I wouldn’t put all my money on that Soccerway fixture list, it could be right but I haven’t seen any other confirmation of that order, and it could just be a case of going by that because we will play those teams in that week, and if and when it gets confirmed they’ll just update accordingly. Tribe, for example, lists the order as New Caledonia, Fiji, PNG.
I don’t think the order should matter too much, regardless of which team we play first we should be overwhelming favourites, and having players from professional environments up against amateurs, whose greatest strength (the conditions, both climate and pitch) have been taken away from them. The claims of having to field a fully amateur side was probably heat of the moment hyperbole, and the actual side would probably be at least as good, if not better than some of the qualifiers for Russia.
For example, the three games vs New Caledonia Hudson fielded:
Marinovic;
Boxall, Adams, Brotherton, Tzimopoulos, Colvey;
Tuiloma, Prelevic, McGlinchey;
Fallon, Wood.
Marinovic;
Graham, Tzimopoulos, Durante, Tuiloma, Wynne;
Lewis, Thomas, Rojas;
Wood, Barbarouses
Marinovic;
Graham, Hudson-Wihongi, Boxall, Durante, Colvey;
Thomas, Rojas, Dyer;
Wood, Patterson
Of those, only Thomas, Boxall, Tuiloma and Wood wouldn’t be adequately replaced/available.
Those games weren’t great (1-0 win having far less possession and shots, 2-0 win and 0-0 draw), but a lot can be down to conditions in PNG/ Nouvelle Caledonie, and the fact that Hudson was pretty bad himself. On a carpet in cool-ish temperatures in Doha under Hay, I’d expect much better.
I don’t think the order should matter too much, regardless of which team we play first we should be overwhelming favourites, and having players from professional environments up against amateurs, whose greatest strength (the conditions, both climate and pitch) have been taken away from them. The claims of having to field a fully amateur side was probably heat of the moment hyperbole, and the actual side would probably be at least as good, if not better than some of the qualifiers for Russia.
For example, the three games vs New Caledonia Hudson fielded:
Marinovic;
Boxall, Adams, Brotherton, Tzimopoulos, Colvey;
Tuiloma, Prelevic, McGlinchey;
Fallon, Wood.
Marinovic;
Graham, Tzimopoulos, Durante, Tuiloma, Wynne;
Lewis, Thomas, Rojas;
Wood, Barbarouses
Marinovic;
Graham, Hudson-Wihongi, Boxall, Durante, Colvey;
Thomas, Rojas, Dyer;
Wood, Patterson
Of those, only Thomas, Boxall, Tuiloma and Wood wouldn’t be adequately replaced/available.
Those games weren’t great (1-0 win having far less possession and shots, 2-0 win and 0-0 draw), but a lot can be down to conditions in PNG/ Nouvelle Caledonie, and the fact that Hudson was pretty bad himself. On a carpet in cool-ish temperatures in Doha under Hay, I’d expect much better.