2021 was a big year for football in Aotearoa New Zealand, even if it didn’t all go exactly to plan (we see you Auckland lockdown *shakes fist*). 

As the year comes to an end, we’ve picked 10 of the best moments from the last 12 months…

Hannah Wilkinson gets her 100th cap

The forward from Northland completed a significant milestone this year, winning her 100th senior cap for the Ford Football Ferns against Sweden at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and becoming Aotearoa New Zealand’s 11th football centurion.

Making her debut for the Ferns against the Matildas back in 2010, Wilky has been a mainstay for the Ford Football Ferns ever since. This isn’t her first Ferns milestone, as back in 2011 as a teenager she scored against Mexico to secure the Ferns’ first ever point at a senior world cup.

Still only 28, you’d be hard-pressed to bet against her adding to that tally.


Men’s Olympic team win first ever game at the tournament

Since first qualifying 2008, the record for the men’s Olympic team’s was played 6, drawn 2, lost 4. The 2021 side’s task was made even tougher by the fact that due to Covid restrictions the players hadn’t been together as a team for over 18 months. 
 

First up they faced group favourites South Korea. The Korean’s had much more experience as a side, playing 16 times in since the any New Zealand player had pulled on the shirt. 

A close contest throughout, the deadlock was finally broken in the 70th minute when Chris Wood put the ball in the back of the net, quickly responding to a deflection from a Korean defender. After a VAR review it was 1-0 to NZ. 

The team grew throughout the game to hold out for a famous 1-0 win that showed the promising generation of players emerging. 

History made. 


Southern United and Miramar Rangers win the South Central Series 

Where there is football, there are narratives – and you’d be hard pressed to find a better narrative than that of Southern United.

Having only won once between 2009 and 2016, over the last half a decade the side has proven competitive, but yet to seriously push for a title. 
 

With newly appointed head coach Graeme Smaill, who guided Dunedin Technical to the 2018 Football Foundation Kate Sheppard Cup, at the helm, United began the season with a come from behind win against reigning champions Canterbury United Pride. 

The Southlanders, built around a core group of local players determined to prove to the rest of Aotearoa New Zealand what the south is about, proving the league pacesetters. They secured the South Central Series title with aplomb, again beating South Island rivals the Pride in the last game of the season.

In the men’s competition, city rivals Wellington Olympic and Miramar Rangers had been neck and neck all season. With The Greeks claiming the Central League title, Miramar were out for revenge when both sides made it to the South Central Series Final. In a crazy 90 minutes, Miramar beat Olympic 7-2 to claim the Wellington bragging rights, at least until next season. 


Chris Wood scores his 50th goal in the Premier League 

Chris Wood has already established himself as one of the greatest players in New Zealand football history but to score 50 goals in the Premier League, a milestone he reached in November, really cements the his status as a world-class attacker. 

In April, Woodsy became the first Kiwi to score a hattrick in the Premier League, putting three past Wolves in the first half of Burnley’s 4-0 win. 
 

He also claimed the honour of scoring the 30,000th goal in the Premier League (so remember that for future pub quizzes). 


29 games confirmed in NZ for the FIFA Women's World Cup 

One of the biggest football moments in 2020 was confirmation that the FIFA Women’s World Cup would be coming to Aotearoa New Zealand, co-hosted with Australia. 

In 2021 the tournament became a reality with FIFA announcing the match schedule which sees 29 games, including the opening match and an even split of the group stage, quarter-finals and semi-finals, hosted across Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin. 

2021 also saw the launch of New Zealand Football's tournament legacy project, Aotearoa United – Legacy Starts Now, which seeks to use the moment of the tournament to supercharge the game for women and girls. 


Wellington Phoenix play first game back in Aotearoa after 433 days away 

Sometimes, there is that intangible feeling that you are witnessing something special. 22 May at Sky Stadium in Wellington was one of those moments. 

