{"id":410544,"date":"2026-05-04T01:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/410544\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T01:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:14:11","slug":"auckland-fc-penalty-walk-up-practice-hailed-after-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/410544\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland FC penalty ‘walk-up’ practice hailed after win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Auckland<\/p>\n

\nAuckland FC players celebrate winning their penalty shootout against Melbourne City in the A-League elimination final.
\nPhoto: Photosport \/ Andrew Cornaga\n<\/p>\n

Auckland FC place so much importance on penalty shootout preparation in A-League knockout matches, they devote part of the week practising their walk from the halfway line to the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

The Black Knights emerged victorious against Melbourne City in their elimination in Auckland on Saturday, thanks to winning a tense penalty shootout 7-6<\/a>. The scores were locked together<\/a> 1-1 after fulltime and extra time.<\/p>\n

The first 12 shots in the shootout all found the net until Melbourne defender Nathaniel Atkinson had his shot saved by Auckland goalkeeper Michael Woud.<\/p>\n

Dan Hall brought the home crowd to their feet when he then converted from the spot, the defender sending Auckland through to a two-leg semi-final against Adelaide United.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

\nNew Auckland A-League team Director of Football, Terry McFlynn
\nPhoto: supplied\n<\/p>\n

Auckland FC Director of Football Terry McFlynn told Morning Report he wasn’t surprised his players were a perfect seven-from-seven in the shootout, given their preparation during the week.<\/p>\n

“For us, we knew there was a big possibility of penalties, so we have to replicate that as best we can,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We worked on that during the week. Players walking from the halfway line to the penalty spot just to familiarise themselves with that walk.<\/p>\n

“You try and replicate that and you try and make the players familiar with it, so that when it comes game day, it’s not new to them.<\/p>\n

“They’ve done it before, they’ve practised it, they’ve visualised it and then just visualise the ball hitting the back of the net.<\/p>\n

“I thought all our players was very clinical and very concise with their penalties.”<\/p>\n

Prior to the match, Hall had yet to score a goal in his two seasons at Auckland but held his nerve under accute pressure.<\/p>\n

\"Auckland<\/p>\n

\nAuckland FC defender Dan Hall (C) celebrates scoring the winning penalty in their A-League elimination final against Melbourne City.
\nPhoto: Photosport\n<\/p>\n

McFlynn said he had full confidence the Australian-born Fijian international was capable of doing the job.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always thought he’s been a big threat for us at set pieces. So I was hoping he would get a goal from open play, but it wasn’t to be and it came down to the penalty shootout,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So it’s good for him to get on the score sheet for us finally.<\/p>\n

“I’m very confident in all our boys. We practised them during the week and I’d watched the penalties and I knew Dan was very clinical in his conviction of where he was going to go with the penalty shot. I was very confident that he would score.”<\/p>\n

Auckland FC will host the first leg of their semi-final against Adelaide on Saturday night, followed by return match in Adelaide the following Friday.<\/p>\n

The Black Knights were eliminated at the same stage last season, beaten over two legs by Melbourne Victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auckland FC players celebrate winning their penalty shootout against Melbourne City in the A-League elimination final. Photo: Photosport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-410544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}