Heading into this international window, the All Whites had a rare opportunity. They’d managed to bag a 1-1 draw against the USA in their previous match and now they had two immensely winnable fixtures on the calendar

Wellington Olympic vs Eastern Suburbs shaped to be a doozy but not like Auckland City vs Cashmere Technical at Kiwitea Street. Auckland City had been far from flawless but they don’t need to be flawless in order to win games, they usually find a way.

Central Football were back at the lovely Massey University field for week three, having already lost 5-0 at this scene against West Coast Rangers and then having their week two trip to Dunedin postponed due to the extreme weather.

A Mediterranean Derby in only the second round of matches? We sure are spoiled. Wellington Olympic hosted this one at Martin Luckie Park having been blanked by Coastal Spirit in a week one draw

After both Wellington United and Canterbury United bathed in the afterglow of excellent week one victories, they also found themselves in the tricky spot where a bad result in the next round would potentially undo all that graft

The first weekend of National League is always special but much love to Mr Chris Greenacre for making it even more so by giving us a present with his team line-up.

A brand new season of glorious National League football in Aotearoa got underway with a couple of concurrent kickoffs in the Women’s competition. More on Central vs West Coast Rangers soon but first...

Both of the NZ National Leagues are doing a stellar job of producing professional and international players. A-League clubs are scooping up prospects - not just the New Zealand teams either - and national age grade selectors are all over everything

Brighten up folks because a new National League season stands proudly out ahead of us. The cream of the winter season crop has qualified to take on the rest of the motu. Only six of last year’s MNL qualifiers are back again for the 2024 edition, with two of the newcomers having made it this far for the first time ever

Every year the local footy swings back around way before anybody’s ready for it. 2024 has been no different, with the first competitive game of the new campaign pitting National League champions Wellington Olympic against Chatham Cup champions Christchurch United in the freshly revived Charity Cup

You know what time it is. It’s Team of the Season time. The best of the best of another year of National League football. You also know the formula by now because this is an annual event

The football has been played. The trophy has been awarded. The goals have all been scored and the players are now on holiday (or back at work... or angling towards the next steps in their careers).

The cliche is that defence wins championships and cliches are usually cliches for a reason. The two best defences in the Women’s National League met in the grand final at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday.

Last year, Wellington Olympic made the National League grand final but, despite a courageous performance, were beaten 3-2 by Auckland City. This year, Wellington Olympic made the National League grand final and again they played Auckland City. This time they triumphed.

The final round of fixtures in the men’s competition provided dead rubber on top of dead rubber. The lads still offered some almighty excitement along the way... but the women’s comp was where it was truly at in week nine

Somehow we’re at the end of the season already. Pretty sure it only just started but nah there was only this one last chance remaining for each team to leave it all out on the pitch... or whatever their coaches wanna say

They’re all big games when it comes to National League football but some are even bigger than others. When we’re talking about Christchurch United against Cashmere Technical under lights on a Friday night, big becomes massive.

As this eighth round kicked off it was entirely possible that any combination of four different teams would make the grand final… and a couple of them just happened to be playing against each other