The Auckland FC Sentinel
Match7 Mar 2043
Steven Mendes wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Steven Mendes found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Adelaide United went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings9 Mar 2043
A brace, and Steven Mendes takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Steven Mendes provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad9 Mar 2043
Caleb Evans signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Caleb Evans and Auckland FC agree another 3 years.
Match7 Mar 2043
Auckland FC get the job done against Adelaide United
A 2‑1 win over Adelaide United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces9 Mar 2043
The crowd has taken to Adrian Bell
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad9 Mar 2043
George Plusnin dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad9 Mar 2043
George Plusnin knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Plusnin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad9 Mar 2043
When it matters, Adama Coulibaly plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings9 Mar 2043
Nobody could get near Cameron Wallace
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
- Player ratings Adrian Bell changes it off the bench
- Player ratings The pass was always on for Patrick Wilson
- The terraces The press have found their man in Steven Mendes