All Whites' Dead End Road To Russia 2018

I know we are shaping up to send a pretty weak team so maybe there is an argument for Brockie.  But reality is he has been tried before and has really not worked out.  Does anyone have any intel as to the level of the South African league?  I think it is understandable to have doubts about Brockie

Doubts about him or not, 29 goals vs 19 minutes is a pretty compelling argument to have him over Falloon

But they play in a completely different way so doesn't it depend on the tactics you want to employ?

True. But I think that Hamish Watson can fill the role that Fallon would play. And Wood is also a big man (although probably plays a different role) so there's no need for a 34yr old who hasn't played properly for 2 years

Hamish Watson though...

and we have some tall strikers, but no Elliot....

still you'd think Huddy would have been thinking about this a lot.

Brockie has been unreliable as a striker at the top level. Quite good in other positions, but thinking about the recent past and for Rory distant past- Wood, Watson and Rory have all put the ball in the back of the net. 

Can understand it. 

Long term I think Brockie must be in the squad. 

Brockie should be there IMO regardless of his scoring record for the AWs, and I'm not even a fan of him. But he's an experienced professional who has played in those conditions before and is actually match fit. We're going to be playing games every few days in 30+ degrees and 80%+ humidity against guys who have lived their whole lives in that climate. I think there's a very real risk we will just run out of steam before the final if we are relying on a core group of players who haven't been playing regularly. The nix guys haven't played for weeks, Rory hasn't really played in 2 years, Tuiloma and Rojas haven't been starting for their teams... 

i cant even comprehend that we are talking about Rory playing in PNG and Brockie not. i just... i don't even know where to start...

Not sure if Wynne's going to be there either. Hasn't played a minute for Whitecaps 2 this season and is still injured.

The final is the 15th game in 14 days at the same ground. What could possibly go wrong?

IIRC, I'm sure that they are playing on two pitches this ONC over a slightly longer period so will be an extra days rest in between games (2 rather than 1) compared to 2012.

Christie

So there must be an updated version of this then?

Also at Lloyd Robson Oval - not searchable on Google Maps but does have a wikipedia page with cooridnates: https://www.google.com/maps/place/9%C2%B028'06.0%2...

Actually, just checked the OFC site for the schedule and Lloyd Robson Oval (National Football Stadium) is no longer listed and YES all on one pitch. 

This is just at the end of last year: http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/News/ViewArticl...

And the renovated Lloyd Robson has been open since Feb.

I hear his CV is ON POINT

awesome can't wait till this starts - beginning of the end lolz

SKY are showing live coverage of New Zealand's matches, the Semi-Finals and Final.

You have to give Hudson some credit for in inviting Fallon Jnr into the mix given he isn't exactly an automatic choice and given the comments made by old Kev (reminds me of Kev off Derek - Ricky Gervais show). 

It's pretty clear to me we are going there to dominate aerially. The OCL demonstrated how weak the island teams are at defending set pieces in the air (Team Welly showed that)  so Watson, Wood and Fallon kinda make sense.

We can try and play the fluid stuff with Kosta, Marco and Lewis but at least Hudson has a plan B for when the pitch (pitches?) turn to muck.

Am I suprised he didn't use the camp to take a decent look at Clapham as we are paper thin in midfield. Also anyone know what is happening with Riera? 

it has been fairly much the big kahuna of his job for the last year or two

Maybe he said no?

Steve Holloway says that only Fallon and Rogerson met the fitness standard. be interested to know how they compare to Nix levels and whether any guidance was provided by NZF on training, especially for those outside of a professional environment.

Interesting considering a handful of 'Nix players didn't meet the criteria, would hope it is just down to not playing or training as much this past month.

The players are taking cracks at NZF for their administration but then can't meet the prescribed fitness standards? Thats absolutely laughable.

Good on Rory for leading the way.

Yeah agree. That's impressive from a guy who's barely played and is 34. The thing to note about "fitness tests" is that beep tests, sprint/recover tests etc not only test your physical fitness levels BUT more so your mental strength to do the extra minute of beep tests etc and not stop when everyone else does. I am only guessing here but I would venture that if you used pure sports science to test Rory Fallon his vitals would come out similar to the others but what sport science can't tell you and only "old school" physical eta can is how much ticker you have. He has heaps. And bloody good on him. 

Regardless of how inept NZF are, this verifies what Hudson said recently. It is inexcusable these players can't pass a fitness test. Most of them can't pass a ball but you'd think they could at least run. And they wonder why they can't get a contract anywhere. A bit more hard work might help

can we find out how the fitness test compares to the Nix or other comparable professional leagues or codes - eg AFL, rugby etc. I can see why the nix are a little short of a gallop but TWH and Lewis have just come off a OCL campaign. It's a little meaningless talking about players failing a beep test if the benchmark is 18 or so.

I found the below.. Maybe plodder was a least a big engined plodder:

• The new Zealand football team 'All Whites' World Cup contender Jeremy Christie posted his best ever score of 16 in the beep test while playing professional football for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, a new club in the North American Soccer League. He said that put him up in the "Tony Lochhead, Leo Bertos range" (from stuff.co.nz, April 2010)

Fitness is not about having a big heart or ticker. One of the reasons Messi, Ronaldo etc are the players they are is because they are incredibly fit/strong /athletic or whatever you want to call it. And that comes from hard work. Yes we have some very promising players but if I was one of these younger guys at this training camp I would be hugely embarrassed that a 34yo who hasn't really played in 2 years killed me on a fitness test.

I hate to cite the All Blacks but a key factor in their dominance is ther superior fitness. Simple fact is that our players need to work harder.  If they did then they might end up playing over 400 professional games like Fallon has done

[quote=Teenage Mutant Ninja Skrtel]Perhaps the reason the players can't pass a ball is because they're being told they can't?? That there not technically good enough?? Personally I do t think we (NZ football landscape) don't give our players enough credit. The mentality needs to change. Hudson sold the dream of a new modern football philosophy but I honestly can't see what's changed? We have young dynamic, technically proficient players here in NZ, playing in A-League, being signed across the world yet we resort to the dark ages when it comes to our philosophy and preparations. This approach may well get the team qualification but it's not sustainable. The "big name" players don't enjoy it, it doesn't excite them enough to fly around the world to play for their country and it doesn't make the country excited. Forget "ticker", "big heart", "mental toughness" and all the other words people love to use...we shouldn't be judging/selecting players on this! If we are NZF is in a sad state. All credit to Fallon for being in "good shape" and what's he's done for NZF but is he the future? Is he what we need to lead the line? Does he get us excited? The stats produced earlier of Brockie vs Fallon are incredible - more goals then minutes - and you've also got someone like goal machine Ryan de Vries from ACFC with all his dynamism, creativity and goalscoring prowess sitting at home twiddling his thumbs?? Oh well...as long as the players pass a "fitness test" and are "fit enough" the futures

Please cite me a dynamic NZ player signed to a professional contract who is also not in good enough shape to pass a fitness test? You need both aspects to succeed. And you may have noticed that an underdog just won the EPL,  partly because players like Okazaki, Vardy and N'Kante could run all day, as well as being skilful and dynamic 

A throwback Thursday to that Fallon goal.

https://in-the-back-of-the.net/2016/05/12/throwback-thursday-bertos-chance-goal/ 

Son of Big Kev. He must be laughing like a drain. Or having a weep.

that would explain the brief period of nice weather we had here and the kiwi torrential rain we had today around London!