All Whites' Dead End Road To Russia 2018

Do we know when the venues for these games will be announced?

It's OFC, so probably couple of hours before kick-off.

Probably be good to play Fiji game in Auckland or even Hamilton (to get a big Fijian supporters turn out) so we can actually have an atmosphere in the ground ?. Won't be a walk in the park though, especially away in New Caledonia 

Not sure we'll get a game. Westpac isn't available during the March window. Might get a November game, but reckon it would be better to send these two games in either Christchurch, Dunedin or Hamilton (assuming they are all available)

Flights to New Caledonia look to start around $700/750 return

The Fiji game in Auckland is a no brainer if the objective is to get a good gate.

If the only objective is to win, then probably Invercargill.

Why better at those venues ??

I'd rather the All Whites play around the country, rather than just in QBE. Potentially these are midweek games as well so suits going to cities that are more compact. Phoenix get sob all crowds when they play midweek so I'd expect that to be similar for All Whites games against Island nations (remember the crowd against Vanuatu).

Given there is are potentially (hopefully) playoff games with the other group winner, and then South America, then reckon those two games should do to Wellington and Auckland.

No one better arrange a wedding around these dates.  Hope by then we will have improved massively.  This will be no walk in the park.

But Andy Martin is going to make QBE "our Wembley".

*sigh*

Being such a big Liverpool fan, he'd have no idea what Wembley is.

(ducks for cover)

Good to see we are facing the teams that come from the lower latitudes - the temperatures will hopefully be kinder to us :)

Optimistic, this is NZF we're talking about...

Order of the games in out. Note the widows are confirmed, just not the dates, venues and KO times

Nov 7-15 H&A v New Caledonia; Mar 20-28 A&H v Fiji

WCQ regs say the dates, times and locations need to be confirmed 3 months before the window. So we should know the November detail in about a months time.

Though they are usually Fri/Tue games which means we would probably have a home game on Friday 11 Nov (maybe Saturday), and the away game on 15 Tues Nov. 

To be fair, I'm not sure what the Taiwan FA were thinking in playing Vanawatu on a cold Wellington night.

He hasn't actually said this has he?

Not publicly, no.

unfortunate. Is it a case of making a virtue out of being tied into a contract or does he actually think that fans varying degrees South of the bridge will change their mind about QBE?

Ross Dependency is even better

Looks no worse than the Sir John Guise stadium tbf.

Groups confirmed on the live stream

Wikipedia updated the All Whites page and put this

Your right but since its only a couple of months a way don't you think ofc will confirm dates soon?

It would be hard to get All White players from Europe to come all they way to play in New Zealand and in New Caledonia because the games are in November which is during the season. It was easy to get players from Europe like Wood and Marinovic for the OFC cup becuase it was not during the season.    

but the matches will be in the FIFA international windows, so European based players won't be a problem - it's the Phoenix and the A-League clubs that will be more of a problem as the A-League doesn't stop playing during international windows

Being a FIFA window doesn't mean players will come

true but if they are called up their clubs can't stop them coming, unless of course the player gets "injured"

but given Hudson's approach to selections so far (ie not selecting players even when they are available (Reid, Wood, Thomas etc) who knows who will turn up

But do u think player's like reid and wood want to come all they down to New Zealand to play weak oposition 

Yes I think they would (well except for Tommy Smith)

after the ONC Cup not sure who the weak opposition is that you are talking about

Does anyone have a pedicted selection for the new caledonia games? 

Where will the home matches for the third OFC round be held? No information is available. 

The schedule has to be agreed by the participating associations three months beforehand, so for the November games at least we should know by earlieish August.

It will be an Oceania regulation. FIFA leave the details of the draws to each confederation

UEFA used to have a 60 day notification rule, which for traveling fans could be a nightmare as by that stage flights and accommodation were a lot more expensive and scarce. They now sort out the game details straight after the draw has been done.

Oceania obviously doesn't have the worry of traveling fans but can't see any reason why they can't sort out the details straight after the draw

Not sure if arranging the fixtures like they have is a good idea.

If we pick up 10 or 12 points then the 2 Fiji-New Caledonia games are meaningless.

If we drop 3 or more points, then there is the possibility that one of those two teams will have more to play for, than the other.

A camp and home game on the 6th June might have been a good leadup to first Confed game on June 18/19

So apart from qualifiers, anyone know anything about friendlies coming up?