2009 Confederations Cup

2009 Confederations Cup

Just checked who else will be there (with rankings)...

Who have we got in our group?

liverpoolfan12008-09-07 09:28:08

Can one of you know it alls remind me of the origins of the confed cup? A 10 worder will do..too lazy to Wiki it.HarryHotspur2008-09-06 20:57:22

You would like to think Iraq, USA and South Africa. Can't see it somehow

Cheers LP1.

If we draw Iraq or South Africa I can see us in with a chance at an upset win.

The Confed Cup is the World Cup's dress rehersal bro.

10 words i win.

Is the Confed Cup held before the qualifier against the 5th placed Asian side for the WC? If so this will be an invaluable chance to get some top level match practice against sides of genuine international caliber.

Forgiven given such a lucid answer. Explains why England are never in it.

I realise the financial difficulty NZ football are in but hopefully they are able to organise 3 or 4 warm up games of decent quality leading into the tournament, add 3 games at the tournament and the lads playing together 5 or 6 times leading into the playoff would be a good build up

Hopefully we get one of South Africa or Iraq in our group so that game can be targeted as one we could maybe get a result. Then I'd hope to see NZ vs Spain... Imagine Smeltz running at Ramos.

Anyone planning on going to SA?

If we make it to the World Cup I may well go.  Always wanted to go to Africa, and there'd be nothing like combining it with a World Cup.

Well we're experienced in terms of having been there before.....two noobs in Spain and Iraq, and Sth Africa and Egypt only making their 2nd appearance.....

In South Africa from June 14-28, 2009.

•  South Africa (host, 2nd appearance)
•  Italy (winner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 1st appearance)
•  USA (winner of the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, 4th appearance)
•  Brazil (winner of the Copa Am�rica 2007, 6th invitation)[3]
•  Iraq (winner of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, 1st appearance)
•  Egypt (winner of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, 2nd appearance)
•  Spain (winner of UEFA Euro 2008, 1st invitation)[3]
•  New Zealand (winner of the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, 3rd appearance)[4]

Coxey2008-09-07 12:59:02

Why are they playing 2 tournaments in South Africa within a short timeframe - Is this meant to be a run through for the WC as it were?

Pretty good warmup and something of a tester for the WC perhaps?

Exactly that. From WP:

" It is now considered a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup it precedes; it uses around half of the stadia intended for use at the following year's World Cup and gives the host nation, who qualify for that tournament automatically, a vital taste of competitive football during two years of friendlies."

Whats the point in the tournament itself?

Whats the point in euro?

The best Australian or NZ player wouldn't be playing in the a-league.....

Just hate that question. Its just like when people say "whats the point in football,its just a bunch of guys running around kicking a ball"

oops ment team not player. sorrytypos.

the confeds cup is designed to make sure the stadia are up to scratch. not all the federation champions make it to the WC so its a chance for them to play eachother

The draw will be seeded to avoid a situation like that. I'm guessing there'll probably be two pots, one with the seeds (Spain, Brazil, Italy, and either Egypt because of their ranking, or South Africa, because they're hosts), the other with lower ranked teams, including us.
If SA gets seeded, we could conceivably get SA and Iraq in our group, which would not be bad at all. But we could also get Spain, Brazil, and maybe Egypt or the US, and that could get ugly...

Either way. I think having 2 teams in our group out of the likes of USA, Egypt, SA, Iraq is not as much a mammoth task as previous tournements NZ has been in at any other age group or previous confed cups. LondonChris2008-09-08 21:42:23

Hopefully we can improve on our 1 goal per tournament too.

Confederation cup is the only chance for the continental champions to play against each other and also to see who is the best champion overall. This and a good organisation practice run for the World cup finals itself.

USA and Egypt are light years ahead of us. Putting them in the same sentence as SA and Iraq is well, a bit silly IMO. They are very, very good sides, especially in comparion to us.
South Africa has been very poor lately, especially in qualifying for ANC, but will be at home, and might be looking to prove a point, but a much better option than for us than either US or Egypt. Iraq are a wild card, they could be well motivated given it's a chance on the world stage, especially since they're knocked out of the World Cup, or they could just not care. Difficult to know.
Either way, the best case scenario for AWs is to get both SA and Iraq, or at least one of the in the group. Like I said, if we don't, could get ugly.



el grapadura2008-09-09 13:08:08

I am hoping for an improvement from South Africa. Only getting 1 point from Sierra Leone over 2 games has ruined their chance of qualifying for ANC 2010. They are playing ok football, good build up play and can dictate the pace of matches, just lack the ability to break down a well organised defence and at times the build up play can be too slow. Aslo the new 'keeper looks a bit suspect (watch Oz vs SA highlights) but gets good reviews in the PSL. In the recent game against Nigeria they dominated the game, something like 14 attempts at goal to 4 but Nigeria didnt have to do all the attacking as this game was not as crucial to them as it was to SA and were a little under strength.

I doubt that Iraq will reproduce their form again for the tournament considering their fall out with their successful coach of the AFC campaign and their endless governmental interference with all things sports. It would be great to get a match with them, they haven't regained any consistency and they would have either be ordinary with a lost or just scrape a win, both game types would be on their back foot rather than the front foot. They not anything that special just a little solid.

Although I have to agree that SA is our better chance for a win.

Fair to swap 2 and 3 for a team from OFC?

That's a good point Bullion, especially now that the Aussies have left. When you point that out, it does seem to demonstrate that the viability of Oceania as a separate confederation is questionable.

You can have a pretty good idea what the two groups will look like already based on the two rules about the draw