All Whites vs China | Sat 15 Nov | 12.30am | SS1

Full credit to the opposition

I think Wood, Thomas, Gleeson, Smith and Boxall played well.  

Marco especially had a game to forget.  Is that why he's not even riding the pine in 2 Bundesliga?

Chicken and the egg situation isn't it - is he playing bad because he's not getting gametime, or is he not getting gametime because he's bad?

I thought Wood had a good game - really led the line well.

Those misses though....the Chinese commentator laughing when we missed that 3rd one summed it up.

Love to see the 2nd half stats, reckon we absolutely dominated. Pity we can't hit a ball from 3 yards out.

Well done AWs. Obvious issues aside there was a lot to like about that performance.

I really do think if we managed to either get Tuiloma to a higher level or magically find a much better DM we'd have a decent shot at qualifying and peforming well with this side.

Btw  - credit to Wynne; he actually did better than Roux (though to be fair they mostly attacked down Roux's side)

Zheng Zhi. Captain and most capped player.  Centre mid.

I do love trolling through all the posts and seeing how negative we all are. Then we get a goal and it changes....

To be fair it's more from the frustration of having so many chances and bungling all of them.

So the last three games against China have all been 1-1.

Me still finks we need Chris James, I just don't think we have another centre mid who can control the game like him

Agree.

Great header, Wood.

Average age of 21, let's keep that in mind

I'm absolutely stoked with the draw

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Did I see Emblin on the side or was that my imagination?

I thought the game was Saturday night/Sunday morning :'(

We should have won that comfortably. Missed two absolute sitters, and Tuiloma's off the post effort early could have been one too. Gleeson didn't have heaps to do by comparison.

Not often you get to say that the AWs spurned a number of great chances but still got a draw.

China pretty average, also that #10 (Xang Xi?) was tidy.

Perrin notes the second half tiring of China as something to work on and the missed opportunities in the first half.

Hao Junmin was the stand out player making his comeback to the team after a long time out for various reasons.  He is slated as a key player in their Asian Cup campaign.

Surprised the guy with the clock for a picture got that wrong.

#10 is Zheng Zhi.  He's 34.  Asian Cup probably his last fling.

I thought a draw was a good reflection of the game.  China could have been 2 or 3 goals up by half time and NZ's finishing in the 2nd half was poor.

Wood's header was how you use tall timber, set-pieces, not lumping it to him from defence (which the Chinese CBs dealt with all night).

Perhaps we should use 24 hour clocks then

Played OK - promising considering the make up and age.

Initial start we pressured China a lot, especially in the middle and final third.  But really not a lot of tiki taka. Very direct passing.  Later China sussed out our high pressing game and played quick short passing to break this up and then long cross field passes to switch to their unmarked wingers.  Our central mid was very quiet/non-existent.

We played a lot of long balls to Wood which were either well intercepted or as soon as he recieved them he had Zhang Linpeng or Feng Xiaoting up his arse (or both).

Second half we played through the midfield more and on the ground - made much more of the play and dominated for most of the half.  But couldn't score in a brothel.

We looked very good. Good meaning: cohesive, positive, organised, up for it, professional.  Hudson has made a big impact already.  Smith was average tho.  Surely there's a young CB out there somewhere....

A game of two halves for me. both teams had there chances. happy with the All whites :-) 

Highlights here:

http://sports.sina.com.cn/video/c/j/match/2014/111...

(3rd clip has most of them except our many misses)

Also in all three 1-1 draws China has scored first.  Wood equalised in the last game 2 years ago as well.

Definitely a big improvement on the Uzbekistan game at least. Hopefully we smash Thailand to give our young guys some confidence

I think China should be pretty disappointed with their effort.

However they do look promising under Perrin (played 8, W4, D3, L1) who took over early this year compared with Camacho who basically destroyed China's development under the most succesfsul coach Gao Hongbo.

From what I saw this game if they can keep up their fitness for both halves, they will be a good challenge for Oz, Japan and Korea.  They were also missing several key players through injury.

They also had a part time RB so I was hoping to see Kosta run at them down that side...

All things considered, I reckon it was a pretty good result.

China played Thailand last month and won 3-0. Things are looking good.  

Erm, NZF and NZHerald: It's Zheng Zhi who scored, not Wu Lei.

I know we all look alike to you lot but really...

No.  China played a bunch of junior and random players that Thailand rounded up and grabbed a junior coach because it couldn't be arsed feilding it's proper team.

The last time they met properly Thailand spanked China 5-1.  But at that time even the Jests could have beaten China (Camacho times).

Had a mare, forgot to record, woke up to watch last 25 mins. 

Watching the rest this arvo.

The part I watched, wow, what a surprise. We were so full of energy for that whole period, every man on the front foot when we didnt have it, looking to win the ball. The pressure was impressive and some of the interplay when we got it was very good. 

Reading this thread I see it was like that for the first 20 or so as well. If this is the way we're going to play I love it, and if Hudson can consistently get that kind of defensive hunger out of these guys then what excitement we're in for.

Very promising. 

Average age 21? Wow. 

Thailand are currently 1 spot above Tahiti in the FIFA rankings at 165th in the world.

I know the FIFA rankings aren't entirely indicative but they give you a reasonable idea of where a team is at.

Think you're ignoring how many times we left their striker free in the box and the chances they had in the first half. I thought China were very tidy in midfield, much better than us, and their strikers got around us with disturbing ease at times. 2nd half was much much better, though I think in part due to them taking a striker off and sitting back.