July Newsletter

Feast of football for Wellington

Once again Wellington showed why it’s called both the events capital and the football capital of New Zealand when it hosted two international matches at short notice this month.

It was our pleasure to host the Chile U-23 men’s side as they took on our New Zealand Olympic-bound U-23 men’s team, the Oly-Whites, for two nail-biting matches.

It was a great chance for locals to see our Olympic hopefuls before they depart for Beijing, via a warm-up tour of Australia and Indonesia, and they turned up in good numbers, despite the awful conditions. In a week that saw the whole country in the grip of winter's worst, the grounds teams did very well to have both fields in great condition for the two international matches.
 
Despite losing the first game on July 2, the New Zealand team took a lot of encouragement from their performance and went on to score their first-ever win (1-0) over a Chilean side at any level on July 4.
 
Capital Football staged the game on behalf of New Zealand Football with the help of many volunteers – not just “the usual suspects” who help with so many of Wellington’s football events, but also the many volunteers who have signed up to be part of the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to be held from 28 October to 16 November.


Wellington Phoenix pre-season
Wellington Phoenix FC is in pre-season training for the team's second season in the A-League, which will kick off on August 17 at the Westpac Stadium when they play the Queensland Roar. But fans won’t have to wait until August to see their team in action, with the Phoenix hosting the Central Coast Mariners at the Westpac Stadium in round one of the 2008 Pre-Season Cup on July 20.

Homeless World Cup
Football with a social conscience has kicked off in New Zealand. Training has begun for the country's first-ever team to attend the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne at the end of this year.

The Homeless World Cup is an international sports project using the positive power of football to raise the profile of homelessness and poverty worldwide. It is a life-changing international football tournament: most players go on to find a home; come off drugs and alcohol; get into education, jobs, or training; and repair relationships with friends and family.  For more information or to get involved with sending the Kiwi team to Melbourne, contact streetfooty@gmail.com or go to www.homelessworldcup.org