Tag: New Zealand

New Zealand walks out of Qatar friendly after alleged racial abuse of Boxall

All Whites players refused to come out for the second half after a comment made by a Qatari player

New Zealand walked out of Monday’s friendly against Qatar after saying that defender Michael Boxall was racially abused by a Qatari player.

According to Stuff, the incident took place in the 40th minute when Qatar winger Yusuf Abdurisag made a comment toward the Minnesota United defender that left New Zealand’s players visibly angry.

After the referee did not take any action, the All Whites refused to come out for the second half.

“Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player,” New Zealand’s official Twitter account said. “No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match.”

The match in Austria was abandoned with New Zealand leading 1-0.

Speaking on the match broadcast, Qatar head coach Carlos Queiroz cautioned against drawing any conclusions before an investigation was conducted.

”The facts are the following: Apparently two players on the pitch exchanged words. The New Zealand players decided to support their teammate just as our team decided to support our player,” Queiroz said.

“They decided to abandon the game with no witnesses. The referee did not listen [to what was said]. It’s just an argument between two players.

“I think is a new chapter in football which is for sure something nobody can understand. Let’s let the football authorities make a decision. I think this game will be under observation from FIFA for sure.”

The New Zealand Professional Footballers Association released a statement supporting the All Whites players, saying they “commend and support our players’ poised reaction in this challenging situation.”

Sadly, the New Zealand-Qatar match wasn’t even the only international game on the day abandoned due to alleged racism. Ireland’s FA said that its U-21 game against Kuwait was ended after a racist remark by a Kuwaiti player toward an Irish player.

U.S. dominates New Zealand in U-20 World Cup round of 16

The U.S. won 4-0 in a match that was really never in doubt

For the fourth straight time, the U.S. has reached the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup.

Now, the trick will be advancing past the last eight.

The U.S. overwhelmed New Zealand 4-0 in the round of 16 on Tuesday, dominating their opposition for most of the match while also keeping a clean sheet for the fourth straight game.

Mikey Varas’s side, who are the only team left at the World Cup yet to concede a goal, will now face either Gambia or Uruguay on Sunday in the quarterfinal in Santiago, Argentina.

The U.S. opened the scoring in strange fashion. Owen Wolff’s 14th-minute effort didn’t look like it had the power to beat New Zealand goalkeeper Kees Sims, who nevertheless mistakenly thought it was going wide and let it go — only to watch the ball nestle into the far corner.

Despite the fluky nature of the goal, it was no less than the USA deserved. There would be plenty more chances to add a killer second goal, which finally arrived in the 61st minute through Cade Cowell.

It was Cowell’s third of the tournament and there was more to come for the USA, who saw Justin Che clean up a rebound off a counterattack to make it 3-0. Rokas Pukštas then headed home a free kick just minutes after making his tournament debut.

The U.S. has been outstanding at the World Cup so far, winning four straight games by an aggregate score of 10-0 while playing an eye-catching brand of soccer.

Though the U.S. has reached the quarterfinal for a fourth straight U-20 World Cup, it has lost all three of its previous last-eight matches. Varas and co. will be hoping that this year, the fourth time is the charm.

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Meet the world’s only flightless parrot, the kākāpō

See this strange but cute bird.

Sirocco, New Zealand’s official spokesbird for conservation, has an important message for the world. This spokesbird is a kākāpō, a critically endangered flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand (Aotearoa). There are only 248 kākāpō alive today, but Sirocco and Kākāpō Recovery are working to change that.

As a spokesbird, Sirocco helps raise awareness for kākāpō conservation. This 26-year-old bird is described as a “media superstar,” and his charismatic personality has helped Kākāpō Recovery gain support. Kākāpō Recovery, a conservation group composed of scientists, rangers, volunteers, and donors, helps keep the kākāpō population healthy. Through monitoring, predator control, and regular health checks, Kākāpō Recovery works to keep this species from extinction. Thanks to conservation efforts, the kākāpō population has grown from 18 known existing birds in the 1970s to over 200 birds today.

What makes these special birds worth protecting? Aside from biodiversity concerns, the kākāpō is simply an extremely interesting animal. Sirocco has charmed countless people worldwide, and the facts below detail fascinating facts researchers have discovered about the species. Explore the gallery below to learn more. And once you’ve fallen in love with these cool birds, you can find ways to support their conservation here.

FIFA avoids own goal, Visit Saudi sponsorship of Women’s World Cup called off

FIFA just barely cleared a low bar, not that Infantino seems happy about it

A deeply unpopular choice from FIFA to bring Visit Saudi aboard as a 2023 World Cup sponsor is off.

