#auckland-city-fc

#auckland-city-fc

Celtic took just eight minutes to take the lead through Yang, who reacted quickest to finish from close range after Tomas Cvancara's shot was spilled by Jon McCracken.

This crew - smallish in number but sufficiently large to assault the eardrums of the management and players - are an odd bunch. It's true that Scotland should be beyond the point of just being happy going to the World Cup - and these players are way past that notion.

The latest figures show 58% of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds have registered for the Maori roll, up from 50% in 2023. This increase follows years of tense relations between Indigenous New Zealanders and the centre-right coalition government.

"It's the first time in 18 games that I had to have a go. I didn't like that I had to do that. We were passive in the first half, passing side to side, that was not us."

If the record win at Twickenham suggested Ireland had turned a corner, this nervy bonus-point victory over Wales was a reminder that Andy Farrell's side remain a work in progress.

City is finally finding the success that the individual talent on its roster has long suggested it could. Manager Andrée Jeglertz arrived in the summer and has figured out how to make a cohesive group out of the team's array of super talents, which includes the likes of Bunny Shaw, Vivianne Miedema, Yui Hasegawa, Kerstin Casparij, and Kerolin. City sits atop the WSL table a little over halfway through the season,

Wales boss Craig Bellamy's employers at the Football Association of Wales (FAW) are negotiating for their national team's training base to be in the city which hosts MLS side Real Salt Lake. Anthony Pulis - son of former Stoke and West Brom boss Tony Pulis and an ex-Wales Under-21s cap - is Real Salt Lake assistant manager and has advised the FAW on options in the United States.

One minute you are riding the perfect wave, the next you're being dumped from a great height and having your world tipped upside down. Which is essentially how Razor will now be feeling after being ousted as All Blacks head coach barely two years into his tenure. On the surface he was everything New Zealand rugby could have wished for. The serial domestic winner who had guided the Crusaders to seven successive Super rugby titles, the empathetic everyman with the break-dancing skills to match.

Thomas Tuchel and his squad will fly to Florida at the start of June and take on New Zealand on 6 June and Costa Rica four days later. They will then transfer to the Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, having identified the city as their preferred location in January 2025. Tuchel could have players in the Champions League final which takes place in Budapest on 30 May and he wants to get over to the US quickly after that to begin acclimatising.

"Goodness me. What is Delap doing? "It is as if he is thinking, 'I have all the time in the world'. He ambles to it and he takes his time. What are you waiting for? "Liam Delap has not had a good four minutes. He has given it away twice and missed a sitter. Delap has been poor and he has been given the opportunity tonight. Delap looks very lazy, his performances have to improve."