ASB Premiership Review - Round 12

Well the Top 4 is decided, as is the wooden spoon, we had 2 hat-tricks and one game called off due to an earthquake.

Jake Butler of Waitakere United made his 200th appearance in the ASB Premiership, but it was Ben Harris of Team Wellington that stole the show with a hat-trick, that takes him to 13 goals for the season, as Team Wellington won 4-2.

On Saturday the wooden spoon was decided at Dave Farrington Park and while Southern United managed to increase their goal tally for the season by 50% (to 9) it was Dunedin born James McGarry that stole the show with a hat-trick. Also good news for Phoenix fans Ben Sigmund managed 45 minutes in the 4-3 win.

Sunday's big news was another big earthquake in Christchurch, it was considered bad enough to postpone the Canterbury United v Auckland City game until the 24th Feb. Ex Canterbury United star Russell Kamo tweeted that it was almost 5 years to the day since the same thing happened, hopefully everyone in Christchurch is OK

The other game on Sunday saw the end of WaiBOP's season as they went down 2-0 to Hawke's Bay United

Here are the highlights

Goal of the week – 2 hat-tricks and neither of them produce a contender for goal of the week! It's could have been Paul Ifill's late goal against WaiBOP, but Sean Lovemore's flick for Waitakere's 2nd was exquisite

Beer League 

 

Wellington Phoenix – Choice Bro's Reet Petite Red IPA (6%) 3
Southern United – Altitude Posturing Professional Alpine Ale (5%) 2

Choice Bro's is a new Wellington brewery currently contract brewing but very soon opening their own small brewery, the art work on the label was good, the beer was great. It has a music match on the label, which given the name of the beer you'd think was the Jackie Wilson classic, but no we are in hipster world so it is a Bowie song called Red Money, not a well known Bowie song (it comes from his crappy late 80's period) but that's hipster's for you, at least it was a decent beer.

The Altitude Alpine Ale is from a Queenstown brewery and is malty and dry, better than what I was expecting but the Red IPA wins it 3-2

Canterbury United – Valkyrie Freyja (6.6%) 4
Auckland City – 8 Wired Wireless IPA (6.2%) 2

Well the game wasn't played but I'd bought the beer and if I didn't drink it now I'd just have to do it in the 24th Feb!

The Valkyrie is a hard beer to describe, maybe Belgium style, maybe hoppy and dry, maybe a steam beer. It is complex but very delicious, in the end I gave up trying to describe and just drank it!

I know I've used 8 Wired for Waitakere United but I was struggling to find a big beer that could be compared to the Valkyrie and in the end who cares! Anyway 8 Wired is a great brewery and one of the more experimental ones in NZ. Experimental breweries usual produce a lot of odd beers but 8 wired manages to get then very drinkable. The Wireless IPA is made using a yeast strain called Brettanomyces, a strain that most, no all other brewers have rejected as being awful and at first taste I could see why but I had payed nearly $10 for the bottle so I had to finish it and I was glad I did as it got better as it went on, a little fruity and reminding me a bit of a cider rather than a beer it still wasn't as bad as its first impression. But it would have taken a lot to beat the Valkyrie (maybe I should have gone for their Super Conductor)

Results – Football
Waitakere United 2 Team Wellington 4
Hawke's Bay United 2 WaiBOP United 0

Football & Beer
Wellington Phoenix 4 Southern United 3
Choice Bros Red IPA 3 Altitude Alpine Ale 2

Canterbury United P Auckland City P
Valkyrie Feryja 4 8 Wired Wireless IPA 2



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