All Whites' Dead End Road To Russia 2018

From 2007 they were also officially the "Thai Airways All Whites". Not sure how long that lasted though.

http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/all-whites-and-other-nz-international-teams/topics/quot-thai-airways-all-whites-quot

...how is Tommy Smith eligible for the All Whites? I read he played on the North Shore as a kid but wasn't born here. Obviously moved away pretty early on, so were his parents from NZ?

IIRC The rules changed a few years ago, and if you represented a country before the new rules came in place then you remain eligible.

NZF Eligibility update: FIFA have approved the eligibility of 17/18 players for whom exemptions were sought. Only one remains: Deklan Wynne

— Andrew Gourdie (@Andrew_Gourdie) December 8, 2015

So Storm Roux is back, Was De Vries part of the eligibility saga or was it mostly U20 and U17 guys?. 

Yeah, guess so. + Musa?

Not Ryan...

http://www.3news.co.nz/sport/nz-football-to-appeal-disqualification-decision-2015072720#axzz3h4YUwgiq

Says here the NZF went to FIFA four years ago over De Vries and was told he was ineligible FOR EXACTLY THE SAME REASONS Wynne etc was. So instead of playing and appealing, they waited until he was old enough to play.

No 

,

it only says that his situation is relevant to Article 7 for gaining eligibility.

Also, the last point of Article 7:

* He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 in that country.

De Vries has played for Bentleigh Greens in aus, which could impact things?

Anyone got a list of players ? would be interested to know if any ASB foreign players had been put forward

Vidal?

Anyone keen to run a sweepstake on who won't turn up for the Nation's Cup

I see Tommy Smith couldn't play vs Oman because he was getting engaged!? And he has the wedding planned for June 2017 and says there are no games then...Confederations Cup perhaps!

Confeds Cup Russia June 17 - July 2 2017

Oops.. he just did it again...

Tuiloma, after his PNG experience that stuffed his pre season at Marseille.

Boyd may be in interesting situation too, as he's now on first team fringe.

we wont make it to the confed cup 

Wrong thread

Piney saying that Reid and Smith won't make the OFC Nations Cup, and that Hudson is trying to get Dura to come out of retirement for it. Also saying Thomas probably won't make it: 

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_i...

But is Moses Dyer ok?

bloody depressing.

Hudson has used a  nicey nicey, matey matey approach letting these guns choose their games on some misguided assumption that they would then front for the important shark.

Obviously hasn't worked and they don't give a fudge

Enforce the stand down and leave them out of the squad for the confederation cup if we get there. Sick of this.

And all that shark from Tommy Smith about being involved going forwards. What crap.

I don't think enforcing the stand down is relevant for Reid as the season has finished for him by the first OFC game (although do they have to be there a week in advance or the Monday in advance?) and to be fair we don't know for sure (yet) if Smith is unavailable. If Ipswich are in the playoff for a spot in the EPL after 4 or so years of coming close I would understand him wanting to stay and play the playoff. Can't see them getting that far though. 

Whoever said Hudson will quit will know for sure after the OFC. He won't do a Ricki and stay if they don't win. Gotta feel for the guy but I love the irony that when he first came in he didn't pick Dura etc as wanted to deepen the squad with younger players for the off chance Reid and co were out injured. Instead Reid is simply making himself unavailable and Hudson is asking Dura to play cause his "back the kids" strategy hasn't worked. Definition of black comedy. 

Worst soap opera ever

Can't blame Hudson for this. Obviously no approach works with these guys who have decided that playing for their country is not worth the effort.

I'd like to compare it to the top African players playing for very small countries in qualifiers - I'm sure they're a lot more prideful.

In saying that, NZF is a complete shambles so it's hard to blame them sometimes.

I wonder how much bad blood there is between these guys and NZF?  I mean, you would think Reid at least would have been in the Olympics squad so the eligibility saga robbed him of a chance to play in the Olympics in Rio. Then this latest news about the game we turned down against Russia - I'm sure we would have had no players with phantom injuries for that one.

I'll still be pissed if they don't turn up to the OFC Nations Cup (I see Hudson has denied Piney's report now) but I wonder if we were going to Rio after  this if those guys would have turned up.

BRING BACK SIGMUND FOR HIS SWANSSONG

We will only be fine if we are allowed to play three centre backs, one right back and three left backs as you propose. Plus Four in the midfield and two up front.

No I don't agree. 

If Hudson plays the nicey, softy, matey approach having coffee with Tommy at Starbucks in Ipswich, saying Tommy, my son, I don't mind you missing the odd game here and there (just say the word) but by god commit yourself to the serious shark, I don't have a problem with that. And that is exactly how that conversation would have gone.

Many countries have no problems having their gun overseas players , playing for them in fudgein important games. Call it pride, patriotism, culture, call it whatever you like but others manage to do it whilst we fail.

