I feel like I am in the minority - but I am pleased with what we have showed today.
Am now!
Overall the team has done well, epsecially now its 1-1, but certain players should not be in the squad, Tuiloma and Bell are two that are lucky to be there for mine.
Worst thing about a draw/win here is we will continue with Baze Ball 🤬
A hiding here would maybe be the end of his tenure.
No one else wanted the job. The players have taken more responsibility today.
And despite the dribbling of Old, the technical skill of Stamenic, the heritage of Wood our goal came from getting it launched to a brief two on one that caused them to panic. 🤷♂️
I appreciated that game. Wonder how different it would have been with Poch. Look at Razor- grass isn’t always greener.
Look at the pressing and responsibility Bell was doing and taking there in the 97th minute. That’s leadership and the kind of thing Rufer did all last season. Both of them there, no more games like the last one.
I much better effort from the boys, we also grew into the game with the subs adding fresh legs at the right time. I was pleased with our young centre back combination. We should carry that on in the future. They should hopefully get better year by year also with bindon involved. I just don't know why they played so poorly against mexico. It just seemed we weren't motivated like we were tonight.
Standouts for me were Stamenic, Surman, Pijnaker and Crocombe.
I think that’s the CB partnership we will see going into the next couple windows as much stick Pijnaker gets I thought he was pretty good this game. Very robust in his challenges but I thought he was superb in the air same with Surman, that’s probably the best thing we got from that is those two seemed to Jell pretty well.
Definitely will shape up for interesting selection come next month when guys like Mccowatt, Singh and Bindon come back into the picture. There’s still a toss up for me in the middle of the park with Rufer and Bell.
We definitely need a new right back and I’m afraid Bindon is going to get plugged there next window just to get him in the starting XI. Definitely not his preferred or his best position.
Overall quite positive but I’m keen for guys like Mccowatt & Singh to come back into the XI to help with better hold up player and a bit more stability in attack. Thought we lost the ball far too quickly with dodgy passes and bad decision making in the final 1/3 today.
Preferably don’t wanna see Bell & Rufer together on the park ever again to be honest. We lacked serious mobility in those two positions today and we didn’t get punished as much as we probably should’ve. They weren’t bad defensively but they both seriously lack creativity and variety on the ball and are just sideway passing ponies.
Standouts for me were Stamenic, Surman, Pijnaker and Crocombe.
I think that’s the CB partnership we will see going into the next couple windows as much stick Pijnaker gets I thought he was pretty good this game. Very robust in his challenges but I thought he was superb in the air same with Surman, that’s probably the best thing we got from that is those two seemed to Jell pretty well.
Definitely will shape up for interesting selection come next month when guys like Mccowatt, Singh and Bindon come back into the picture. There’s still a toss up for me in the middle of the park with Rufer and Bell.
We definitely need a new right back and I’m afraid Bindon is going to get plugged there next window just to get him in the starting XI. Definitely not his preferred or his best position.
Overall quite positive but I’m keen for guys like Mccowatt & Singh to come back into the XI to help with better hold up player and a bit more stability in attack. Thought we lost the ball far too quickly with dodgy passes and bad decision making in the final 1/3 today.
Preferably don’t wanna see Bell & Rufer together on the park ever again to be honest. We lacked serious mobility in those two positions today and we didn’t get punished as much as we probably should’ve. They weren’t bad defensively but they both seriously lack creativity and variety on the ball and are just sideway passing ponies.
Hopefully Shez and Elliot will stake their claims for the RB role this A-League season. For me, Shez looks like the long term prospect.
i think it being a fair bit cooler, in addition to having had a few more days (and a whole game) to acclimatise to the heat, was a major reason for the difference in performance levels
Worst thing about a draw/win here is we will continue with Baze Ball 🤬
A hiding here would maybe be the end of his tenure.
No one else wanted the job. The players have taken more responsibility today.
And despite the dribbling of Old, the technical skill of Stamenic, the heritage of Wood our goal came from getting it launched to a brief two on one that caused them to panic. 🤷♂️
I appreciated that game. Wonder how different it would have been with Poch. Look at Razor- grass isn’t always greener.
