2026 WCQ vs Tahiti | Fri 11th Oct | 3pm

Took the captain's armband after Wood went off.

Smashed the country that I'm not even sure is an actual country! Take that!

Rusty Dunks

Smashed the country that I'm not even sure is an actual country! Take that!

The final scoreline didn't tell the full story of the match.

Man these games are almost pointless. Its basically just playing an amateur club side on a bad pitch in horrible hot conditions. 

Why don't they merge this tiny confederation into Asia... 

Rufer was consistently good all game. Bindon looked very composed, although not much pressure to cope with. Sutton made quite a difference, more threatening than Cacace, nice assist with the floated corner. Just - fine goal, started very well then faded. The compact defence meant Oldie had little chance to dribble in behind. 

With the first goal after 90 seconds I was thinking this.could easily end up a blood bath.

But good on Tahiti for making it tough for us to break them down again. And the 3-0 scoreline probably doesnt do Tahiti justice for how disciplined they ended up being in defence.

We really need to be getting Chris Wood involved more often. I understand against the likes of Mexico and the USA when we struggle the ball to him, but against lower ranked opposition like today we really should be finding him much more frequently.

I'm guessing Rufer must be considered 3rd choice captain behind Wood and Cacace - I'm happy to see he's considered a part of the leadership group.

The heat was probably a factor but we will most likely need to step it up a bit against Malaysia on Monday.

Half a Pint

With the first goal after 90 seconds I was thinking this.could easily end up a blood bath.

But good on Tahiti for making it tough for us to break them down again. And the 3-0 scoreline probably doesnt do Tahiti justice for how disciplined they ended up being in defence.

We really need to be getting Chris Wood involved more often. I understand against the likes of Mexico and the USA when we struggle the ball to him, but against lower ranked opposition like today we really should be finding him much more frequently.

I'm guessing Rufer must be considered 3rd choice captain behind Wood and Cacace - I'm happy to see he's considered a part of the leadership group.

The heat was probably a factor but we will most likely need to step it up a bit against Malaysia on Monday.

Obviously not in the squad this window but Bell is also still a choice, though putting Wood aside, he's got some competition now with Libby and Rufer for future AWs captaincy.

I think this style of football against other Oceania teams is what we can expect, especially when we ar eplaying in the islands. The heat, the pitch and managing players for bigger games all come into it. End of the day winning 3-0 is as good as winning by 7 or 8. It's 3 points in the bag and we move on to the next game in a months time. Yes, at times it's not the prettiest, but its effective, and the reality is we are always going to win except for an absolutely amazing performance from a very much weaker side and an abysmal performance by us.
Against the island nations our performances will alsways look average, something about playing a weaker side and your planned effort drops, yet against a better side it improves.
Hopefully we look better against Malaysia, but I'd expect a very different side to be played in that match. Hopefully Roux gets some game time.

I thought a number of AWs were MIA today:

Garbett
Just (after the goal)
Rogerson (don’t understand what he brings to the AWs currently)
Stamenic

I also couldn’t understand why we kept lobbing the ball in the air when we looked a lot more clinical with the ball on the ground.

Also any idea why Crocs was wearing a black armband?

Probably George Baldock. Same age (31) as Crocs and they were team mates for two seasons at Oxford United 2014/15 & 2015/16, in League Two.