So whatever line Hudson has been spinning  (and that is his strength, spinning lines) has came a cropper. 

He sure as heck can't point to his results as being successful.

So if you can't get the results due to mitigating factors, fair enough as long as you can get your guns playing for you come crunch time.

In that respect and many others he has been an unmitigated disaster.

Seems now that Piney's report was mostly speculation:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/780...

"All Whites coach Anthony Hudson has not ruled out captain Winston Reid and fellow defender Tommy Smith for the crucial Oceania Nations Cup...

However, Hudson said he had not picked his squad for the tournament yet. He was still working through details on player availability and said it was unfair to speak about individuals before the team was named."

To be fair, Reid has had some major injury issues this season and by late May, will probably want to ease up, especially if the Hammers make the FA Cup Final.

It could be one of those situations where Reid will turn up in Port Moresby if absolutely needed although the West Ham medical staff want him to rest up. And his hamstring has already broken down twice this season, leading to one month absences, so who knows what his fitness will be like come late May.

And Tommy Smith could possibly be involved in promotion play-offs in late May and so there's some uncertainty there.

If he makes himself unavailable come May though for no good reason, then he can rightly be written off as a complete cock. 

NZ should have decent enough players to step in to cover the possible absence of Reid and Smith with Tzimopoulos, Musa, Boxall etc.

Even the forgotten man, Stephen Old, is playing at a higher level than any of the Pacific Island teams' centre-backs (Swedish Second Division).

After a two week training camp in the Northern Territory, maybe Darwin or something, NZ should be okay for Port Moresby with whoever is available. Though Honiara 2012 is going to make us all nervous...

By the way, there was no guarantee at all if NZ had qualified, that English clubs would have released any over-age players for the Rio football tournament.

The Brazilians have cannily arranged the Olympic football to coincide with the start of the new season in Britain and Europe.

While the major South American leagues conveniently are taking a break for the duration of the Olympic football.

Brazil are really focused on winning it - the only major tournament that they've never won.

Clubs are not obliged to release over-age players for the Olympic football (only u-23 players) and you would think that many clubs will say "no" to key players being released.

At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Ryan Nelsen was only released for the Oly Whites' first two games but had to return to Blackburn before the third one vs. Belgium.

Believe Piney or Hudson. Think I'll stay local and believe Piney.

No, it wasn't speculation. It's called journalism. The stuff article uses basically the same quote I got from Hudson but angles it to suggest there might still be a chance Reid is coming. Read that stuff article again and tell me what is in there that suggests my piece is "speculation". It's not.

Cheers, Piney 

Oh shark! Piney is back ?

The Islands have been playing between each other as build up for the OFC Nations Cup:

8-19-15: Fiji 5-0 Tonga (Ba, Fiji)

8-28-15: Fiji 6-0 American Samoa (Nadi, Fiji)

11-7-15: Vanuatu 1-1 Fiji (Port Vila, Vanuatu)

11-11-15: Vanuatu 2-1 Fiji (Port Vila, Vanuatu)

3-23-16: Solomon Islands 2-0 Papua New Guinea (Honiara, Solomon Islands)

3-26-16: Vanuatu 2-1 New Caledonia (Port Vila, Vanuatu)

3-27-16: Solomon Islands 1-2 Papua New Guinea (Honiara, Solomon Islands)

I know the Islands are weak teams and it's hard for them to afford a trip to NZ, but would be good to at least play a couple of times against them. NZF can afford a travel to the Solomon Islands, we will be testing ourselves against the teams we are going to play with in similar conditions to PNG. Even if no one playing in Europe can show up it might be a good test for the Nix/ASBP players. At least would be better than a training camp. 

Training camp details been confirmed anywhere? Guessing Townsville, playing training matches v QLD NPL state league teams?

Out of interest here is the CONEMBOL table after 5 qualifying games. Still a long way (qualifying rounds to go) - but Argentina currently occupy the 5th playoff spot. Bit of reality check re huge challenge of RWC 2018 qualifying for AWs!

#	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P	Last 5 matches	H2H
1		Ecuador	5	4	1	0	11	4	+7	13	D W W W W
2		Uruguay	5	3	1	1	11	4	+7	10	D W L W W
3		Brazil	5	2	2	1	9	6	+3	8	D W D W L
4		Paraguay	5	2	2	1	5	4	+1	8	D W L D W
5		Argentina	5	2	2	1	4	4	+0	8	W W D D L
6		Chile	5	2	1	2	8	9	-1	7	L L D W W
7		Colombia	5	2	1	2	6	7	-1	7	W L D L W
8		Peru	5	1	1	3	6	11	-5	4	D L W L L
9		Bolivia	5	1	0	4	7	11	-4	3	L L W L L
10		Venezuela	5	0	1	4	6	13	-7	1	D L L L L