in-the-back-of-the.net

Latina in B!!!

June 17, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

I’ve posted twice on this blog, here and here, about my second favourite team in the world, US Latina Calcio. Latina is a very small football club based in a small Southern Lazio city, South of Rome, near where my father was born. When I was there in 2007, I wanted to take in some Italian lower league football, so I went along to a Latina game, a dour and dire 0-0 draw at lo Stadio Domenico Francioni in an […]

Categories: Latina, Lower League Football • Tags: Eccellenza, Italian football, Promotion Playoffs, Serie B, Stadio Dominico Francioni, US Latina

Leave a comment

Federico Marquez with a late shot well blocked by a desperate Marumaru tackle

Three times a charm

June 15, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

Onehunga Mangere United 0, Ngaruawahia United 2 Mangere Domain, Auckland, June 16 2013 I’ve often lamented the poor state of Waikato football on this bandwidth, but not today! Because today, three of the four Northern League clubs from the land of the mighty Waikato entered the last 32 of the Chatham Cup, and today, all three survived and will feature in the last 16 – they tell me that’s a record, and who am I to argue?!?! Of the three […]

Categories: Chatham Cup, Lower League Football • Tags: Chatham Cup, Mangere Domain, Mark O'Donnell, Ngaruawahia United, Onehunga Mangere United, Waikato football

Leave a comment

He’s an odd Balo and he’s OK

June 12, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

It’s not always easy being a lefty-liberal football fan. Luckily in New Zealand when I see boorish behaviour associated with sport, I’m usually able to brush it off as ‘rugby culture’ and my conscience is clear. I can sleep soundly, safe in the knowledge that I’m not supporting something that promotes violence and bigotry. Of course it’s not really true and every now and again I get a painful reminder of why. The most recent example of this was the […]

Categories: Azzurri, Football in General, Serie A • Tags: AS Roma, gli azzurri, Mario Balotelli, Racism, Serie A, ultras

Leave a comment

Six points

June 8, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

Manukau City 0, Claudelands Rovers 3 Walter Massey Park, Auckland, June 8 2013 It’s the mid-point in the Northern Regional Football League season, and there’s no better time for a relegation six pointer. Three points adrift at the bottom of division two going into this match, Manukau needed a win more than anyone, in order to give themselves a fighting chance of avoiding the drop back to federation football. To beat Claudelands would have effectively counted for double, putting both […]

Categories: Lower League Football, NZ Northern Division 2 • Tags: Claudelands Rovers, Manukau City AFC, relegation, South Auckland, Walter Massey Park

Mark Jones for Wanderers and Jordan Balle for Albany

Peace in our time!

June 4, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

Albany United 1, Hamilton Wanderers 5 Rosedale Park, Auckland, June 3 2013 This game wasn’t my first Chatham Cup choice this weekend. I was initially intending to take in Air Force vs Glenfield Rovers at Whenuapai Air Base, which seemed like an interesting and different cup experience. I had plenty of terrible puns about ‘flying high’, crosses bombed into the penalty area and shots like tracer bullets all ready to go, but alas, I failed to take account of the […]

Categories: Chatham Cup, Lower League Football • Tags: Albany United, Chatham Cup, Hamilton Wanderers, New Zealand Air Force, New Zealand football, Rosedale Park

Leave a comment

Guest Post – Bye bye Becks

May 29, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

By Ella Reilly If you were unlucky enough to stick your head into my bedroom when I was a teenager, you would probably have swiftly withdrawn it, a little overwhelmed. Not necessarily at the (careful co-ordinated) clutter, but rather at the plethora of posters featuring the same Englishman. Glance at my bookshelf and you most likely would have seen a little collection of skills manuals and biographies with the same man figuring somewhere in the titles. Ditto my DVD collection. […]

Categories: English Premier League, Football in General • Tags: AC Milan, Brian Clough, David Beckham, LA Galaxy, Manchester United, Real Madrid

