Not sure if many are tuning into the first ever match between Wellington Phoenix and AFC.
Great crowd at Cake Tin, could be the biggest crowd for a round robin game ever.
It really is a marketing dream for NZ football. The fans are in fine form.
I didn't watch the first half, but AFC looked deserving winners to me. They pressed forward more than the Nix, who were finally made to pay for playing far too much out of their own penalty area. Not sure if the Phoenix keeper can't kick long, or he's going told to play through, but it's dangerous. Italiano seems to want them to play far too slow IMHO
@African-Monkey said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
SHALALALALALAAAA, AUCKLAND FC!!!
NZ is blue and black .
Nah the rest of New Zealand will never support Auckland. 
@Canes4life said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
@African-Monkey said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
SHALALALALALAAAA, AUCKLAND FC!!!
NZ is blue and black .
Nah the rest of New Zealand will never support Auckland.
Got that right lol, but tip of the table! 3 from3! 3 clean sheets!
@African-Monkey said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
@Canes4life said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
@African-Monkey said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
SHALALALALALAAAA, AUCKLAND FC!!!
NZ is blue and black .
Nah the rest of New Zealand will never support Auckland.
Got that right lol, but tip of the table! 3 from3! 3 clean sheets!
Not a bad start at all.
@Canes4life
yeah the rest of NZ F'n hates auckland!
Son is hugely into soccer, so I have to watch. Auckland comfortably won that, were unlucky not to score more goals.
Great start to the season.
@Kirwan said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
Son is hugely into soccer, so I have to watch. Auckland comfortably won that, were unlucky not to score more goals.
Great start to the season.
Gonna go along to any games?
Watched it on TV Great atmosphere. Fantastic support for both sides - most un-Kiwi. But it was a hard watch.
Pretty rubbish game. First touches were too often poor.
Talking to a guy in the pub last night who travelled down he said that for both teams it was the worst they have played this season. He thought the Wellington Olympic v Birkenhead game he went to ahead of the main event was a better wtch.
@dogmeat said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
Watched it on TV Great atmosphere. Fantastic support for both sides - most un-Kiwi. But it was a hard watch.
Pretty rubbish game. First touches were too often poor.Talking to a guy in the pub last night who travelled down he said that for both teams it was the worst they have played this season. He thought the Wellington Olympic v Birkenhead game he went to ahead of the main event was a better wtch.
Local football is awesome. Spent a lot of my teenage years watching Auckland City FC play at Kiwitea St. Great times and always good games too.
@African-Monkey said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
@Kirwan said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
Son is hugely into soccer, so I have to watch. Auckland comfortably won that, were unlucky not to score more goals.
Great start to the season.
Gonna go along to any games?
Yeah, I’m dad ubering most likely.
@Kirwan said in NZ’s new Football rivalry:
Son is hugely into soccer, so I have to watch.
You have my deepest sympathy.
I’m far from a football fan, but after Aucklands start to the season, even I was interested in this result.
Hats off to the marketing team, they did a terrific job of building this game up…NZ Rugby open your fucking eyes.
We’ve all seen new teams look great at the start of the season, (The Dolpins come to mind as the most recent) the challenge for Auckland will be to still be at the top at the business end of the season.
19 days later
Big win for the injury-ravaged Phoenix today beating the top of the table Melbourne Victory 1-0 in Sydney.
That win moves them up to joint 1st. Auckland will go top if they win today.
@KiwiMurph said in A League 2024/25:
Sounds like Unite Round is as much of a flop as Super Round
More of a flop based on that crowd.
@KiwiMurph said in A League 2024/25:
Sounds like Unite Round is as much of a flop as Super Round
A waste of time.
Good fighting win for Auckland FC, their first game in Aus. There wasn't much left in the tank by the end but they fought really hard. Going with 5 at the back so early with Tommy Smith coming on was a risk but it payed off.
I wish Luis Toomey would get more minutes. The kid has something special about him.
Another win for the mighty Auckland FC, which makes it 5 wins out of 5, with 5 clean sheets! Sets up a huge derby with the Nix next week!
Not A league but didn't know where to put this, but awesome news for Auckland City FC (nnot Auckland FC), who have draw Bayern Munich, Benfica and Boca Juniors in next years new Club World Cup format. An awesome moment for an amateur side. I spent a lot of my teenage years going down to Kiwitea St to watch them play and now they have this to look forward to. Good luck to them.
