All Whites V South Africa | 30 May 7:30pm | The Zookeeper's Son | SS3

 

ummm What (AKL) hype ?

Tim Payne was lucky to stay on for the whole game. What was he thinking? This wasn't a life-or-death game.

Quick thoughts after being at the game.

Overall fairly decent - but for a couple of poor crosses could have had a couple of goals. Seemed to tire in the last 30 - lack of match play I guess. Impressed with Boyd but could have done with Wood's strength at times. Rojas and Thomas have touches rarely seen by Kiwi footballers. Durante disappointed me when we have the ball - very slow to distribute and often would delay the simple ball out to his fullback which really killed any impetus. Also reluctant to give it to people like James, Thomas, Rojas when they had a couple of yards of space and resorted to aimless lumps up the park - too used to playing with players with poor first touches.

A huge amount of promise in guys like Boyd, Roux, Tuiloma and even Boxall was pretty solid I thought. Add in Reid, Smith and Wood and there's a lot to like. Let's hope we play regularly in the 2nd half of the year

A few touches of excitement late in first half, but not much to wrote home about. Much as I like attackers playing tictac passes through the middle of a defence, we didn't stretch them out wide often enough. Good energy from Tyler, but no one held the ball up for the midfielders to work off.
I guess overall, we didn't lose and people got some game time.

Ozzzzies trumpeting they are finally ready for a World Cup. 1 all draw with SA must have been their proof-Until tonight. 

Who's arm pits smell. Crash n Burn in the lower America 

tactical foul? that really? that was an awful tackle that deserved red. Had it been earlier in the game and he had been sent we would have been down to ten? not so tactical in my opinion. a minute before it he was lucky not be booked for another rubbish tackle. had he actually been able to make a pass tonight there would have been no need for either. 

Was at game.

Thought it was overall good, liked the way we played (no hoofball yaddy yaa)

Crowd was getting impatient and calling for shots from 30 yards out but they should be ignored imo

Thomas had some moments of awesomeness definitely a stand out player, looked frustrated with those around him. The whole skill level of the All Whites looked really good though and I was impressed.

Excited for the future.

Traveled up to Auckland today for the game and definitely enjoyed the trip, some thoughts though:

Thought our defense was fairly solid however I think some of the passing at the back looked shaky and some of our defenders were caught ball watching. Roux stood out for me at the back. 

Tim Payne is not the man for the job, the transition between our defense and midfield wasn't that smooth and there was a lot of play a good defensive midfielder would have broken up.

Our attacking players were fairly exciting and I think with wood up front to hold up the ball and score goals we would have come away with a result. In future if Tim Payne is going to be a permanent fixture in the squad i'd like to see him and Tuiloma both as defensive midfielders at the same time. Would provide our defense with a lot more cover and we would have less players in the attacking 3rd which might free up some space. 

Just some thoughts, I'm happy the South Africans didn't win, it shut their fans up.

When was that? Last game I remember (prior to Mexico) at the cake tin was Paraguay - which was more thank half full I think.

Just got back from the game.  A reasonably good effort from a young team.  I can certainly see though why we haven't signed Payne, he was absolutely honking.  At least 3 of South Africa's good chances came directly from him giving away the ball, and as for that tackle, i'm not sure how it looked on TV and what angle you got, but from the stand you could see him lining the guy up from 5 meters out.  No idea how he stayed on the field after that.

We pack 'em in vs. tin pot opposition in the South Island - there would be over-crowding and riots in the stands if a team like South Africa played down here... 
 

The smallest I've ever been in were Island nation qualifiers in Auckland.  Mostly afternoon games at NHS in front of hundreds.

Sorry these are a bit old...

Wed, 28 May 2014 7:57a.m. TEST
Neil Emblen, the man in charge of the All Whites ahead of their clash with South Africa joins us now
http://www.radiolivesport.co.nz/Neil-Emblen/tabid/454/articleID/18626/Default.aspx

Thu, 29 May 2014 8:56a.m. TEST
We speak now with All Whites Midfielder Chris James ahead of their clash with South Africa
http://www.radiolivesport.co.nz/Chris-James/tabid/454/articleID/18648/Default.aspx

Harry Ngata: All whites v South Africa

Ok so 4 of us went to the game last night and I have to ask having read this thread, what game was I watching cause I have a completely different view to everyone here. What I watched definitely does not marry up with what I read here and I am seriously wondering if I was slipped something in my lemonade. 

To post what we saw (which is in complete contrast to what is posted here)

Payne was a beast and owned it

Wee Mac and James went missing a lot

Roux called his own number to press forward rather than giving Rojas the early ball and service to let the better footballer do the work

Thomas did not do much, Boyd is not a striker and really needs a left foot badly

Nice interplay and football and good to see less long hoof ball. This is the right style to be playing.

We were good for 30mins, they were good for 60

How aggressive were the South Africans? We saw them run at every foul and pushed the ref twice. For a friendly, they were an aggro lot.

