Gruelling warm-up for Phoenix
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Wellington Phoenix warm up for this year’s A-League with a daunting schedule of five matches in 14 days after struggling for meaningful pre-season games in the past, coach Ricki Herbert says.
The tour starts on August 18 with a match against Newcastle Jets in Weston, NSW, before the Phoenix travel to India for a four-team tournament.
Herbert says he will be taking some young players from the newly established Phoenix school of excellence, as the club looks to fill two under-21 spots on its roster still up for grabs.
“We have struggled for meaningful pre-season games at times in the past, and this will give our players a real workout,” he said.
The tournament in India begins in Guwahati on August 24 against United Sikkim, before the Phoenix meet an as-yet unconfirmed I-League team in Impahl two days later.
They play Shillong Lajong at Shillong’s Nehru Stadium on August 30 before winding up with the tournament final or third-fourth place playoff at the same venue.
The Phoenix complete their pre-season preparation against A-League newcomers Western Sydney Wanderers in Christchurch on September 23.
Their season proper begins on October 6 in Wellington against Sydney FC, whom they beat 3-2 in last year’s elimination.
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The Crowd Says (19) | Page 1 of Comments
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August 7th 2012 @ 3:44pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 7th 2012 @ 3:44pm | Report comment
Cant wait for them to come to India. These I-League teams will be up for it. It is also good for the profile of our league. Expect big crowds to of up to maybe 15,000-30,000. Football crazy in Gawahati and Imphal.
August 7th 2012 @ 8:00pm
Stevo said | August 7th 2012 @ 8:00pm | Report comment
Glory to South Africa and Phoenix to India. Good work from these teams. Love to see a few quality players from the sub continent come to the HAL. Surely it can’t be far away. And it will give our local Indian community something to shout about.
August 8th 2012 @ 2:27pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 8th 2012 @ 2:27pm | Report comment
The Melbourne Heart took Gouramangi Singh on trial (our starting center-back) but they said he was not good enough for the Starting XI and that it is better to play week in and week out in India than bench in A-League.
Also after the Asian Cup Heart, Wellington and Perth Glory were looking at Sunil Chhetri.
Honestly I think the player that will make it is 21 year old George Alwyn. Central Midfielder and can get through defenses easily.
August 8th 2012 @ 4:51pm
Stevo said | August 8th 2012 @ 4:51pm | Report comment
Thanks for that
August 8th 2012 @ 8:01am
David said | August 8th 2012 @ 8:01am | Report comment
Football is becoming huge in India and will overtake cricket in popularity in the not too distant future (actually it will leave cricket way behind facedown in the dirt).
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/football/04/19/football.india.kolkata.derby/index.html
August 8th 2012 @ 8:37am
Tigranes said | August 8th 2012 @ 8:37am | Report comment
David have you been to India?
August 8th 2012 @ 2:28pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 8th 2012 @ 2:28pm | Report comment
Disagree. Right now the All India Football Federation (The Indian FA) might shorten the league to 4 months and then start a 2 month franchise IPL type football league with “super-stars”. I see this as bleak.
August 8th 2012 @ 2:46pm
Nephilim said | August 8th 2012 @ 2:46pm | Report comment
i could never see cricket being dethroned as the national sport of India by anything!
Thanks for the info ArsenalKid, with such a large population, India will improve exponantially and it will be a good pre-season for the Nix.
August 8th 2012 @ 4:27pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 8th 2012 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
Well football will gain support. Whether domestic football will gain support is a different story.
Anyway your welcome and I must say I have been reading this website for 3 months and I love it. I love Australian soccer overall. I am from the United States so after the US defeated Australia 3-1 before the World Cup I started following and I loved it. Hope you guys continue to improve.
Also interesting note for you guys. Arthur Papas was the coach of the Victorian Premier League (Top State League in Victoria) CHAMPIONS in 2011 and guess where he is now… coach of the India u23 football team. Look him up. Great coach from Australia.
August 8th 2012 @ 5:22pm
Nephilim said | August 8th 2012 @ 5:22pm | Report comment
Welcome hope you continue to enjoy the site.