At the FIFA Congress in Rwanda, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Thursday that the premier women’s soccer tournament on the planet would not be sponsored by the tourism board of a country that has been roundly criticized for laws restricting women’s freedom.

Among other cricitism, the rumored interest between FIFA and Visit Saudi was condemned by the federations of both host countries, and referred to as “bizarre” by U.S. women’s national team star Alex Morgan.

Infantino sought to downplay the entire episode, telling the FIFA Congress that while “there were discussions with Visit Saudi,” no contracts ever materialized. “It was a storm in a tea cup.”

Infantino tries to side-step issue

The FIFA president then pivoted to an unrelated point about how Australia and Saudi Arabia engage in trade, which is of course not the issue at hand.

“When it comes to Australia, they have trade with Saudi Arabia, $1.5 billion per year. This doesn’t seem to be a problem,” said Infantino. “FIFA is an organization made up of 211 countries. There is nothing wrong with taking sponsorships from Saudi Arabia, China, United States of America, Brazil, or India.”

Infantino kept digging, eventually concluding that everyone should just be happy and not yell at him or FIFA.

“This year we will have the Women’s World Cup. This should be a celebration of women, it has to be,” said Infantino. “And yet there’s this negativity which always comes out. Why is that? Why can we not try a little bit to focus on the positive?”

A solid enough answer to these rhetorical questions can be found from the tournament’s hosts. Football New Zealand released a statement applauding the choice to avoid a sponsorship backed by the government of a country whose “Personal Status Law” — which effectively enshrined a male guardianship system for women as Saudi law — was recently decried by Amnesty International.

“New Zealand Football welcome the confirmation from FIFA that Visit Saudi will not be sponsoring the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023,” read the NZF statement. “We believe it is critical for all commercial partnerships to align with the vision and values of the tournaments they are involved in.”

Football Australia chief executive James Johnson struck a similar chord in a statement published by Reuters.

“We welcome clarification from FIFA regarding Visit Saudi,” said Johnson. “Equality, diversity and inclusion are really deep commitments for Football Australia and we’ll continue to work hard with FIFA to ensure the Women’s World Cup is shaped in this light.”

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Photos: Te Arai Links in New Zealand fully opens South Course designed by Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw

The resort has been dubbed by some to be “a 17-Mile Drive for the southern hemisphere.” These pictures are pretty breathtaking.

Te Arai Links in New Zealand has officially opened its South Course, designed by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw on a long stretch of beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The resort has been dubbed by some to be “a 17-Mile Drive for the southern hemisphere” in reference to the famed courses on California’s Monterey Peninsula that include Pebble Beach Golf Links and Cypress Point. That’s a huge hurdle of comparison to jump over, but the photos below are certainly eye-catching and any serious fan of golf travel needs to go for themselves to be the judge.

The resort plans to open its second course, the North by Tom Doak, in October. Te Arai Links follows on the well-regarded heels of the private Tara Iti Golf Club, another Doak design just up the road. The resort is less than a 2-hour drive north of Auckland on the eastern shores of New Zealand.

Te Arai Links is a resort that also includes private memberships, and resort guests will have access to the South and North on alternating days, playing one course as the members play the other. The South opened for limited preview play in October, and it is now fully open for resort play.

“We invite the Monterey Peninsula comparison because we believe it’s apt,” Jim Rohrstaff, a partner in Te Arai Links and its managing director, said in a media release announcing the full opening. “Our good friend Mike Keiser (founder of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon) believes the South Course has as much ocean frontage as any golf course in the world. It’s that connectivity with the sea that distinguishes the South Course from most links experiences, from the golf experience in Monterey, even from Tara Iti just up the shoreline. On the South Course, the beach is just so close. There’s the visual sensation of actually seeing the waves crashing. But golfers can also hear them crashing — on more than half the holes.”

Te Arai Links includes 48 on-site suites with 19 two-bedroom cottages and six four-bedroom villas slated to be completed in the coming months. The resort also will have a 2.5-acre putting green named The Playground that wraps around a pizza barn near the South’s clubhouse and range and will serve as the resort’s communal gathering spot.

USWNT to make first New Zealand trip with January friendlies vs. Football Ferns

The USWNT will play at the two stadiums where all three of its 2023 World Cup group-stage games will take place

For the first time, the U.S. women’s national team is heading to New Zealand.

U.S. Soccer has announced a pair of January friendlies for the USWNT against New Zealand, the co-host of the 2023 World Cup along with Australia.

