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

Again Eagar has been over looked? this is beyond the joke now... Emblen has something against him?

Even more bizarre is the fact that Musa is apparently replacing one of Kosta or Smeltz.

Didn't Coveny have a bust-up with Emblen some years back?. That hate prob extends to Sth Melbourne players.

Musa? Dafuq?

Good thing the road trip will be epic. Coz the game certainly won't be.

I think we will be sticking to FIFA windows in future for matches

Brockies goal problems started in the last nz game so maybe this can be his return to goal scoring form

Clearly Emblin has seen that our defence was pants so called up James. Michael might have been the better call. Is Killen retired now?

Or just lowering our expectations for non-FIFA windows?

Given our experiences last time round is it worth getting the All Whites together at any opportunity, even if it sometimes effectively means putting out a B team?

I'm not sure myself actually. Probably only the coaching staff and players can answer that one.

In terms of eagar, he got an injury vs benteigh so I reckon it could've been a factor in him not getting the call, but very happy musa got the call up.  definitely deserved it, his positioning and passing is superb.

Could be his speed on the turn lets him down - internationally speaking. We'll soon see.

Speed on the turn? Hes competing against sigmund durante and boxall - he'll be fine

Sun, 25 May 2014 9:24a.m. TEST
We talk with All Whites interim coach Niel Emblem ahead of their game this week.

http://www.radiolivesport.co.nz/Wynton-World-Of-Football-Neil-Emblem/tabid/454/articleID/18578/Default.aspx

wahoo! tickets book. White noise is on! I dont care if they are a bunch of seconds player each other. Im excited!!!

Wheres the best place to watch in Wellington?

I think it's worth it because when the All Whites have played a lot of friendlies in the past, results have improved in the serious games.

In the build-up to the 1981-82 World Cup qualifiers, the All Whites benefited from playing 17 games in 14 months between February 1980 and the first World Cup qualifier vs. Australia in April 1981. Actually, I think there may have been another couple of friendlies before the first World Cup qualifier in early 1981.

They tried fourteen players in those 17 games (excluding the Merdeka Tournament in Malaysia) who never made the World Cup squad in 1981 (12 made it)

http://www.ultimatenzsoccer.com/NZRepSoccer/id167.htm

From the seven games in the Merdeka Tournament in Malaysia in October 1980, not one player made the World Cup squad vs. Australia in April (Wynton Rufer was called-up late in the year). From the squads earlier in 1980, fourteen players never made the 1981 World Cup squad, 12 made the squad. From the first squad called up in 1980, the squad of 18 for the five games in the Oceania Nations Cup in February 1980,  only six players made the 1981 All Whites squad. 

All Whites line-ups 1980-81:

http://www.ultimatenzsoccer.com/NZRepSoccer/id1563.htm

Anyone know where I will be able to get a stream from for this game? Foxsports are not showing it over here

This South Africa team are no push-overs (or else the Socceroos are):

SUCKEROOS 1 v SOUTH AFRICA 1 tonight

(Cahill 14 mins)           (Patosi 13 mins)

Crowd: 50,049, ANZ Stadium, Sydney

Disappointing result for Australia in their World Cup send-off.

Match thread:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/football-match-centre/socceroos-v-south-africa-20140523-38u9d.html

Seems the so-called SA second-stringers are actually not too bad.

Australia 1 Sth Africa 1

Still nothing?

The other upside of this being an off-season, non FIFA window friendly is that the AWs are obviously spending the whole week in camp (looks like training started yesterday).

So it may not be the full A team but the guys who are playing are spending some decent preparation time together.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503424&objectid=11263737

So NZF flew him up from Wanganui?

Did he win a persil competition or something? wtf...

Oh fuck... this to me smacks of the new boy. "I say chaps, who can we get in to give the chaps a bit of a pep talk, bit of a rev pre-match? How about one of your fine rugger boys? No? Who else? Someone with deep knowledge of the Kiwi round-ball game... Anybody you might know of with a bit of history, able to prep a proper presentation... "

Only difference from the Japan game is Wood and Kosta out with Marco back from injury and James promoted into a starting spot. Looks like a 4231 rather than the 4132 we started against Japan.

4-1-4-1 Apparently. Payne and Boyd the 1s.

See that round thing? The idea is that we just keep that thing in our control as long as possible, because statistically, the less time the opposition have the ball, the less likely they are to be able to score a goal. 

Also, Mossy, if you are saving a penalty, dive to the kickers stronger side (to their left if they are right footed and vice versa) 75% of the time and to the other side 25% of the time, I read in Soccernomics that doing that maximises your chance of saving the penalty. 

And Boyd - those fools on the Yellow Fever website voted you as their player of the season in the man of the match polls in your debut professional season, so go out there and live up to that accolade. Don't ask questions, just fucking do it. 

With Mossy saving all the penalties and Boyd doing what the Fever/White Noise/whatever the fuck the non-existent banner at the front of their supporters zone says expect of him, we'll win this. Too easy.

Simon hampton used to post on here a lot? Is he still around