All Whites vs Myanmar | Thuwanna Stadium, Yangon | 11.30pm | Mon 7 September

Fiji are hardly the epitome of Oceanic football. Playing New Caledonia or the Solomon's would be better.

Fiji won't send the U20s for the OFC Nations Cup. The U23s are in the Olympics just because NZ got kicked out, then lost to PNG in the 3rd match playoff (and you wouldn't say PNG can cause us troubles). They do have some good young players but still they are not the best in the region. New caledonia is the only team from the Islands that could beat the best side NZ can fill, IMO.

Playing Fiji is not about the quality of their team, it's about the size of the ex-pat community in NZ that would turn out to watch, and the fact that the full Fijian national side haven't played the All Whites in New Zealand since the World Cup qualifiers in 1997... that would certainly build interest, and if it was played at Mt Smart, you'd have good transport options for the Fijian community in Auckland, not to mention the numbers who would travel from outside the City (when Ba played Waitakere in the O League final a few years back there were bus-loads coming up from Wellington).

Such a fixture may not generate champagne football, but with some good planning and organisation, it would generate a decent croud and an interesting atmosphere!  

New Caledonia may well have a better quality team, but would not attract anywhere near the same sort of croud

11:25 Sport 4

I have to say, I cannot remember the last time I was able to watch an AW match on tv. Our games seem to be either in the wee hours of the night on a weekday or at 11:30pm on a blasting Sunday night!

I know it's the last of our problems right now, but would it kill them to at least try to play those games when most fans would be able to watch them?

QUIZ QUESTION: how many days since the all whites beat another national team?

Hi all,

Just to clarify, this game is on Monday, September 7, at 11.30pm.

Could the powers that be please amend the topic heading.


Cheers,

JR

we beat Saudi in Saudi in September 2013... so nearly exactly 2 years

as I mentioned on my blog, when they kick off against Myanmar it will be 2 years and 1 day (or 730 days) since NZ beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in Riyadh - They have played 12 games during that time, drawn 5 and lost 7

awesome but not that awesome - we really need this one

Thanks for that, the press release with the squad list from NZF said Sunday and I just assumed that it was the 6th, didn't realise they said the 7th. Fixed.

#hudsonout

Might come true if we lose this one... esp if its a youth/A/B/C team

#alignment

If we lose which we probably will, Hudson will just put it down to not having his starting 11 and had to make do with what he players he had.

I predict an ugly 1-1 draw

We should be capable of beating Myanmar with a home based selection. Any loss against Myanmar should be unacceptable 

Myanmar just lost 9-0 to Kuwait in AFC WCQ.

So we might scrape in with a dodgy 1 - 0

That would require us to score a goal....

0-0.

That would require us not conceding a goal .......

0-1

Smeltzy to score if Hudson puts him on the pitch

The question is though, taking a suspicious point of view, does a win show we are on track or paper over the cracks?

A win is a win.

if we lose to this lot, then I hope so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgz9qSBGulg

Yeah. Awful defending.

Having just watched that vid Hudson should walk if we don't score 5 even with this squad.

Well he is implementing a "new way of playing", maybe that will involve winning.

'New way of playing'- it's back to the 'old' Herbert days in a 3 5 2- they going backwards- maybe they are better off playing all their 10 staff members

Dear God: that keeper was directly at fault for at least 4 of those goals, for coming out too early, too late or not at all. I wish there were a "mercy rule", like in baseball, where you can call the game off at 60 minutes if it's getting too depressing. Those Kuwaitis weren't even thanking God for the goals by the end.

The falcon for the first goal is amazing.

Oh boy, I finally watched those Myanmar v Kuwait highlights. I revise my earlier prediction of a draw - we should be able to pummel this lot if they play anything like that against us. 

My God that is bad. I thought you guys were exagerating.  Some of those goals were like watching Micronesia U23.