After training in New Zealand for six days, the USWNT will face the Football Ferns on January 18 at Sky Stadium in Wellington. The match will kick off at 4 p.m. local time, which will be 10 p.m. ET on January 17 in the United States.

The second match will take place at Eden Park in Auckland on January 21 at 4 p.m. local time, which will be 10 p.m. ET on January 20 in the U.S.

Next year will see U.S. Soccer’s new media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports come into effect, with broadcast details for the two matches to be announced at a later date.

Sky Stadium and Eden Park will play host to all three of the USWNT’s group-stage matches at the World Cup, with Vlatko Andonovski’s team drawn into Group E alongside Vietnam, the Netherlands and the winner of a playoff between Cameroon, Thailand, and Portugal.

“Everything about this trip is a positive for our team ahead of the World Cup,” said Andonovski. “We will get some quality training time together and have two tough matches against a great opponent that is hosting the World Cup. We also get to experience the long travel and familiarize ourselves with the host cities, the stadiums, the training grounds and the culture, and hopefully we’ll play in front of some big crowds supporting the home team. It will be a great way to start the year.”

The USWNT and New Zealand have met 19 times previously, with the U.S. winning 17, drawing one and losing one.

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FIFA, Australia downplay reports of 2023 Women’s World Cup schedule change

“No changes to the dates of the competition are foreseen”

FIFA and Football Australia on Friday both denied a report that the 2023 Women’s World Cup could be delayed by months.

L’Equipe reported Thursday that FIFA had approached “European football leaders” to discuss possibly moving the tournament from its current planned footprint of July 20-August 20, 2023, to sometime later in the year, possibly during the Australian summer. FIFA’s concern, per the report, mainly stemmed from the idea that European television broadcasters had shown underwhelming levels of interest in the rights to show the tournament.

However, a FIFA spokesperson and Football Australia both told the Sydney Morning Herald that there are no current plans to implement the change.

“After a successful ‘One Year to Go’ event, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is scheduled to kick off on 20 July 2023. No changes to the dates of the competition are foreseen,” said the FIFA spokesperson, alluding to recent events in Australia and New Zealand celebrating the tournament being a year away.

There have been no other indicators of a push to move the tournament, and doing so at this stage would cause quite a bit of turmoil in the global soccer calendar. While such a move might benefit certain leagues—the NWSL, for example, would probably find it easier to not have a World Cup mid-season—it would likely be a problem for more countries than not. On top of that, the Australian summer is notoriously hot, whereas the winter climate tends to be more conducive for soccer.

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Photos: New Zealand orcas hit the surf in pursuit of prey

A New Zealand photographer has captured images showing orcas surfing in shallow water in pursuit of eagle rays.

Last September, a New Zealand photographer captured striking images showing orcas surfing Mt. Maunganui. The critically endangered orcas are so revered that lifeguards halted vessel training to allow the mammals to pass safely through the area.

Erin Armstrong’s images were picked up by national media and last week a New Zealand Herald story was shared via Facebook.

Upon seeing the images I reached out to Armstrong and Ingrid Visser, founder of the Orca Research Trust, to ask if surfing is a common behavior for New Zealand’s orcas.

Photo: ©Erin Armstrong

Said Visser: “Surfing orcas in New Zealand is far from rare. I regularly get reports of this occurring and I’ve observed it many times myself. However, I’m typically in my boat – so I’m on the ‘outer side’ of the waves and can’t get images like these.”

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Armstrong had stated via Instagram that the orcas she photographed were hunting eagle rays. “Incredible just how close they come in to shore, all in the pursuit of the eagle ray buffet,” she wrote.

In an email, Armstrong added: “On this day there was a crew training from the local Omanu Surf Lifesaving Club in their inflatable rescue boat. The New Zealand orca population is one of the most physically scarred in the world due to interactions with boats.

“I knew the orca were traveling down the coastline so at the risk of missing my opportunity to get the photographs I raced up to the Surf Club to ask if they could get their crew off the water. Super grateful to them for acting fast and allowing and although there was a lot of running involved, I still managed to get the shots I wanted.”

Photo: ©Erin Armstrong

Visser provided a link that includes images of orcas preying on rays and sharks, and surfing near the shore. New Zealand orcas also prey on fish, birds, and octopus.

Visser said orcas sometimes play in the surf between hunting forays.

Photo: ©Erin Armstrong

Said Armstrong:  “It is pretty incredible that these guys do visit our waters reasonably frequently, but that does not mean that they are easy to see. They’re very stealthy so every interaction [I witness] makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world.”

–Images were used with the permission of Erin Armstrong and are protected by copyright laws