2014 Friendly Discussion - China & Thailand in Nov

Fuck me but this Anthony Hudson guy is the anti Ricki.

Is that traditional powerhouse of NZ football, Unattached FC, unrepresented in this squad?

While I think it will be good for NZ Football to have Tommy Smith's experience back in the squad I'm also not happy with the lack of respect he has shown to the All Whites and NZ Football.

Yes we can justify it because he's a professional and his club is his bread and butter. It's a cut throat world and its admirable that he put the club first before his international ambitions and it was just a meaningless friendly he missed anyway,.. right?

I said on Twitter I was pissed off about Tommy Smith. What pissed me off was ..around the same time our very own Ben Sigmund retired from international duties.I think Ben really got what playing for NZ meant.

I remember the hard sweat and graft he put in with the NZ squad in the mostly unglamorous preliminary rounds of qualifying for WC2010, culminating in the Bahrain qualifiers and that epic win at the RoF. He led the attacking foray that gave us the corner for Rory Fallon's winner.

He'd earned a place in South Africa, his family and friends went to see him there but he never got on the pitch to play in a World Cup match.

Of course, Nelsen, Reid and Smith were formidable and integral to our success in 2010. Best men for the job at the time.

The "NZ optional" choice Smith recently announced just didn't sit right with me. Perhaps he got the honour of playing for NZ so easily, it had little meaning for him and didn't get the respect it deserves?

No and Chris James was dropped as soon as he transferred from Unattached, bad career move on his part.

It was a career move, impressing in the world cup could have gotten him a call up to the premier league like Winston. Now that he has lost his starting place at Ipswitch playing for the AW's puts him back in the shop window.

i've never seen oliver sail play, i gather he's quite good?

he was third choice at auckland city last season behind tamati william and louis caunter

is he the real deal or a beneficiary of the upcoming u20 world cup?  

in fact, i wasn't even aware that he was our first choice keeper for the U20 world cup, can someone please enlighten me?

Tommy is okay.. How many times did Ryan, Wynton and others make themselves unavailable. 

Wynton's wiki page

From 1985–89, he only collected a total of five international appearances, namely due to the fact Zürich would not release him;[4] from there until 1996, he did not appear for the national side at all.

(Michael McGarry played 54 games for the All Whites between 1986 and 1997)

Ryan's wiki page

Although he has been selected to play on numerous occasions, Nelsen had not represented New Zealand between his last appearance in 2004 and 2008 due largely to a recurring hamstring injury.[19] Nelsen captained the New Zealand U-23 squad for their first appearance at the Olympic Games against China. Although he was only available for the opening two matches as Blackburn had requested that he return in time to prepare for their opening Premier League game of the 2008–09 season against Everton.

Only thing that grinds peoples gears with Tommy is he only became available after we qualified. And iirc he snubbed the NZ u20s who he captained for England u20s

James is the only selection I wonder about. Surely he just needs a bit of game time? The game against China will be a huge test for Tuiloma.

Is Craig Henderson injured again? Shame Chris James is missing as well but good to see Hudson looking at younger options.

I'd imagine Gleeson will start against China and maybe Sail will get some game time against Thailand? 

It is extremely demeaning that homegrown NZ players of the caliber of Wynton and Ryan only played for the All Whites when it suited them. There were many times that both these players could have played but chose not too. Both players got considerable recognition ie Oceania Players of the Year etc but really were very self serving.. 

Through the late eighties and early nineties the All Whites really needed Wynton. Where the fuck was he..? NZ Football was in so much shite it wasnt funny.

There is no way I would want Ryan as the All Whites coach.. Good player, good leader.. but not the All Whites coach!!!

Tommy was offered a berth at the 2010 World Cup and took it.. He is as Kiwi as????

Hudson handing out caps like they're skittles.

[/quote]

Sail instead of Williams/Basalaj/Spoonley?
Edge instead of Fitzgerald?

Emblem gone and Smith back? (wtf!)

Who wants to buy my Tommy Smith 2013 Oceania WC QF (Large) shirt?

[/quote]
Seriously? I could be keen :)

Good shot stopper. Terrible distributor. From what I've seen.

Chris Wood not playing first team football but Rory Fallon keep scoring goals for Scunthorpe, he should get a look because striker's experience is important.

in fairness wynton and shane did walk out on fc zurich to play the 1985 world cup qualifiers

also, don't be fooled by the lack of caps.  the all whites played many more games against clubs in those times and therefore the players did not collect A caps

http://www.3news.co.nz/sport/full-video-hudson-pre...

I really have to applaud Anthony Hudson for his presentation at the press conference today. Very in depth. I have faith.

Yup.  Came across as a complete football nerd.  Like this Hudson a lot.

everyone should watch this before they pass comment on this guy (until the next game anyway)

very interesting that he said that boundaries were blurred between senior players and the coaching staff

as a result the coaching staff have been axed.  as have moss and durante.

herbert placed a great deal of faith in his senior players in terms of team organisation, so i assume they were behaving in accordance with the old set of rules, which it seems has pissed hudson off.  old players should always treat carefully when a new young coach comes in.

Bold coaching move..well worth a go and support ahead of Russia 2018..2-3 years to get it right.

With those revelations in mind, perhaps Moss is now regretting his comments regarding Smith's future " reception " from his teammates. His self-appointed role of shop steward has backfired a little I think...

