ALL WHITES V BAHRAIN - Official 2nd Leg T

Javier; that'll never work-Paston is too far to the left, leaving an open goal....oh wait, that wasn't a problemo last time  Salmon072009-10-13 07:30:33

Javier, there is no way on earth that Siggy deserved a rating of 5, unless you just forgot to specify 5/5. Also, he is not a RB and shouldn't play there. He's an out and out CB and is wasted out right. 

Its a 442 for me. We have to win this unless 0-0 and a penalty shoot out.                          Paston Siggy      Nelson       Vichlich      Locky                Brown   Elliot

Just heard an advert on Radio Sport. Sounded good. I'm expecting a sell out!

Sorry ! Meant Chris Wood, looks a good talent for 17 yo

have heard that 8k-9k tickets have been sold since the game on sunday. 50% of the tickets sold from people outside wellington

good news.

21k + sold now.

been thinking on formations again. (all i can really think about lately)

another concept.

               Paston
        Nelsen    Siggy
Vicelich                Lochead
               Brown
                Elliott
Bertos                McGlinchey
       Smeltz      Killen

I got me tickets ages ago. I'm in Section 28-r? Is that near the white noise area or am at the Bahraini end????

About halfway I would think.  6 aisles around from the zone.

I tried to get flight tickets on Sunday evening, no luck, so asked a lot of people, the ones who are keen have already booked flights, so we're now driving down, got my tickets today, stoked! This is by far the most important game I've ever been to, the significance of it obviously. Come on you Whites! if we qualify, I'd probably just stay up all night and celebrate!

The amount of strikers is irrelevant if we can't provide chances. 5-2-3 just can't do that, especially when we have two defensive midfielders to provide chances and no one else to provide chances. Bertos at RWB means he offers no chance to provide. We offered no chances to our strikers so why waste a spot for a third when we could have two (Who could do the same job as the three did with no service) and an extra provider. This would result in more goals as we actually have more chances to score instead of zero.

...and getting rid of that 'All Whites' rubbish at the start.

If you want a job done properly ay LF1 ?

just watched espn soccernet and for the presenters best XI's of the weekend

one mentioned Paston as the keeper for his of the weekends international keepers (wow)

for the other he had Nelsen and Herbert as his manager.

amazing really.

Whoa!   The kiwi's are getting world wide attention. Just watched ESPN Soccernet press pass on Sky. The panel each chose there top international team for the week. Chaka Hislop had Paston in goal and congratulated him on his performance against Bahrain.

Not good for the Phoenix though But I'd prefer to be in the world cup.

lol @ better coverage/appreciation overseas thanw we get here.

Even mentioned it on Fox Sports FC. I've been watching Fox Sports FC all season and I swear they try their best to avoid anything that involves NZ or NZ players. Even when the Nix played the GC they didn't say a word about it. When they do mention a game that we are involved in, they never say anything about us directly.

Harper and Cockerill both said they hope we go through etc (though Cockerill isn't suprising because he has always been a big supporter - what are his links to NZ?)

Ange Postecoglou said he was going for Bahrain because they are also in the Asian confed, though.

I think he's pretty horrible to be honest but at least he isn't Slater. Bosnich is hilarious imo. valeo2009-10-13 22:38:18

Bosnich has a good football brain and does very good analysis, but once he gets started he's a hard man to shut up. I think he's better than Foster, Harper and Slater. StopOut2009-10-13 23:10:50

Dear Heavenly Father,

To Chocnut (I think) it looks like you may of been right when you said that Paston will sign for Real Madrid!

