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.