Scarves on Statues – I Ragazzi della Sud

May 27, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

[Previous instalments in the ‘Scarves on Statues’ series can be found here] The statue, on the North Island of New Zealand’s rugged West Coast, is part of a circle of four Maori sculptures on the cliff tops above Whaingaroa, or Raglan Harbour. Together, they represent the four points of the compass. North, South, East and West. As the shade in this picture so nicely illustrates, being situated in the Southern Hemisphere, this pillar of the four winds faces South. The scarf says “I […]

Categories: Scarves on Statues • Tags: AS Roma, Curva Sud, Raglan NZ, Scarves on Statues, ultras, Whaiangaroa

Leave a comment

Warking the talk

May 26, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

Warkworth AFC 0, Claudelands Rovers 6 Shoesmith Reserve, Warkworth, May 26 2013 13-0, 14-0 – two of the winning margins Claudelands Rovers have run up this season against their peers in the Northern Women’s Premier competition. They’ve played six games in their league so far, and, with a game in hand, they sit second on the ladder with almost twice as many goals as the team that currently sits first. They average seven goals per game and have only conceded […]

Categories: NZ Women's KO Cup, Women's Football • Tags: Claudelands Rovers, Football Ferns, NRFL, Shoesmith Reserve, Warkworth AFC, Women's football

Scarves on Statues – Keith Holyoake

May 23, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

[Previous instalments in the ‘Scarves on Statues’ series can be found here] “Kiwi” Keith Holyoake was Prime Minister of New Zealand for 12 years from 1960 until 1972, to date our third longest serving PM. There was some good – he presided over the abolition of the death penalty. Some bad – he got us involved in the Vietnam War. And some serious ugly – he appointed a Minister of Finance in Robert Muldoon who went on to wreak untold havoc on the […]

Categories: Scarves on Statues • Tags: AS Roma, football scarves, Keith Holyoake, Robert Muldoon, Scarves on Statues, SS Lazio

Leave a comment

Winter heat

May 19, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

North Shore United 2, Melville United 1 Allen Hill Stadium, Auckland, May 19 2013 Allen Hill Stadium holds a lot of fond memories for me of trials and tribulations of various Waikato sides dating back to the days of the old National League and Superclub competitions. I well recall top of the table clashes featuring players of all calibres, from the seriously ordinary right through to the great Wynton Rufer. I remember Chatham Cup ties and third division slogs. But […]

Categories: Lower League Football, NZ Northern Division 1 • Tags: Allen Hill Stadium, Melville United, North Shore United, NRFL, Waikato football, Wynton Rufer

Leave a comment

A battle for the ball near the Mangere goal

Southern comfort

May 18, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

Mangere United 3, Western Springs 0 Centre Park, Auckland, May 18 2013 One of the funny things unique to football is no matter the score, every game has the capacity to thrill you, or not. A 0-0 can be dour and boring, or it can have you gripping the edge of your seat from kick off to final whistle. A 3-2 can be a classic, or it can indicate a scrappy affair with two terrible defences. A 3-0 score sometimes […]

Categories: Lower League Football, NZ Northern Division 2 • Tags: Centre Park, Mangere United, New Zealand football, NRFL, South Auckland, Western Springs AFC

Leave a comment

Scarves on Statues – Lupo Capitolino

May 15, 2013 by Enzo Giordani

[Previous instalments in the ‘Scarves on Statues’ series can be found here] The Capitoline Wolf, situated in the Capitoline Museum on Rome’s Capitoline Hill, is unsurprisingly the symbol of Italy’s capital city and its football club. It depicts the legendary figures of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf after they washed up, orphaned, on the banks of the River Tiber where Rome now stands. The story goes that when they decided to build a city, they quarrelled about whether it should […]

Categories: Scarves on Statues • Tags: AS Roma, Roman history, Rome, Romulus and Remus, Scarves on Statues, Serie A

Leave a comment

← Older posts

in-the-back-of-the.net

A footballaholic in New Zealand

Latina in B!!!

Three times a charm

He’s an odd Balo and he’s OK

Six points

Peace in our time!

Guest Post – Bye bye Becks

Scarves on Statues – I Ragazzi della Sud

Warking the talk

Scarves on Statues – Keith Holyoake

Winter heat

Southern comfort

Scarves on Statues – Lupo Capitolino

Follow “in-the-back-of-the.net”