Its nice hearing about the plan rather than just seemingly yolo'ing it under the old regime

speaking of fred...

i'd like to know why we are inactive during the current window.  especially when hudson is so big on counting the contact days that he has prior to the next world cup

Wynton and Shane defied Zurich twice in 1985, flying back to play Aus and Israel at home and then Australia away... they were almost banned as a result because they didn't have clearances, insurance etc...

By the next campaign in 1989, Wynton had moved to Werder Bremen... he flew back to NZ in December 1988 during the Bundesliga winter break (at his own cost), and played v Chinese Taipei at Western Springs... the next set of games v Aus and Israel at Mt Smart were right in the middle of the Bundesliga season - but he flew from Germany to Tel Aviv (paying his own fare) to play against Israel simply because he wanted to represent NZ...

At every successful event during his Werder career, he was literally flying a NZ flag... he signed his autograph Kiwi Rufer... when he played his first game for Kaiserslautern, the club had the Mutton Birds play a gig pregame and had NZ theme day for the fans!  There is an apocraphyl (sp?) tale that in 1993 he was at the airport, ready to fly back to Auckland to play Australia, when then coach Ian Marshall called him and persuaded him not to as Werder would sanction him heavily... and yet in 1992, he had travelled to England to join an All Whites team playing friendlies against club teams, and even persuaded Werder to tour NZ and play against the All Whites...

He played again in 1996 and a full part in the WCQ campaign in 1997... he even made himself available again during his Indian Summer at the Kingz, but Ken Dugdale rejected it...

I'm no Rufer apologist, these are just facts... it was hellishly frustrating that he didn't play more for NZ, but to question his commitment to the AWs, with the career that he had, is complete bollocks

Are you 100% sure about that?  I can see why a coach wouldn't fancy him, he's got some weaknesses and he's not been that convincing for a while

Some bold decisions.  I don't think we'll see Durante again personally, I know the other options aren't great but I think 2018 is too far away for him and he's just not looked convincing at all at international level

Our results recently have been really bad so I'm not surprised he's looking to shake things up

Absolute joke from Thailand.

Senior team haven't played since March, or had a training camp, and haven't had a permanent coach since July 2013

On the other hand the U23s had camps on almost monthly basis, and the league stopped while they were at Asian Games in Oct.

Team that went to China was only 15 players, with 3 'keepers, and coached by U23s assistants. They flew out 2 days before the game, with 3 players arriving a day late as the FAT stuffed up their visas. The team was mostly U23 players, with a few late additions. Teerasil Daengda was left out due to travel/tiredness concerns.

U23s coach Kiatisak 'Zico' Senamuang has since finally allowed himself to be roped into the senior job. They're preparing for Suzuki Cup (Southeast Asian Championships) in December

Wonder why they bothered?

It has probably worked in China's favour as it has given them a boost after some very below average performances.  They then went on to beat Paraguay 2-1 a couple of nights ago.

I wouldn't say that China's national team is improving but I think they will have the rub on the AWs in November.

Reg, TBdFSOE, I was probably harsh on Wynton and Ryan, I was endeavouring to show that we should let Tommy be, hes back and from what Ive seen in the last three years we couldnt survive internationally with either Ben or Andrew. 

As posted earlier, Mike McGarry received 54 caps in the same period Wynton played 5 times.

Dismounting from my High Horse...

"The goalkeeping spot is one of Anthony's concerns," Moss said. "At the moment I'm the only experienced goalkeeper we have who is playing regularly and he [Hudson] said they need to find a No2 and No3 goalkeeper building toward Russia.

"We're not going to know who is up to it unless they get game time and if I went, they obviously wouldn't get it. I'm totally on board and support it."

he also said in the press conference, although haven't seen it quoted, something along the lines of 'if moss gets injured, there will be a massive step up for whoever the number 2 is'

He either said it in the press conference or an interview yesterday that if Moss got injured before a playoff then there's no one ready to step in.

Totally support that decision. There's plenty of young keepers at a similar level, the likes of Basalaj, Crocombe, Marinovic, Spoonley etc.. but there have been some good things said about Oliver Sail, and I think Gleeson is the best person to back up Moss anyway, and he's still just 24 years old.

I think the Moss and Durante situations are a bit different, and with Tommy Smith back on board we've got our two first choice centre backs, now we just need to find some young players to build depth under him and Winston Reid.

If you watch the presentation Anthony Hudson has a clear idea that he wants the bulk of the 2016 Olympic team to be playing for the All Whites as it gives them much more time together, so makes sense to bring those guys in now. 

Dino11, totally fair enough, understand where you're coming from ... Mike McGarry was an absolutely brilliant footballer, and deserved all those caps... my point was that being based in NZ, and earning caps during domestic tours by visiting teams (Gothenburg, Young Brazil etc) is easier than flying back from Germany to play Fiji... like any AWs fan, I wish we'd seen Wynton more, especially in his prime, and I was gutted at Ryan's years of exile too... here's hoping future teams don't miss out on their best players as much.

moving forward, i actually think there's a good argument for running a local team and complimenting it with the top european based players only when the need arises.

mike mcgarry, jeebers he was class.

I've heard they tried to call it off at short notice, but the Chinese insisted it go ahead