Wellington Phoenix had gone 433 days without playing at home as Covid had made international travel impossible. The opening of the trans-Tasman bubble meant, with only a few rounds of the A-League Men season to go, The Nix could play two of their final four games back in Aotearoa as they chased playoff qualification. 
 

Based in Wollongong for the season, the side hadn’t properly had home support all year, averaging around 2,000 fans for each game at WIN Stadium. All that changed vs Western United as 24,000 fans packed The Cake Tin, by far the largest A-League crowd of the season. 

A stunning Wellington sky made reflected the magic on the pitch as The Nix won three nil to keep their playoff hopes alive. First goal scorer? Wellington’s own Clayton Lewis. 


Jitka Klimková gets first Ferns win 

2021 was a challenging year for the Ford Football Ferns. After resuming international football at the 2020 Olympic Games in July this year, drawn in the same group as three of the four eventual semi-finalists, then backing up that campaign by playing a two-game series against gold medallists Canada for new head coach Jitka Klimková’s first games in charge, the team has been footing it with the best in the world.
 

The Ferns made sure to close the year out with a win, defeating 18th ranked Korea Republic 2-1 as assist queen Liv Chance teed up first Paige Satchell and then Gabi Rennie in their last game of 2021 to set the tone for a successful 2022. 


Wellington Phoenix join the A-League Women 

Years in the making, a truly momentous change for women’s football finally happened in 2021 as Wellington Phoenix joined the A-League Women. 

The formation of the team finally means a professional pathway has been established for the best women’s players to build a professional career, something that will transform the game in Aotearoa. 

The side got their campaign underway in December, with Gemma Lewis’s team earning a hard fought point against Western Sydney Wanderers. Seven days later Ava Pritchard wrote her name into the history books becoming the first women’s player to score for the Nix. 


Men’s team finish 6th at Tokyo 2020 and senior side wins three from three

A win against South Korea and a hard fought draw against Romania saw Danny Hay’s side become the first NZ men’s team to ever get out of their group at the World Cup or Olympics. A phenomenal achievement made all the more impressive for the fact the team hadn’t played together for 18 months coming into the tournament. 

In the quarter-finals they came up against the hosts and heavy favourites Japan. Tipped as one of the potential winners of the tournament, the Japanese side featured players from a host of Europe’s biggest clubs including Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu and Real Madrid’s Take. In their group they had won all three games, demolishing France 4-0 in the final match. 

But this was going to be different. New Zealand matched the heavily favoured side, stopping them from scoring for the first time at the tournament and forging several great chances of their own. 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes, the team grew into the game and were arguably the stronger side during extra time. After 120 minutes it was penalties for a place in the semi-finals and the chance of an Olympic medal. 
 

Ultimately it wasn’t to be but finishing 6th was a brilliant result and from the heartbreak of Kashima the core a the full national team was formed. In October, the full national team had their first camp in nearly two years, the squad featured 10 of the players from the Olympic campaign, seven of which started the first game. The momentum of Japan rolled on as the All Whites went three for three with international friendly wins against Curaçao, Bahrain and The Gambia. The side start 2022 in great form ahead of a potentially huge year. 


Rebekah Stott returns to professional football

Diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodkin’s lymphoma in February and told she was in remission on the day of the Ford Football Ferns first match at the Olympic Games, Rebekah Stott’s recovery journey has been an inspiration.

Whether it’s through her documenting her treatment and recovery, or founding beat it. by Stotty to inspire and support other cancer patients through their treatment, she’s been determined to use her experience to help others and raise awareness around blood cancer.
 

In July she took her first steps back on the football pitch when she was subbed on (as a forward!) for Bulleen Lions in Victoria’s NPLW, and on 3 December she started for Melbourne City in their opening A-League Women game against Canberra United, her first appearance back in professional football. 

We’re counting down the days until we see her back in a Ford Football Ferns shirt. 

All images from Photosport NZ / NZ Football.

Article added: Thursday 23 December 2021