Another win for Auckland FC!!! 2 victories over the Nix now, and 6 from 6! However, we did finally conceded today. Another great turnout too.
7 days later
A late equalizer from Moreno gives Auckland FC a well deserved 2-2 draw in the Melbourne heat. We struggled in the first half but really dominated the 2nd and could easily have had all 3 points. Paulsen had a shocker out there including the howler which resulted in an own goal, but he's been very good other than that. Moreno was also an inspired sub, with his free kick at the end getting us a late point.
Dropped points for the first time, but a great performance in the 2nd half.
Good old fashioned hiding dished out to Auckland FC to suffer their first loss of the season.
Good wake up call for the boys, this day was gonna come sooner or later (maybe not as heavy as this haha).
Still, enjoying having an Auckland team back in the comp! Big test away at Central Coast next week.
@canefan said in A League 2024/25:
It's great to have two competitive NZ teams in the comp.
Yup, enjoying watching the Nix bringing through players too! Thought I'd hate them, but I actually enjoy watching them play and enjoy seeing their youngsters.
7 days later
Good results for the NZ teams today, both walking away with victories.
Auckland FC 4 points clear!!!
@African-Monkey said in A League 2024/25:
Good results for the NZ teams today, both walking away with victories.
Auckland FC 4 points clear!!!
Good to see the Phoenix end their losing run. They do however look like a shadow of the team they were last year unfortunately.
Important win for Auckland to get their season back on track.
@Canes4life said in A League 2024/25:
@African-Monkey said in A League 2024/25:
Good results for the NZ teams today, both walking away with victories.
Auckland FC 4 points clear!!!
Good to see the Phoenix end their losing run. They do however look like a shadow of the team they were last year unfortunately.
Important win for Auckland to get their season back on track.
@Canes4life said in A League 2024/25:
@African-Monkey said in A League 2024/25:
Good results for the NZ teams today, both walking away with victories.
Auckland FC 4 points clear!!!
Good to see the Phoenix end their losing run. They do however look like a shadow of the team they were last year unfortunately.
Important win for Auckland to get their season back on track.
Yeah very young Phienix side running around these days. Guys like Walker, Piper, Hughes, Sheridan , Sutton and 16 year old Luke Brooke-Smith have seen a fair bit of action this season.
Like Central Coast, a bit of a rebuild going on for the Nix.
Auckland FC share the spoils with the Melbourne Victory. Fair result, De Vries had a huge chance saved somehow by Duncan early, while Velupillay nearly snatched it at the end for the Victory. Good crowd of 15,000 especially at this time of the year. Auckland stretch the lead at the top to 5 points with Adelaide still to play.
Nix play Melbourne City on Friday.
14 days later
A gutsy effort by the Phoenix to get a scoreless draw against Sydney. A good debut from Alby Kelly-Heald in goal. So many young kids playing at the end. I'm not sure where the goals are going to come from though.
7 days later
Auckland FC with a dramatic late equalizer in last night's top of the table clash with Adelaide. Great heart shown by them after the ref decided to chuck on an Adelaide shirt and award a goal that should never have stood. A classic case of we will not let a Kiwi side go top of the league if ever you'll see. He should be sacked for good after that. It wasn't incompetence, it was straight out corruption in the 2nd half, you'd think we were the Wahs with some of the calls we were getting. Still, great point against the odds.
@African-Monkey Yeah when the local commentator takes one look and says "Oh - that'll be disallowed" and then the goal still stands you know somethign isn't quite right.
Shocking miss form the defender on the cross though, but glad they snaffled a point at the end. Compelling stuff!!
Keeping an eye on the transfer window, Bournemouth could be loaning out Mark Travers. If this happens a couple of other moves may quickly happen, like Neto may come back from Arsenal (unlikely) or potentially Paulsen gets called in as back up to Kepa. I have been enjoying watching Paulsen play for AKL FC so lets see what happens
3 months later
Well there we have it, Auckland FC win the Premiers Plate in their first season with 2 games to go.
I think they belong now.
@African-Monkey said in A League 2024/25:
Well there we have it, Auckland FC win the Premiers Plate in their first season with 2 games to go.
I think they belong now.
Very impressive. Meanwhile, Phoenix fans wait for another season
@Machpants said in A League 2024/25:
So no play off/finals? They've won?
There are playoffs. Auckland have come 1st in the regular season, so they therefore win the Premiers plate, which is also known as the A League Premiership.
Whoever wins the playoffs are awarded the A League Championship.