All Whites v Spain at Confeds Cup

All Whites v Spain at Confeds Cup

Time to start a thread for this game.

Ricki may keep the same side?

Id give paston the gloves isnt he the 1 that has to keep in the qualifiers.

Totally disagree with you. You have named a side full of confindence and going out and getting hammered by Liverpool  Spain wont do them any good.

I would keep Moss in. I no paston is going to be keeper for the qualifiers, but Moss is a cut above in my opinion. And for the better of New Zealand football if we could get a win or draw in this tournament. With moss there is our best chance

Mulligan shouldn't be in the best 11. Happy with the rest of the line-up.

A side with confidance is exactly what we do need on the pitch.

get real mate, the best team should be on the feild for the best team in the world.

I've heard dumb comments but this is something else.

So all the hard-work put in by the All Whites to earn a good result against Italy and renew some interest back home will just be lost as we'll get thrashed by even more if we field a 'B' side.

Hope your talking to Nightz. If thats the case I totally agree with you

Yep, did nightz have a breaky cone?

I cant believe the suggestion to play a 2nd string team. The way to make our team stronger is to play as often as possible against the best we can.

We hardly get any game time together as it is to build combinations. I think that is why Ricki left this team together on the pitch for as long as he did today, and to help their match fitness levels

I would play the same team again

Agreed to an extent. Spain would look at the tape of the game and will exploit us from the word go on the right back if Mully is there. He's more a wingback in a 3-5-2 set up. But we are not doing that at all.

Options? Vicelich has been RB and so has Sigmund. Boyens still better in centre defence and I am not sure about Olds training form in centre defence. Lochead been in Rb but much effective as LB/LWB. And Mully is personally a bit better at LB as his backtracking moves left naturally and his block defence goes moves Right better. However Sigmund been good at LB also.

But generally keep the same. Still wonder about James getting a run, most likely on the bench because Brockie deserves a starting line-up, not sure of his training load. Bertos is stays in line-up as do the rest.

I'll have this line-up:

                                 Moss

Sigmund        Boyens    Vicelich      Lochead

Brockie           Brown      Elliot          Bertos

                               Smeltz

                          Killen


8 on Bench to injury cover or tactics:

James for Elliot/Brown
Wood for Killen/Smeltz
Paston
Mulligan for Sigmund/Lochead
Oughton/Old for Boyens
Barron/James for Brockie
Bright
Smith

2 non-benchers:

Scott
Bannatyne
Oughton/Old/Barron

Keep it real, Keep the momentum. Get them going.

Stick to the team plan. Don't give up and nab a point or three points.

Can't relied on the other two teams to get through. Must make your own luck. Stick with the proven line-up.

Tournament Maintenance, adjust load training sessions, split player groups to keep their match fitness in check, in order to keep team playing levels up for three weeks. Select on form and substitute by match performance. No more time switching the team around too much. Must keep combinations intact to maintain high levels general team play.                            

Where is the best place to watch this? Outside of South Africa of course.

hammered by Barca   Spain wont do them any good.
Iniesta and Xavi run the show mate

And no this is just silly.
Lets go and establish NZ football as true pushovers and one hit wonders. And then we will be less likely to get more International fixtures and jeopardise Oceania's ability to play the game

I personally agree with not playing Mully but I think Seamonsters gotta play centre for me.
He makes those rough last gasp tackles that the others don't risk. Both Vicelich and Boyens were good though. Maybe Siggy on the bench - he has been injured

Well tough call really. Siggy needs match fitness, but if he is in trouble after starting you can sub him off, and the team has time to recover. But to have him as a sub and it doesn't work out after a certain time, it is a waste of a precious substitution to replace a sub.

He was planned to start the Italy match if he got through the last two training session but they want to keep him for the Spain game, I'm sure. It's sounds that he was very close for a half game. He's got some time to be ready for Spain and he'll have a fitness test before then.

Some good reasons why Ricki should keep the status quo re selection put forward by those that have disagreed with me.

Im not convinced Tim Brown is the right man for the job, I would rather see Chris James starting with Simon Elliot in the middle

No. We can't squander a chance where we play the best team in the world and not give our best players the experience of playing against that level of opposition in a meaningful game.

we need to play our best team every game.end of. Spain is the biggie publicity wise (very important for NZ football) ,and to save our bets players for later games would turn off media interest here from the get go. Especially if we got tonked. Another spirited performance like today, and people will be highly interested in games two and three.

On the front page of the FIFA website. http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/news/newsid=1069630.html#kiwi+killen+game+hunter

Nightz, I think if you took everything other than the performance on the field away, your idea has some merit (although there is something to be said for keeping the momentum going from that last game).  Our best chance to get out of the group may be to do what you suggest, or something like that. james dean2009-06-11 21:53:59

Nope.

Thats the delimma for me, I'd want to play Spain as well. Ricki wouldnt do it anyway but if Greame Hendry was the coach he'd be able to say it was his rotation policy. Ok, now I'm being silly.

Sigmund has ruled himself out 

The WC qualifying games are more important than anything else at this point so we need to have our best team getting as much practise together as possible. Having our best players sitting on the bench for the game against Spain will do nothing to help us beat the Asian number 5.

I wondered to myself why Sigmund was there to be honest. 3 months ago he couldn't walk, a month ago he was still using crutches, he's had no game time that I'm aware of and his first game back was potentially against Spain, although it doesn't seem it will be now. While I'm sure he will give 100% as always, isn't it a bit much to ask?
I know quite a few lack some match fitness but Siggy's case is extreme

He deserves it, he's been new zealands best rising star (apart from wood) and after the way he played for the nix he deserves to play in a high profile match

Agreed, but hardly the point.
Players don't play because they deserve it. He's had surgery and been working hard, but to have his first game since the A-league finished and after his rehab is hardly ideal. Different to Wood who has been playing and is (match) fit
Royal2009-06-12 22:44:19

Nightz is correct in a short term view (games against SA and Iraq)but for the long term ( the quals) it would be better if we played our full strength all the time.

Nope.

It would not affect our performance in the last 2 games. We should be familiar with recovery sessions, split group sessions, suitable diet and light training and other methods. We are talking about full-time professionals that have experience of playing week in and week out and doing 4 games over a certain time period.

Any significant drop of performance on the pitch can result in suitable substitutions on the match day and really you need to have the best players involved as much time in the tournament match on the pitch to produce maximise the best results.

If we get a draw and a win, then it may be enough that we could give the other players some game time with the best players on the bench just in case. depends on other results and place in the group and kick off time.AllWhitebelievr2009-06-13 03:15:11

Interesting betting odds being offered on this match at the moment. Spain are hot favourites, as expected. NZ at 48 to 1 to win on one website. The $13.50 return on a draw could be interesting. Maybe worth an (extremely) speculative fiver?

how have all the odds changed since the performace against Italy?  bookies giving us more of a chance now?

I think we were only paying a maximum of about 35 to 1 to beat Italy, so we are even greater underdogs against the Spanish! jamesnz2009-06-13 10:21:19