ALL WHITES V BAHRAIN - Official 1st Leg T

some more coverage from the Gulf Daily News (althuogh not worthy of front page)

Bahrain - $1.50
New Zealand - $7.00   
Draw - $3.45

Im putting a lazy 5 on the win and draw.

to progress:

Bahrain- $1.37
New Zealand - $2.90

I'm pleased my 'Bahranian' heritage allowed me to be one of the 70% tigers2009-10-07 14:26:23

Does anyone know the reasoning behind basing ourselves in Dubai and only flying into Bahrain 24h before?

To stay away from the hype and fans that will be present in Bahrain.

Fixed.

I thought he was in Bangkok brushing up on his table tennis.

maybe because Dubai is a more pleasant and safe place to be.

EDIT : i just remembered there is an indoor skiing palace in Dubai and some aquariums in shopping malls...... you don't think.........
whooooooo2009-10-07 15:19:29

Dubai probably paid them to stay there. They can pay for everything else, and it seems to be working at City. City vs Chelsea will be an interesting one.

as well

Pokarekare would put them to sleep.

Poi E - only works if we have white-gloved people from freezing works breakdancing.

Got that album somewhere - it's a cracker - Dalvanius magic coupled with a drum machine beat. It made up for all the 1980s synth music.

Maybe to round off we could have non-stop rakau to E Papa (Patea Maori style, not Herbs). That would get to them eventually.

TBF, the All Blacks will find anything, other than themselves, to blame their choking on.

Didn't Australia have problems in Uruguay the first time they went their for their play off
2ndBest2009-10-07 16:07:22

Just because they can pay for the AW to stay there, I doubt they would even contemplate it.
2ndBest2009-10-07 16:06:47

  tigers2009-10-07 16:19:00

I wouldn't worry about the NZHerald poll - it's filed under some sport called "soccer". They even disgrace Rattue with the headline about "soccer's" holy grail (though he makes up for their error by joining us in 2009 by referring to NZ Football).

Got a group of people watching this in South Korea. Is there anyway checking where it will be streamed on the internet prior to the day?

iraqgoals

Jeez, this game is getting quite a lot of prematch coverage. Not sure whats happening in NZ but travelling through Asia I have seen lots of stuff on TV football shows and the print media. Lots of the Asian media are not confident of Bahrain getting through.

This was quite random ...

Who will be commentating the 1st leg on tele?

Please not de Jong and Elrick.

It is only 484 kms away in flight (about one hour flight) and the facilities are one of the best in the world. It is one of a few English FA accredited training facility outside of UK (in fact the first one outside of UK to accredited). It would be a mistake not to take advantage of the facility. They only need the one hour FIFA regulation training at the venue to assess the ground. I wouldn't be sure that our team would get much training done in Bahrain had they turn up earlier. Too much hype and distraction, and reducing number of unknown variables occurring.

It makes the preparation into two clear cut parts: First part- the intense training week of tactical and strategy focus plus environmental player conditioning in Dubai. Second part- psychological aligned conditioning when they arrival in Bahrain with light hour training at the venue the day before with R&R bonding and a short motivation/game plan reminder talk before the game. A decent rest physically and psychologically, so they can be sharp and focus in the match.

By making the away match preparation as a twofold, the focus is psychologically simplified with a transitional environment in between. While in Dubai, they are conditioning physically themselves for the game and when they are in Bahrain, the change in environment will naturally cue the players frame of mind psychologically to be more aligned for the match. If they had gone straight to Bahrain, they would not be able to rest and focus before the match without the transition. Away matches preparations, especially one far away and with a different environment needs, are different to home matches preparations. The Bahrain team will have their away transitional training camp in Sydney before coming to Wellington in the second leg. The difference is mainly psychological than physical.

Anyway, the jai ali international centre of excellence is one of the very best you can get in a training facility so, the players should feel that they are physically prepared before actually arriving at Bahrain.

Check out where they are training. Ryan Nelson has been there before with Blackburn Rovers when they were in europe competitions, I think.
jai ali international centre of excellence

For those looking for TV coverage, I located the game on Eurosport 2, where it will be shown live.

good to hear Nelsen shaping up for the game now. Pretty exciting the amount of media coverage the squad is getting

yes, good to notice more media coverage now tigers2009-10-08 08:17:47

SiNZ2009-10-08 09:08:56

Brilliant news:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nzfootball.co.nz%2Fplugins%2Fnewsfeed.cgi%3Frm%3Dcontent%26plugin_data_id%3D28876&h=9c24e4c90e6145ecc9323119c3b3a099

Reading that article, we have:

Interesting what the Waikato Times hinted at in their article on Scott, Nelsen didn't undergo a fitness test on Sunday voluntarily to ensure he was right for the game. Country over Club! We lova ya Nelly!

Good news to wake up to about Nelsen :)

Loving the Media coverage. Top Marks to the Dom Post, The main article on the back, and another large one in the sport section as well. Just wished they had some Photos, with the reporter guy in Dubai.

The TV coverage has been good to, bit disappointing that no one has a camera crew over there, so all the stories are half hated as they just show old footage.