No call given…
All Whites v Ireland | Wednesday 22nd November | 8.45am NZT | Aviva Stadium, Dublin
No call given…
Cacace's effort has been bloody good too, what a massive engine he's got in him. Hardly see him piss arsing around and walking - Always all action and all speed.
Decent game to watch all said and done.
… until Paulsen gives him a run for his money!
Sims, Gray et al in the under-20 ranks too. Spoilt for choice in the years to come
hand on player is fine, as long as there is no push/shove action. which there wasnt so the correct decision there.
hand on player is fine, as long as there is no push/shove action. which there wasnt so the correct decision there.
Second half was a different story entirely. Some of the best football I've seen us play in years, Singh the standout but solid performances from everyone in the second half. That run from Payne for the goal was outstanding and the link up play was miles ahead of where it was vs Greece - shout out to the golf courses I guess?
You could really tell the belief was there after that goal and you could argue we were unlucky not to win that.
hand on player is fine, as long as there is no push/shove action. which there wasnt so the correct decision there.
Not fluid as we can be in passing. Bell and Stamenic can play much better than that I think.
Mata I think was promising. Singh can’t play that killer ball if there aren’t any runs and Mata made a good one. He could yet be the goods. Certainly still developing.
Oh a chance to use some young folk language. Don’t sleep on Payne. Going forward, oddly enough! And he’s got an engine. He has been good for the Nix and him and Kirwan are in a duel there.
I want Libby to be more clinical, and perhaps drive into the box if there are no options.
Long story short we were better second half, but Ireland also dropped off and didn’t have the motivation to build up their intensity again.
Ireland also gave us a lot more space than Greece. I’d love us to play Greece with our top team, because I think we’d have learned more.
Anyway, much what I expected. Jury still out on the coach.
hand on player is fine, as long as there is no push/shove action. which there wasnt so the correct decision there.
But he went down 5 seconds later, when there was no contact!
Pijnaker still gives me the craps everytime he has the ball.
Bell - needs to improve
but i loved the new keeper, looks decent especially with his distribution he was brave and pin point.
Mata looks more effective than Wood!
One of my biggest Bazeley criticisms is his lack of adjustment and sideline involvement, but he made the most of that little break after 30 mins or so to alter our line and it paid dividends. Hope we're sufficiently prepped for competitive fixtures in future
Pijnaker still gives me the craps everytime he has the ball.
Bell - needs to improve
but i loved the new keeper, looks decent especially with his distribution he was brave and pin point.
Mata looks more effective than Wood!
Its only a friendly and I get that Wood is still coming back from injury and probably being a bit cautious. And can't fault his commitment to wanting to lead this team.
hand on player is fine, as long as there is no push/shove action. which there wasnt so the correct decision there.
But he went down 5 seconds later, when there was no contact!
Be interesting to see what friendlies NZF can secure for March. Congrats to Pragnell & Co for a pretty full calendar in 2024.
Every time we lose a game the critics come en masse and criticise Bazeley and co, but after a good performance, there's relatively muted silence from these people. It just stinks of people having an agenda against the current coaching setup from the get-go.
Interestingly we seem to be scoring against decently ranked team (Sweden, Qatar, DRC, Ireland) more frequently under Baze than we did in the Hay days.
Behave. We won't play International "B' sides too often..if anything people could be critical we didn't get a win against this lot. We were close to if not at full strength. But we are looking at the positives because that is where we are at these days.
Every time we lose a game the critics come en masse and criticise Bazeley and co, but after a good performance, there's relatively muted silence from these people. It just stinks of people having an agenda against the current coaching setup from the get-go.
Interestingly we seem to be scoring against decently ranked team (Sweden, Qatar, DRC, Ireland) more frequently under Baze than we did in the Hay days.
I think context needs to be applied that these friendlies mean infinitely more to us than to any European opposition, and so effort and team selection can reflect that. Lots of complaints about injuries sustained in international breaks has no doubt got some players taking a 'meaningless' friendly a bit below max effort. Friendlies are never really read into much anywhere, but we have nothing else so we have to, bar a maximum five quadrennial qualifiers against island nations.
I agree about not taking friendlies too seriously either way, good or bad, especially once the match tensions wear off. As coochiee said, they rotated their entire side, and even then their first side have not been good. But we can look at the positives of the last half-hour once Wood went off, when we looked much better.
To be fair, Hay's weaker side also scored against Ireland four years ago. And the sides he failed to score against (Peru, Australia) are a fair few steps ahead of DRC (this window beat Mauritania 2-0 and lost to Sudan 1-0) or Qatar (this window beat Afghanistan 8-1 and India 0-3). Bazeley's side also failed to score against Australia of course, and the DRC goal was a quite dubious penalty. Costa Rica incomparable in that it wasn't a friendly. Sweden have been on a sad deflation under Janne Anderson who's now finally had his last game and they still won 4-1 with a rotated side.
Even the National League coverage is no better than the last years. It's still the same broadcast production - one camera, one commentator - just on a platform which is far less mainstream than Youtube where it was last year. Even then, there used to be one game a week with TV quality broadcast, so arguably it's worse.
I get lots of people can't afford Sky, free-to-air is not the issue, Australia has perfectly fine free-to-air football on 10. Just the execution; it can't be impossible to find an ex-player or two who want to chat about the match. Hiding away your product on an obscure platform with low effort coverage will not build the game.
I don't personally believe in the whole, doesn't mean much, its only a friendly. I don't know of any international athlete who doesn't take every single game/competition seriously.
They're professionals, they have an inbuilt win mentality and in football 100's of playing dying for the opportunity to take their place and play internationally.
The 2nd half was as good a half of footy by a NZ team I can recall watching. I'm proud of that effort.
🗣️ “I thought today the boys really stepped up and showed what a good team we can become.”
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) November 22, 2023
Darren Bazeley reflects on his team’s performance in the 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland. pic.twitter.com/jfMRyJStdK
Little corner of White.
Matt Garbett’s goal from pitch side (feat. @FlyingKiwisFC) 🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/WUZHygr338
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) November 21, 2023
🎥 Brilliant finish from Matt Garbett to level against Republic of Ireland.
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) November 21, 2023
▶️ Watch live and free on @TVNZ and FIFA+ (in NZ) now at https://t.co/4RfQt85b66
🇮🇪 1 - 1 🇳🇿 #IRLvNZL pic.twitter.com/pUCMUMEza0
🗣️ “I thought today the boys really stepped up and showed what a good team we can become.”
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) November 22, 2023
Darren Bazeley reflects on his team’s performance in the 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland. pic.twitter.com/jfMRyJStdK
Little corner of White.
Matt Garbett’s goal from pitch side (feat. @FlyingKiwisFC) 🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/WUZHygr338
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) November 21, 2023
🎥 Brilliant finish from Matt Garbett to level against Republic of Ireland.
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) November 21, 2023
▶️ Watch live and free on @TVNZ and FIFA+ (in NZ) now at https://t.co/4RfQt85b66
🇮🇪 1 - 1 🇳🇿 #IRLvNZL pic.twitter.com/pUCMUMEza0