got very weird very quickly. From a 1-0 lead against the top side looking every bit worth the advantage to losing 3-1 and not entirely understanding how it happened.
Put simply we’ll never get a better chance to do well at a World Cup. Hence the pressure begins immediately to ensure we’ve got the best possible team out there to make it happen.
It looks like a relatively routine one, right? The Woodsman playing off the bench again in his second game back, coming on a bit earlier this time in the 58th minute as Burnley did what needed doing in beating West Ham 1-0.
The point’s been made plenty over the last week or two but the next few years are going to be incredible for women’s sport in Aotearoa. The Cricket World Cup and the Rugby World Cup are both coming here in 2021... then the Football World Cup co-hosted with Australia in 2023.
This is going to be one of those regularly occurring weeks where a decent amount of Flying Kiwis time is devoted to saying how amazing Abby Erceg is.
The end is nigh. The end of the A-League hiatus, that is. While a quick peek at the news channels might give you the impression that the apocalypse is upon us, the return of sports is picking up speed.