Look at the pressing and responsibility Bell was doing and taking there in the 97th minute. That’s leadership and the kind of thing Rufer did all last season. Both of them there, no more games like the last one.
There were several people interested in the job, NZF just wasted so much time in getting around to it that they took other offers - Bazeley was the only option left after so many months.
Yep, Payne and Tuiloma both made handy (though not enough) attacking contributions. We lose a lot by not having a fit aggressive RB to give us width or underlap. Though Bindon scores a few from set pieces, I don’t want to see him in nose bleed territory.
I’d like to see Paulsen tried with this midfield. We created two great chances by beating the press, we can do that better with Alex.
Fact remains we didn’t create much. We’ve gotta get Woodsy more involved somehow.
Anyway, I also thought Pijnaker had a good game. Probably benefits from the reliability of Surman there.
I like having the 3 tough midfielders on. 4 if you count Garbett.
I’m not sure how Singh or McCowatt fit in. Or Kosta for that matter.
I said it months ago that we should have those 3 mids together
I think we have to against better opposition in order to at least have some of the ball. Yes they limit our attack....but they screen the D and limit the clear chances.
This game could have gone either way. The usa were better overall... but we snapped and kept ourselves in it.
The performance against Mexico was poor. Wood acknowledged that. He promised a reaction to that, and fair to the team and Bazeley they did respond.
Fair bit of luck today. Pepi's first half goal is not ruled out, and the game may have gone differently. Then yes Waineo with a flukey one. But most importantly the team played much better.
I was watching without sound on a US stream that kept dropping out, but from that limited viewpoint I liked the Bell, Rufer & Stamenic midfield. We just seemed far more defensively solid today, less over run. That then gives you something to build off, and grow confidence from. Some of the counter attacking esp in the 2nd half was exciting. Especially with subs like Old on. Maybe that's his best role for now with the AWs. Off the pine with 35 mins to go, as bodies tire, and the field opens up.
Sure the FIFA rankings can be misleading, but these 2 teams, Mexico (17th) & USA (16th) are the highest ranked teams we have played in a long time. Even Sweden who thrashed us 4-1 last June are only in at 29th. Australia at 24th. Against these teams we ain't going to win the possession stakes - even if we are better than the past - so we need to be set up defensively solid, and ready to pounce on the counter. This is especially true when we don't have Singh. Is just a continuous pattern now that without Singh, Wood lacks service.
No doubt the Mexico performance was hindered by the heat, and limited preparation time. If NZT can get Bazeley a very solid leadup campaign from mid 2025 onwards, including 2-3 quality friendlies just before the 2026 WC, I'm optimistic we can play more like today, than 3 days ago at the 2026 big dance. We will also need to be lucky with injuries come then. If both Wood and Singh were both out for example, it could all be very toothless. Bad enough when one is absent. So fingers crossed after a long 2025/26 European season we get lucky with a healthy squad.
Garbett didn't impress me over these two games. His touch is a little heavy and I think he can be a little lazy at times with his tracking etc. Gives really good moments of energy, but other times seems to fade out.
I would keep Stamenic and play him alongside Rufer in the middle with Singh playing ahead of them. Old and McCowatt on either side of Wood on the flanks.
The sad thing is, with our next level of opposition we won't really find out aything new about our players.
Returning to North America in June 2025 to play Canada this time, plus another team - might be on the table. The 3 automatically qualified CONCACAF hosts will have limited options for friendlies heading into 2026, with most other Confeds in the midst of World Cup qualifying.
Garbett didn't impress me over these two games. His touch is a little heavy and I think he can be a little lazy at times with his tracking etc. Gives really good moments of energy, but other times seems to fade out.
I would keep Stamenic and play him alongside Rufer in the middle with Singh playing ahead of them. Old and McCowatt on either side of Wood on the flanks.
The sad thing is, with our next level of opposition we won't really find out aything new about our players.
Yes OFC qualifying will tell us nothing about where the AWs are at. I predict we win each game in NZ by 5 goals all more. Tahiti in Vanuatu a bit tougher.
Blessing is it's all over quickly by next March, and does have 4 actual (5 with the Malaysia friendly) AWs games in NZ.
But leave truly assessing how the AWs are tracking again, from June next year.
