Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Come on, Phoenix!

Wellington Phoenix vs. Perth Glory

Just got tickets and watched a pretty epic soccer match between the Wellington Phoenix and Australia's Perth Glory. Unfortunately for me, the Glory were in in purple so I had a hard time remembering who to root for (the Phoenix rock out in yellow and black). However, local fans did a fine job of helping me out. I haven't seen so much team spirit from so many perhaps ever... Understandably, the Phoenix are unique in that they have the entire nation behind them, not just a local city. This made for some interesting cheers too. Example situation: hard tackle, whistle blown, Glory player indignant, crowd chant:

"Saaaaaaame ooooold Aaaaaaaaaussieeeeees... Allllllllwaaaaays cheeeeeeeatiiiiiiiing!"

It was great fun and the game was really close. I missed "our" first goal while out getting a tasty chicken burger but did see the Glory equalizer (actually seeing the goal was fortunate, because there was absolutely no reaction from the crowd to the goal on the opposite side of the field. Some of my buddies were looking around, "Wait,... What?".

Game winning shot

Regulation ended with a 1-1 tie and the 2 15min overtime periods saw tons of opportunities but no conversions. Just as well though as I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on what happened next: PKs.

(On a side note, I thought the level of play was pretty similar, skill-wise, to the MLS but with more intensity and penetration. To me, MLS always seems to play keep away, though they can hardly say they even succeed at that... The Phoenix goal tender was particularly atrocious, making some grade school decisions with his feet and regularly pounding the ball out of bounds to the skepticism of his teammates. Heh, he often didn't even watch the tail end of the ball's flight instead choosing to turn around, flex, and spit, surely thinking to himself "I'm a freakin' goalie, what do you expect...?")

Ironically he and his foot became the hero of the game as he leapt to the right guessing at the direction of Perth's 3rd PK. The Perth player chose to go up the middle and the keeper slashed his trailing foot in front of the shot, saving the goal. Crowd went nuts. Shirts off, yellow buzzing everywhere! So all in all, I guess he's OK in my book...

Oh, btw, the match was played in Westpac Stadium. (I think it seats something like 33,000?) Well the soccer fans here did a great job of packing it out. 24,748 in attendance (Remember, greater Wellington only has something like 300,000 people...). I also may have mentioned it before but the Phoenix are New Zealand's only A-league team (the rest of the league is comprised of Aussie teams).

Go Phoenix!