Football Season Guide

Phoenix had their best season in 7 years last term, with their new manager Talay rebuilding the squad from scratch and still able to make the Kiwis play some really exciting and, most importantly, effective football. For long Phoenix were seen as the only serious contenders to Sydney FC for the title too, but then COVID came and the New Zealanders had to move all their ‘home’ games to Australia, which saw them missing out on Grand Final appearance. Despite all that, Phoenix played really attractive football and, with their star playmaker Davila and main threat in attack Ball staying put for Talay’s second year in charge, the ambitions are even higher. The main departures during off-season were in defence with Taylor and Cacace sold to provide the cash that guarantees stability for Phoenix for the entire coming campaign. Decision not to sign new centre-back suggests that Maori Wihongi will be given chance to shine this season and in the games in which he played last term he was impressive. With pretty solid group of players and good coverage for almost every zone on the pitch, Phoenix look well prepared for the new campaign and, if Talay continues to extract the best out of the foreign stars, the Kiwis would be in for an amazing season.