As an aside (and I seriously do wonder if I walked into a different game) Aucklanders suck. Low turn out, no atmosphere. I'm not taking aim at the White Noise but they were quiet. Placing them behind a goal was a dumb move I thought when they would have been better in the crowd and had people around them to rally in others. Whomever put them there needs a bullet. You may as well have stuck them in cow corner and it would have been equally effective. Bad move NZF

Oh yeah, did I say that Aucklanders suck??

I'm off for a lie down. I feel very confused that I imagined all this last night now cause it does not marry up with what 90% of other posters and what they saw.

I agree with this almost entirely.

My decision to have the Noise behind the goal.

Aucklanders don't "rally" around the white noise (or Fever) they whinge.

We have seen this at every Auckland game the last three or more years.

As for the rest I think you were drunk.

alas a few were still whinging from the white noise zone!

The last line is what I am seriously wondering which is not good for a recovering alcoholic.

I think what encouraged most people (me anyway) was that we played on the deck. All the time. And didn't look afraid to play it short under pressure. I thought the approach was encouraging and those young fellas you've bagged were bloody exciting I reckon.

Dura's distribution was glacial.

Thought payne was poor and midfield in general not up to it. We neither kept the ball under pressure, nor were prepared to be available to receive in middle of the park. Hence, had v little structured possession in their half, and relied on break outs and loose ball going forward. We also really missed wood's ability to hold the ball up and win some headers when we lumped it forward, and we didn't have a proper goal scorer on the pitch either. 

Boxall played really well, rojas (despite a couple of wayward balls) was decent and involved in most our best moments. He can be flighty but is still incisive. Roux was solid. I can't remember too much of thomas.

I think I really need to see a replay.

There were spells where we strung together some really nice fluid quick passing, but overall it was a pretty disjointed and scrappy effort. Some of the passing was just aimless around the back because SA weren't pressing, and when they did start to press we looked shaky very quickly. Neither Boyd or Brockie are suited to playing as a sole striker and consequently we struggled to get the ball out of the middle of the park. Rojas didn't look match fit to me either.

Given the youth of our squad and the fact we were missing several key players it was encouraging overall I guess.

Watched a small amount as I had to go to work, but have recorded it.

Two questions:

a) Should I watch it?

b) Did anyone notice how small the crowd was?

a) Watch the first half
b) The crowd was all in one stand so didn't look bad.

A fair bit of this.

We looked exciting once we broke the press, but we were awful in transition most of the time, especially through the last twenty minutes of the first half when we backed off too much. We didn't seem to have much of a plan for building the attack, but I think that has more to do with a lack of familiarity between some of the players and Emblem spent the week working on defensive shape, which paid off in the end.

Payne was given a role where he could not stand out unless he was poor, and well, yeah. And that tackle, fucking hell.

Thomas looked to get on the ball and beat his man, but their right back was up to the task and it meant he missed a few easy passes that made more sense than running with the ball. I remember one point in the first half when he had someone in acres of space on the overlap and he ran into traffic on the edge of the area.

It all looked promising to me, especially when I think about how much stronger we will be with Reid, Smith, and Wood. The biggest problem area we have now against top sides is central midfield. I think the calls on here for Tuiloma as the ball-winner are decent shouts, but who would slot in at full-back?

Roux to LB, Boxall to RB, Reid and Smith in the middle?

Glad to see Musa again for a bit. He impressed me at the Olympics in London and looked good in his cameo at LB and CB last night. Would have him back at the Nix fo sure.

A pretty good effort from a team that doesn't play very much- definitely lacking in attack.

I wish they would end this "experiment" of taking football to Auckland.

Auckland and football just doesn't work. It never has and probably never will.  Repeat five hundred times until embedded on your soul.

Any major football should only be played in Christchurch or Wellington (nothing much against Dunedin, it's just a bitch to get to).

Anyone with enough interest will simply go to the game, both cities are as well connected as anywhere else in the country and travel to either is relatively cheap. Like the Phoenix "home-away" nonsense that only served to dilute the local fan involvement, thus preventing any impetus to grow committed fan numbers, the same applies to major internationals with the national squad.

I say again, Football= Wellington or Christchurch.

Agree with the above. Best player on the park by far was the dreadlocked Safa No.12. If we had a player like him in midfield our FIFA ranking would push on by 20/30. But it may not happen for another 20/30 years.

Nice to see the minute's silence for Duncan C. Respect.

........... and at the Zoo....

 

That would probably have to be it. It also wouldn't be too big a change given that Tuiloma doesn't seem to want to get forward much.

Incidentally, there was a moment last night that proved Boxall's pace to me. He outpaced a sprinting South African to a loose ball while looking like he was barely moving. I do now buy the rumour that he is one of the quickest Nix players.

And the positives, if any, of the Auckland supporters were?