All Whites v Honduras, Sunday 12.30pm, SS3

fixed that for you

sack Ricki

Shit game to watch but typical of a friendly like that. Kosta was mud. Everyone else went pretty well. 

The coverage and commentators were embarrassing. "he's been having inju isseries" seriously?? Every time I sit through a game listening to that lot I think it can't get any worse but they always manage to prove me wrong. 

Will the @WgtnPhoenixFC fans boo @ShaneSmeltz when he scores for the #Allwhites , just like they do every game we play them?? I guess not…

Yep, TV3 did the All Whites story after rugby, triathlon and bmx racing.  And this is with Gourdie reading the sports news.  Not sure what TV One did as it's not up online yet.

If I was Smeltzy I wouldn't be to happy to hear a team mate of mine say something like that.

Such a bell end thing to say, but what ever.

Great result All Whites!! (without our 2 Premier League players). Excellent cross to Smeltz.  We  will be very competitive @ Olympics with Reid & Nelsen to shore up our defense.  NZ television continue to ignore the world game as per usual.  50/50  chance to make 2nd round @ Olympics.....

Number three story on TV One sports news at 6pm Sunday- after rugby and league predictably...

Yet,  they did run it in the news intro at the top of the show as the leading sports story and had graphics of All Whites players running behind the presenter funnily for quite a while as he read the rugby story...

-and a nice positive report on the match too by Brendan Tasker who usually does yachting.

Is he Martin Taskers brother???

It's all very well Brockie hitting crosses like that at the Nix...but who the bloody hell is going to be there to put them away??

Siggie is our only aerial terror in the box with Brownie retiring, Greenacre supposed to be going to a limited role and no new news...

We played really well in the first half and I think a big part of that was how Honduras setup in a 442 and our the performance of our CB's when we had possession. 

I really liked seeing our two outside CB's getting really wide when we had possession, gives us good passing options out of defence and Vicelich was good in that first half with good composure on the ball. Having Honduras playing two up front meant we weren't out manned in midfield, 4 v 4, and had a 3 v 4 in attack. My only gripe was Paston's performance with the ball at his feet, his distribution was terrible and turns over possession too often, espeically when there were easy options to feet. Clapham and McGlinchey were industrious where I think Vicilech was a bit more laboured against El Salvador. The attacking trio worked ok, Kosta dropping from wide left into a more central position opened up space down the left which Brockie looked to exploit which was good to see, some nice runs looking to pull players out of position or if not followed getting into space between the lines.

In the second half I'm not sure how much can be attributed to fatigue or tactical changes. We dropped into zones very early and didn't press as much. This saw a bank of 5, defence including WB's, and a bank of 4, including two attacking wide players. It looked like Honduras had switched to a front 3 which understands the WB's getting pushed back but saw our 3 CB's very often only marking 1 player. With our lone attacker their full backs pushed forward and created a 5 v 4 in midfield which showed in how much possession Honduras was able to keep. Though, in saying that, having those 3 CB's, like a wall, meant Honduras having to play either side of them or in front of them.