Football Season Guide

The first season under the famous head coach Bev Priestman was a raving success. Despite missing 4-5 players pretty much from round 3 onward the Nix enjoyed their best-ever campaign. Had both the best attack (38 goals) and the best defence (17 goals conceded) at the end of the regular season. Despite that stayed only second in the rankings. Still this gave them good platform and the New Zealanders made it to the Grand Final for the first time in their history. They lost the title clash against Melbourne City but despite that the campaign was classed as great. Now in her second year Down Under coach Bev has much better idea how to manage to load of the players so the injury problems from last season shouldn’t be so many. The only notable departure so far was only the useful striker Anthony. She was only an emergency signing in early December because star striker Sabitra Bhandari went out for the season. The latter should be back soon. The Nepalese averages nearly a goal per game for her career so she has the potential to chase the Golden Boot. The team got stronger with some bold moves. Centre-back Erceg arrives from Mexico and should play a lot. Vastly experienced Yallop brings huge uplift in attack and midfield. She might not start often but her ability to impact matches as a late sub will be used a lot. Wingers Riley and Clegg are also classy new arrivals that will compliment the stars out wide last season Nunn and Vlok. Phoenix impressed last term with all their injuries. Now they have strengthened the squad even more and seem to be healthier so the Kiwis are dreaming big.