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Problem with playing on Saturday which I don't think they've thought through properly is that they will have such a long flight to Lima and not much time to recover and train before the away leg which has to be Tuesday 14 at the latest (Wednesday mid-day NZT)
Two flight options:
(1) LAN Chile fly to Lima but it is a more than 21 hour flight via Santiago, Chile.
Seats available on the one Saturday 6.20 pm flight but that's a rush to get onboard after a Saturday afternoon match:
Various options to fly on Sunday on 22 hours plus flights via Melbourne and Santiago.
(2) If they fly Air NZ, they will then spend Sunday evening and Monday travelling to Peru and arriving at about 3pm Monday NZT (9.50 pm Sunday Peru time).
Air NZ have no seats available on Saturday.
Air NZ have flights via Buenos Aires totaling 19 hours 35 minutes leaving Auckland Sunday 8.15 pm
Arriving Lima 9.50 pm Sunday local time.
Flight availability details:
https://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vbook/a...
This brings back my memories of Australia tussling with Uruguay over two WC editions, the 2002 and the 2006 finals.
In November 2001 Australia (under Frank Farina) won at home 1:0 and then went to Montevideo to lose 3:0 with the hat-trick scorer for Uruguay, Ricardo Morales, not travelling to Sydney for the first leg. The second leg was shambles, and the scenes of Australian players being abused and spat on in the street before the first leg made headlines.
In November 2005 Australia (under Guus Hiddink) lost in Montevideo 1:0 but then went on to win at home 1:0 and then won on penalties 4:2.
The key difference was that in Nov 2005 for the second leg (played as usual mere four days later) the Uruguayan team travelled economy all the long way to Sydney while Socceroos went straight from Estadio Centenario to a charter plane provided by Qantas and flew directly home in relative comfort (lie down seats, massage etc).
Uruguay still proved a tough team to beat, but I remember seeing their players being too fatigued to perform well in the second leg; with key players Montero and Recoba actually unable to run, deep into the second half. As I recall, only Australia's poor finishing (notably Kewell's and Viduka's misses) prevented the game being won by the Socceroos in regular time.
Morale of the story is, if we want to have a chance against Peru in the second leg, a special Air NZ charter plane might be the way to go. Since it is our national flag carrier and is not owned by foreign interests, what could be more patriotic than to support our national team in the hour of need?