Also to all the Paston doubters (such as Feverish) do you admit now that I was right all along? Even not including this game with gametime over the past few weeks with the Phoenix he has proven he is just absolute class.wellyphoenixfan2009-10-13 23:32:24

Well after much speculation and thought, here is my line up as such:

                      Paston

                      Nelsen
        Sigmund          Vicelich
                                          
Bertos                                Lochhead
                      Elliot       
          Smeltz          Mcglinchey

          Fallon              Wood

Depending on the phase of play:

5-3-2 full defence / 3-2-3-2 transition / 3-4-3 full attack

But basically 3-2-3-2 (3-5-2) in transition with numbers in the midfield as required scrap for balls and launch the attack from the midfield centre giving Mcglinchey and Smeltz more central options. Elliot can defensively sweep in the centre behind them plus it would give Elliot more passing options once he has the ball. He can hold and pass (as expected in a 3-4-3) to both Smeltz and Mcglinchey or to the wide men of Bertos and Lochhead. Or he can do the over the top direct ball to either Fallon or Wood that can tap the back to Smeltz or Mcglinchey or flick the ball off each other. If Smeltz or Mcglinchey has the ball, Elliot or Bertos or Lochhead or even to each other can provide very safe passing options of maintaining possession. Their threat of a decisive centralised pass to Fallon or Wood up front is there, with Smeltz having an opportunity to run off either of them. The pass to Bertos or Lochhead (depends on who is more forward at the time) can start a wing attack or cross, which allows Smeltz the late movement into the box.

The best passers in the team are Nelsen, Elliot, Mcglinchey and Smeltz. It makes sense to use them in a central position fully. They are our best retainers of possession. Mcglinchey is quick to defend and can place pressure on the Bahrain midfield after seeing how they respond to him on the field.

As much as I like Brown defensive role, I think Mcglinchey can do defensive work in the midfield but more importantly, Mcglinchey can move the ball around. The Bahrain midfield is fairly quick but Mcglinchey can match them and turn the ball over better. Mcglinchey may be a a tad smaller but the Bahrain midfield is no better in height or physical to him. So Brown physical game is not need until the end of the game if we are looking to close shop. 3-4-3 formation is ideal for Mcglinchey because it is more fluid and direct on attack and allows room for the creative players to influence the teams game. Brown's physical game style is not suited for 3-4-3 but 3-4-3 more suited to Mcglinchey creativity style.

It does mean while we are in transition, either Bertos or Lochhead would move forward while either Sigmund or Vicelich may need to sweep across behind them for any attack tucked behind them, pulling the defence line across.

Saw Shebby Singh on ESPN Malaysia ... Football programme ...commentated on game
Quote " What do NZ or Bahrain have to offer the World Cup"???
What a ##$#$ !!

here we go. You prob could have waited a bit longer before you pulled out that call.
for a start if someone has a bad game I'll say they did. If they have a good game I will. You somehow seem to be beyond doing this (prob beacuse you are related). He's pulled out a couple of half decent saves in the past couple of games and I thought he was solid enough in Bahrain. Hopefully it will continue. End of the day he's out Nix and AW number one - so he has to be backed.

wellyphoenix fan -  I know loving Paston is your "thing", but it's very tedious for the rest of us.  I'm sure you were critical when after the Jordan game people got stuck into him for the free kick he conceded so for you to turn around and say that he's in your words "absolute class" for making a couple of smart, but not unbelievable saves, is pretty childish. 

Last night I saw something on the Aussie Sky news sports section with some Aussie football heads talking about the game. They were talking about how Australia in big games often end up playing with negative tactics and cited the Aussie v Scotland game a number of years ago in a WC qualifier. One of the talking heads piped up that Ricki Herbert had gone to the middle east against a team most thought would be far better than the All Whites and had stuck 3 up front and 3 at the back. He thought that Ricki's approach was what the Aussies needed more of and that Ricki had " Big Nuts"

It was a ballsy choice from Ricki, and I would consider the same sort of formation in the next game. My biggest concern is utilizing Leo and McGlinchey to create for us. I think we woud surprise them having both of them up the field and it would put them on the back foot. This would probably mean dropping one of Killen or Fallon though. And adding a new RB.

I think it worked well for the first 20 or 30 minutes, Ricki and his staff had clearly done their research and realized that Bahrain would attack with long balls down the middle making use of their speed. They hadnt counted on the fact that 3 at the back could handle those long air balls.
Im not sure if it will work again if we allow Bahrain to do what they did in the second half which was to dribble through the middle and play through balls between and over defenders from inside our defensive third. We need to adjust to that in the next game. Im not sure what i would do at this point. We need to score so its probably a case of being bold again.