ALL WHITES V BAHRAIN - Official 2nd Leg T

As an aside. I hope someone at New Zealand Football has the foresightto gather as many of the '82 All Whites for an open top drive around the ground 10 minutes before kick-off.
Maybe they even form a guard of honour for the AW's as they enter the ground - maybe even the WCC approves a parade through the city on Friday 13th. Too much to hope for?

All an acknowledgement of the dizzy heights of the WC and what was acheived 27 years ago and maybe, just maybe, closure as a new bunch can match our heroes from yesteryear

Worked well for Air NZ today.....

YeAh as many 82all whites that are there the better. Guard of honour sounds choice

Whatever happened to Chris James??, from what i saw he was a decent player... that would solve the problem at left mid..

Injured, hasn't played for months in Finland.

I'd drop Brown.

brown for mcglinchey,no doubt in my mind

McGlinchey looked really good this morning, set up a couple of nice raids. That touch when he evaded a tackler on the byline was great...and he also sent in a handy cross.

Tough call about lineups for the return leg. I didn't like Leo playing the role he had to, so we have to mix things up there.

I was just thinking, what kinda weather do we wish for on November 14th? Part of me wants one of those beautiful Wellington days, the sun sets, and we create history...but another asks for cold, wet and rain...Bahrain would hate those conditions, whilst we'd at least be used to them

Am thinking not raining,but just windy?

[QUOTE=Royal]- maybe even the WCC approves a parade through the city on Friday 13th. Too much to hope for?

/QUOTE] Wouldnt personally want a parade on that date...

Looking at the article on fifa.com and reading the comments, it looks like we have plenty of support from overseas. Even if it is because they'd rather the 'easier opponent' at the WC.

True that is an interesting thought tigers,and perhaps you are right. Would it also mean we wont be playing the same formation again to begin with?

the warning signs were there today but for their woeful finishing and they did play well away to Saudi..... so whilst we do have home advantage if they score it is all on...pray for a cold wellington day.

                         Paston

Need to be solid in middle of park esp early on so i think Elliott and Brown have to start, but also need McGlinchey's creativeness.

Sigmund is quite clearly not a right back.

Thank god somebody noticed

He is a fantastic Centre Back, and will truly die for the cause, but he's not a right back.

So would you play Sigmund out of position his best position or do you bring in someone else?

I'd rather play Ivan there. Siggy has done okay there for the Phoenix but is exposed by pace. 

He'd be one of the first names on my team sheet but at his best position.

But yeah I agree him and Nelsen were probably two of the best on the park and I guess you don't want to change a great combination.

Haven't a lot of people said he is naturally a right-back?  He has never struck me as that type of player.

Maybe I mixed up the names.

Pretty sure he was a central midfielder back at the 97 World Cup and at Merdeka 7 or 8 years ago.

Having booked my flights as soon as Wellington was announced as the match venue ($100 round trip) and my ticket the day they went on sale I could not be feeling anymore smug if I tried.

If I haven't pissed off the late bookers enough I also twice saw that weekend pop up on grab a seat since then ($39 each way)

Compared to Ivan, Siggy is a whippet. Ivan would be more exposed. Hell, even Leo, who is no slouch, was done for pace out wide.

Jury is still out on the formation imo

Doesn't play into the strengths of either Smeltz or especially Leo who are arguably our two biggest threats

Biggest problem is we have no one to play right back except perhaps Scott who is still unproven at this level and Mulligan who is proven to be terrible at this level. I would definately not move Siggy out there because the Nelsen/Siggy combination was great.
valeo2009-10-11 23:24:23

We want to win by scoring goals.

Watching a replay. 

Put 4 up front?

We should play a 0-0-10 yea?

That way Paston could put his organizational skills to even better use.... to organize our attack!

And being the best keeper in the league... hell, world, he wouldn't need a defense.

Love this quote from Ricki in answer to a reporter that we were lucky to draw:

I would be more inclined to keep Sigmund in at Center back with Nelsen. Siggie has that total commitment to clearing the ball that you need in the center and Ivan has huge experience which would help him cover the right back spot. Even if their wide attacker got around ivan we would then have Siggie coming in as the second defender. i think a combo of Siggies all out guts and glory in the center with Ryan would work well. I think Ivans an awesome player but Im not sure if he puts his body on the line as hard as siggie does and we really need that in the middle of defence. Apart from that I like that lineup Crespo9. I thought Killen did a great job in Bahrain and then with Smeltz back more central would cause lots of problems.