2012 OFC Nations Cup Solomon Islands

My beef is with how our Coach and our players performed and the reultant fallout from that. I said nothing about Island Nations not earning the right to go to the Confeds so stop trying to put words in my mouth.

Agree with the NC coach, Alain Moizan, NZ played a lot of match but when it comes to it, you have to play with your head not your heart.  Said it meant more to him than playing in Paris(presumably with Monaco, coupe de France winner 1980).

We can still come 3rd.

How many goals should an Island side win by before they've earned the right to compete in Confed Cup?  I don't disagree with the potential for disaster, but the New Caledonians EARNED this win.

I have re-read your post. You make a fair point

yeah, but to be fair you did say the island team is going to get dicked, which i am assuming u mean more than nz would and thus u r saying they aint good enough to be there. charismas point was. if ncl won 10 nil. would u still say they will get dicked?

No problem.

The semi-finalists from this tournament go through to next stage of qualification.  Starts afresh.  Home and away round.  Six matches each.   Winner of this goes on to the intercontinental playoff vs CONCACAF nation.

This. It was never going to be easy at this tournament, but if we want to be a serious football nation we have to learn how to cope with adverse conditions.

I am not saying anything of the sort, you are reading into my Post something that is not there. Whoever wins the tournament does deserve to be there (and I hope the perform well) but it doesn't change the fact that for NZ this results could come back to haunt.

Wrost New Zealand football performance ever, worst nz sporting performance ever? Doesn't matter how hard the comp was, what the weather was like this was a fucking disgrace.

How these so called proffesional players be anything but ashamed is beyond me.

Brazil is looking a long way off.

No-one is denying that New Caledonia didn't deserve this, but if you don't think they'll get absolutely annihilated by the likes of Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, Mexico, Japan, then you may have to think again.

Gordon you are seriously saying to me that that pitch is up to international standards?  It may have been ok for 1 or 2 games but there is no way it should have been used for 16.

Also where in my statement did I say that it's the refs fault or the pitches we lost, I was simply making a statement that the pitch is very poor.

Herbert has to go.

Geez, I feel like one of those TV dads... I'm not Angry, just very disapointed in their actions

According to Stuff with this loss NZ Football says goodbye to $1.3 million in income.

According to Stuff with this loss NZ Football says goodbye to $1.3 million in income.

There are FIFA World Cup qualifiers played on all sorts of pitches all over the planet Earth and they vary in their standards. Think Africa, think Carribbean, think Asia - The surface is rucked, sure, but its been rolled on a daily basis and given as much care and attention as the grounds staff can give it. 

GGW

(from the stuff article)All Whites assistant-coach Neil Emblen felt there had been chances at both ends and acknowledged Smeltz "should have scored'' from Lochhead's cross.  He said the key was to score the first goal and then close the game out because "it was another tough game out there for the boys''.

Is that what was really said? Kinda disappointing if it is.

I think this is on Par with some of the black caps preformances

talk a big game and then deliver Sh!t all.

Herbert must go. He plays unattractive football and his strategy of lobbing the ball up the field is ineffective and he never ever does anything differently. Games up Herbert.

I dare any coach anywhere in the world to play 'attractive' football with the players we have.

btw, f*** TVNZ leading with us losing, if we had won it would have been last.

TV3 did the same, and I had the exact same thought...

NC fitter, for the conditions, significantly faster and more skilful in enough areas of the pitch and well organised enough elsewhere to deserve that, no question.  

Now would be an appropriate time for Hard News' calming influence.

Again, no one has mentioned that the pitch was the reason we lost, my point is nothing to do with winning or losing it is solely that the pitch cannot take 16 games on it and stay in a suitable condition to play international football. The OFC had to have known that yet blindly pressed on. It may have been an international pitch for the first few games but it certainly isn't now.

OFC conspiracy 

Unfortunately for the island team that qualifies I agree 100% with Teza and your commments. My initial comments were merely in defence of a mis-understood response to Charisma Man. Let's leave this one here.

Terrible day. First the Backbencher fire, and now this terrible loss. I managed to cut my hand open when New Caledonia scored their second goal and I didn't notice until I was walking out from the Kings, so now my new All Whites jersey has blood down the side. FFS.

By the way I Heart Nix, I made it home. Dan didn't manage to get me killed.

It goes higher than that....I suspect the Whitehouse is somehow involved (the Amercian one not the 'special' one in Auckland).

It is not about just losing this game in the semis. we were unconvincing in the whole tournament. eventually we were going to run out of luck. i was hoping we would scrape through this tournament but i was thinking next time round if the islands nations keep improving it is going to get tougher. 

i know playing the island nations doesnt get too much interest for friendly's and financially doesnt normally make sense. but this one has cost us $1.3m. Maybe we should play a game or two every year against the island teams, even if it is made up with our players from the region. We can work on tactics for these sorts of tournaments.

We should also give something back to effort the island teams are putting in to improve. we always complain Australia can't be bothered playing us. but we also turn a cold shoulder to the islands.

I wonder if Ricki has his eye on any island player to bring into the greater Phoenix squad. they deserve the chance.

Teza, if you dont think that the pitch is part of the reason we lost, then why carry on about it. It was an ok pitch.

We didnt have a game plan it seemed to me, to either enforce our way of playing, or to counter theirs. We seemed lost the whole time.