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All Whites' Dead End Road To Russia 2018

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Posted March 30, 2017 03:37 · last edited March 30, 2017 03:39

Argie96 wrote:

ConanTroutman wrote:

Argie96 wrote:

2ndBest wrote:

Interesting that PNG won despite not picking any Hekari player. I'm assuming because of the touted rebel league being organised by their owner. 

Wonder if it signals a changing of the guard some what. A decade ago it was Fiji and Solomon Islands giving us the most trouble (i'm blocking Vanuatu out of my mind). Then it was Tahiti and New Caledonia. And now perhaps PNG given their Nation Cup performance too. 

Well if you think about it, is the most logical thing to see PNG being the best of the Islands teams, considering they have by far the biggest population in the OFC. Even if football isn't their most popular sport, this is something that would have eventually happened whatsoever

The link between population and football team success is pretty tenous. In PNG's case their level of economic development and infrastructure is terrible and the population mostly lives in traditional communities. It's like a different world.

Infrastructure is terrible in every Island nation. I'm not saying that just because of the pop they should be better but how many chances do you have of finding a decent footballer from 250k people (NC)? PNG might be undeveloped but they still got 7 millon to pick from

Yeah but by that logic China and India should be smashing Uruguay and Holland at football (just saw the same comment above). Infrastructure is terrible all over the islands but in PNG the issue is much worse because of the land area and terrain. In the Solomons for instance you can get around by boat but PNG is a big, mountainous, jungle covered chunk of land and it's a lot harder to get from village to village or for people from remote areas (which is 80% of the population) to get into cities. New Caledonia has a better GDP per capita than NZ and football is the main sport so comparison with PNG, where rugby league dominates, on the basis of population alone is misleading. How many of PNG's 7 million people have ever played football at a serious level? How many have been coached by trained, experienced coaches from a young age? How many have worn proper football boots and played on level flat grass? How many have ever watched a top level game on TV?

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Unknown editor edited March 30, 2017 03:39
Argie96 wrote:
ConanTroutman wrote:
Argie96 wrote:
2ndBest wrote:

Interesting that PNG won despite not picking any Hekari player. I'm assuming because of the touted rebel league being organised by their owner. 

Wonder if it signals a changing of the guard some what. A decade ago it was Fiji and Solomon Islands giving us the most trouble (i'm blocking Vanuatu out of my mind). Then it was Tahiti and New Caledonia. And now perhaps PNG given their Nation Cup performance too. 

Well if you think about it, is the most logical thing to see PNG being the best of the Islands teams, considering they have by far the biggest population in the OFC. Even if football isn't their most popular sport, this is something that would have eventually happened whatsoever

The link between population and football team success is pretty tenous. In PNG's case their level of economic development and infrastructure is terrible and the population mostly lives in traditional communities. It's like a different world.

Infrastructure is terrible in every Island nation. I'm not saying that just because of the pop they should be better but how many chances do you have of finding a decent footballer from 250k people (NC)? PNG might be undeveloped but they still got 7 millon to pick from

Yeah but by that logic China and India should be smashing Uruguay and Holland at football. Infrastructure is terrible all over the islands but in PNG the issue is much worse because of the land area and terrain. In the Solomons you can get around by boat but PNG is a big, mountainous, jungle covered chunk of land and it's a lot harder to get from village to village or for people from remote areas (which is 80% of the population) to get into cities. New Caledonia has a better GDP per capita than NZ and football is the main sport so comparison with PNG, where rugby league dominates, on the basis of population alone is misleading. How many of PNG's 7 million people have ever played football at a serious level? How many have been coached by trained, experienced coaches from a young age? How many have worn proper football boots and played on level flat grass? How many have ever watched a top level game on TV?