All Whites' Dead End Road To Russia 2018

Boyd is out of favour after turning down ONC callup.

Any info on why or just a rumour?  

Fall out with Hudson?  Too many decent new films on at Portuguese cinemas?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/86378270/the-all-whites-v-messi-brazil-blitz-hapless-argentina-in-30-qualifying-win

One for Doloras, Mexico beat the USA yesterday 2-1, I kid you not, the last 5 minsutes saw backs to the wall defending.

Line ball but the ref rules fair play.

Group B table

So the NZQA exam timetable came out today and I have an exam on November 9th. Any idea whether or not the potential inter-continental game has been pencilled in yet? If not then I pray it won't be played the day before my exam :l 

http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/playstation-4/news/g58...

Looks to me like Chris Wood is our only recognised striker - Fallon is being used, but y'know.....he's more there for his personality.....Monty, Boyd, Rogerson and Kosta aren't 'true' strikers, Smeltz is goooooone - as is Brockie.

How do people feel Hamish Watson and/or Tom Jackson getting a call-up? If Wood went down/got suspended/does a Rufer/Nelsen/Smith/Reid, then who is realistically next cab of the rank?

I've liked Watson from what I've seen of him (haven't seen Jackson aside from highlights packages - but, like Urlovic, he scores goals)

I would like to see Watson get a run for sure. I think he would be good up front with Woods.

Why not?!.Would make more sense than some of the selections so far

When likes of Watson and Tom Jackson are being spoken of - just shows that it would definitely be a 'Dead End to Russia' if Wood was ever to be out injured and not leading the front line.

Agree %100 there is no guarantee he will be there come play-off time. We should have another striker being given game time with the current squad. We cant just rely on Wood day in day out.

It's the dead end road to Russia anyway. No way we are getting past the 5th placed South American side, Wood or no Wood

Dare to dream though

Watson is a great idea and so is tom jackson or ben harris, would love to see myer bevan having ago as he is frequently scoring goals against u21 BPL teams.

No.

Is Jackson eligible?

if I asked who the hell Tom Jackson is would it be:

A: Showing my ignorance of NZ Football?

Or

B: Illustrating the ignorance of the person who raised his name as a possibility?

A, because he was a key man for the team that won last year's national league.

Argetina with Messi and Chile (Copa America champions) have been in that 5th spot, with Colombia now in 6th spot. 

Watson to score a hatty against any of that rabble I reckon.

Still if it comes down to it- one of either Messi, Sanchez or Rodriguez headed this way! (probably)

Still can't see any way at all we could get even remotely close to beating one of those sides though. Would make Leicester winning the EPL look like the All Blacks beating Romania.

We have the home leg first.

I think that's a bit hard on Watson.  Smeltz was pants in his early years but look how he turned out, I think Watson could go on and have a better career then him.

It would be great if he could, but I very much doubt it.

Wish Watson all the best with his career. 12 mths ago to be honest he was really going nowhere.

Still stating the bleeding obvious there is now a massive gulf between Wood and our next best striker(s). AWs slim chance of getting past 5th best CONMEBOL team, is sunk if he is ever injured come those playoff games.

Watson is good- but Smeltz had the instinct. Also had left right and head. Watson got left, right and head- can he get the instinct back? Think Watson is slower than Smeltz or Wood too. Watson is a quality prospect though- great example of youth player pushing for a contract and earning it.

The two legs will be played between November 6 and November 14 as the earliest and latest times for the two legs.

But that could translate as between November 7 and 15 in NZ time because those dates are Northern Hemisphere dates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_...

The first leg will be in Wellington, so that will be a mid-week game around Monday 6 to Wednesday 8 November I would say. 

Shane from the stadium has said it will be the Friday or Saturday night.

That's good to hear. After reading Siggy's auto-biography and the tenuous efforts the players went to to get a weekend fixture for the Bahrain game, it would have been sad to revert back to week-day games for such an important event for NZ Football. Although I suppose we had more of a chance against Bahrain than we do a South American team. 

Sad, but should point out that that was a one-game window, so nothing else to take into consideration. Friday night probably makes more sense this time around, given the need to travel to SA right away.

Although travelling back to SA, the teams will gain a day with timezones, but kinda lose one travelling here. So might be a Sat night here, then Tue (Wed NZT). But Friday the most likely. 

Also,

Tahiti won 1-0 so just get better goal difference out of it. 

Wow. Oracle JasperNix. Good call.

1pm should be fun

got my two tickets for march . white noise zone pax less than 1000 lol

Surely to stand any chance of a miracle (and also to at least be competitive), all the European based players and other crucial ones have to be fit. The professional players are vital to the team (and especially in defence, where we need to play to our strengths with smith and reid being 2 of the top players, along with wood up front).  The squad I would go for would be 

gks- moss, Gleeson and Marinovic

defenders- smith, reid, Graham, Mitchell, Tuiloma, Durante, Brotherton, Boxall, Fenton

Midfielders- rojas, thomas, mcglichley, Cameron, Tzemi, Kosta, Boyd

strikers- Wood, Smeltz, Patterson, Brockie

Of course this could all change, such as injuries, Reira being allowed to play. 

My starting line up however would be;

Moss

Graham,    reid,       smith,       tuiloma

                  Tzemi

                      Mcglichley

Kosta                                  Thomas

                      Rojas

                      Wood