I realy like Arthur Papas, I am a Victorian
Both Arthur Papas and Stuart Munro are the best up coming coaches from Victoria at the moment in my opinion.
August 8th 2012 @ 7:18pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 8th 2012 @ 7:18pm | Report comment
Wow, Munro seems to have that good record in the VPL and is assistant in the A-League as well. Impressive.
Thank you for the welcome and I do hope that 2012-13 A-League will be the start of something new. I am actually more looking forward to the 2012-13 A-League National Youth League. Victorian Football’s youtube showed a few match highlights from the NYL last season and I hope they do it again. Cheers.
August 8th 2012 @ 7:27pm
Titus said | August 8th 2012 @ 7:27pm | Report comment
Welcome Arsenalkid700.
What can you tell us about Tolgay Ozbey? if anything.
How is he going and how is he regarded?
August 8th 2012 @ 8:15pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 8th 2012 @ 8:15pm | Report comment
Well at this moment it is a little hazy. Basically Tolgay signed for a new club this summer, Mohun Bagan AC who are the biggest rivals of his former club, East Bengal. Now it seemed like a simple swap until the cr*p Indian rules came in and East Bengal reported Tolgay and Mohun Bagan to the Indian Football Association because apparently Tolgay said he would stay with East Bengal for the 2012-13 season and that East Bengal already payed Tolgay in advanced. So now there is a tussle but I think it is almost resolved now with Tolgay ultimately joining Bagan. The result is not decided yet.
Overall though he is a very good striker who is, to me, one of those players who if he managed to make it at A-League when he was maybe 21-23 then he would be a regular player. Nothing big but just regular. Sadly he was stuck in the NSW Premier League with 2 small stints in A-League (Sydney FC and Newcastle) and eventually found himself in India. He was always the main man for Bengal and usually the 3rd top scorer in India. I think last season he scored 18 goals in around 22-24 games. My only problem is attitude and that is the way he acted during the transfer sage to Bagan but other than that he is a great player. Definitely the best Aussie ever in India.
August 8th 2012 @ 9:21pm
Titus said | August 8th 2012 @ 9:21pm | Report comment
Thanks for that!
I remember him a little at Sydney, he really didn’t get much of a chance though, just a bit of time off the bench here and there.
It’s good to hear he is doing well and really seems to be enjoying his time in India. It’s nice to learn about Indian Football through the experience of Aussie’s playing there. Hopefully the Football exchange between the two nations continues to grow.
August 9th 2012 @ 8:35am
Arsenalkid700 said | August 9th 2012 @ 8:35am | Report comment
Well hopefully. I mean it is not that Aussies dont come to India. We have plenty. Just that many dont do well here. I dont know why but the thing with Tolgay was that he had experience in the A-League and that he was one of the unlucky ones not to make it while all the other Aussies in India were just plane crap and deserved to play in state leagues in Australia. Seriously if you ask me a ratio of good Aussie players to the number overall of Aussies you would get maybe 1 out of a huge number. That 1 being Tolgay.
The recent ones are Daniel Zeleny and Bohima Karpe. Both failures.
August 9th 2012 @ 9:29am
Titus said | August 9th 2012 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Well, hopefully you get to see some of Carlos Hernandez at his finest, that can be fun to watch.
August 9th 2012 @ 12:41pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 9th 2012 @ 12:41pm | Report comment
Oh man, definitely. Mind you when his new club showed pictures of him it seemed he gained some weight and not fit what so ever but I think he can still take on Indian football. I was actually hoping for a Prayag United vs. Melbourne Victory match in the future.
Also rumored that one of Van Djik or Sean Rooney (Aussie that plays in Indonesia) will join one of the most historic and well supported clubs in India, East Bengal. I think Rooney is more likely.
August 9th 2012 @ 1:01pm
Ballymore said | August 9th 2012 @ 1:01pm | Report comment
Perhaps this is the tiniest step forward to NZL joining the AFC.
August 9th 2012 @ 1:48pm
Arsenalkid700 said | August 9th 2012 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
They should wait till they dont lose the OFC Nations Cup to Tahiti.