Ricki Herbert really is having a ball at the moment. His efforts in charge of the All Whites qualifying for the World Cup earned him a Halberg Award Finalist spot for Coach of the Year, and now the Phoenix have broken the NZ team hoodoo and made the play-offs in the A-League.
Herbert’s semi-afro was a lasting memory for many of us from the 1982 World Cup team. He was young at the time, but made some critical contributions, including scoring a vital goal against China in the latter stages of qualifying. On the back of it all he played professional football in the UK for Wolves. But his coaching record looks set to surpass all that.
The first two Auckland based goes at playing in the Aussie league were disasters, but under Herbert the Phoenix have steadily improved, and deserve every bit of the play-offs this time round. The team looks more balanced this year, after a couple of years relying on Shane Smeltz to score all the goals. Paul Ifill is as classier player as NZ football has seen. The Kiwis in the team have done well too. Tim Brown seems to be oozing confidence, and before he was injured Mark Paston kept the team in the game on many occasions.
The world of professional football is complicated, and things are not totally rosy. There have been issues with player payments, crowds have not quite reached the heights of the first season and the lack of a youth or reserve team means local talent like Costa Barbarouses has to go to another club to get game time. Moreover Football Australia is currently reviewing the future of the Phoenix in the competition. Australia is part of the Asian Federation, New Zealand part of Oceania. The Asian Federation is not comfortable with an Oceania based team in one of their competitions. Its silly of course. The majority of the players are Australian anyway, but it is a problem, that might not work out in New Zealand’s favour (unless of course we join the Asian Federation…..).
But for now, none of that matters. Next Sunday the Phoenix will have a home play-off game, with the prize of a semi final and possible final ahead. It will be another huge sporting occasion in Wellington. Come down to the Cake Tin and get in behind. It will be a top night.