All Whites vs Belgium | Sat 27th June | 3:00pm (NZT) | BC Place, Vancouver

323 replies · 11,976 views
about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
coochiee wrote:
 Nelfoos wrote:
 coochiee wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 valeo wrote:
Obviously there are quality differences but we also look really really poor coached, the goals we've conceded haven't exactly been worldies
If Baze had more tactical nous we would have 6 points. 


 
Man you write some crap 💩 

We need another coach for the next step in this team’s development 

But their is a massive class difference today

See that corner where they counter after a brilliant soft touch and lay off from De Bruyne. Would have been a lovely goal if they had scored. 
I dont think he means this match.

Rich to accuse someone else of writing crap when you've been rubbishing obvious criticisms of Bazeley for months.
Yeah I realise that, but I don’t agree we 100% beat Egypt and Iran with another coach in charge. Was just highlighting the level of other teams like the Belgians

Observer critised Bazeley pre game for not starting Thomas, when he had picked him to run on. Sorry but his posts are often Facebook level stuff.

Yipe some of the criticism of Dazza is for sure justified. It’s probably time for him to go, but getting a better coach is no fait accompli

They had an open application process last time and he was last man standing. Buckingham is the obvious candidate but can NZF afford his wages now, and 3 years of friendlies then Samoa , Fiji and New Caledonia ain’t that sexy 
We're in a better position to pay a coach proper wages now than at any point in history.

I agree Observer has some terrible takes, but a competent coach sets us up to defend a lead instad of making reactionary changes.

We also mentally crumbled each time we went behind and that can only come back on the coach and the culture he creates.

At least now anyone who ate up the "cultural architect" nonsense should be able to see through the bullshit.

Valley FC til I die?

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Endorsed by
AucklandPhoenixFUMainland FCob+2
about 1 month ago
20 Legend wrote:
I'm extremely disappointed given what could've been...

But some of y'all need a good dose of reality to go with some weirdly inflated expectations. Some people here are harsher on the 85th ranked All Whites than you are the Phoenix. It's insane.

Personally, I will remember a generational performance against Iran and an excellent cup for Just.

Agreed, I have to admit the four goal margin was slightly better than I thought it was going to be. But I wish more effort and expertise had been put into solidifying the defence. You can't hope to compete if you concede ten goals, at least seven of which were very defendable by any standards. 

A decent defence and an ability to score goals aren't mutually exclusive. We performed better than expected goalwise but the defending was frustratingly and avoidably poor.
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Endorsed by
FUKimjNelfoos+2
about 1 month ago
Going into this tournament I wasn't really expecting us to make it out the groups, or at best make it through off being a good 3rd place team, but still dissapointing. We have some decent talent but we were out of our depth this tournament, especially against Belgium. Bazely struggled to make good adjustments and I question his squad choices, like playing Ben Old so infrequently and playing him on the right wing when he's spent his time in France as an LB or LM. Crocombe isn't our best keeper and I would've rathered he gave Paulsen a shot. Bell sort of just annoyed me all tournament tbh.

Happy for Elijah just though, I believe he is New Zealand's only player to score three world cup goals, huge! Hope he can get a good move after this, had some very good goals.
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Endorsed by
brFULGMainland FC+2
about 1 month ago
LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.


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Endorsed by
FUMarto
about 1 month ago
AucklandPhoenix wrote:
Ok Max, time for you to have the game of your life and keep a clean sheet.

And Sarpreet to stick one in the top corner.


 
that aged well. Max was/is gobshite!

Queenslander 3x a year.

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Endorsed by
FUHenufc_nzSouthernix
about 1 month ago
nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
fingers crossed he's jobless by the time he gets home!

Queenslander 3x a year.

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Endorsed by
FU
about 1 month ago
Very disappointing performance. The constant massive hole in midfield must have been on purpose along with Bell only capable of passing backwards.

Schoolboy defending once again giving a way cheap goals.

Baze has to go.


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Endorsed by
FUKiPK
about 1 month ago
Happy with the play considering previous all whites teams, atleast ive enjoyed watching the games (outside of belgium) and felt like we were on-par with our opponents. Core young players will be there for the next cup and hopefully a few more quality ones come through - who knows, we might even be able to pinch some quality players from overseas that have relations to NZ. I think Bazely is out of depth and that has shown for a long time, we cant afford to move forward with him at the helm. Also thought crocombe was pretty poor all tournament given he got to start all the games - other keepers from smaller nations really stepped up where he looked shakey in the air and on the ground. Need to build the attack around Just, think it would work best placing pace beside him - singh and thomas were just too slow.

yung thug

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Endorsed by
FUPKSouthernix
about 1 month ago
nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
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Endorsed by
mj
about 1 month ago
Noah4thenix wrote:
Going into this tournament I wasn't really expecting us to make it out the groups, or at best make it through off being a good 3rd place team, but still dissapointing. We have some decent talent but we were out of our depth this tournament, especially against Belgium. Bazely struggled to make good adjustments and I question his squad choices, like playing Ben Old so infrequently and playing him on the right wing when he's spent his time in France as an LB or LM. Crocombe isn't our best keeper and I would've rathered he gave Paulsen a shot. Bell sort of just annoyed me all tournament tbh.

Happy for Elijah just though, I believe he is New Zealand's only player to score three world cup goals, huge! Hope he can get a good move after this, had some very good goals.
Bell and Stamenic are our best options in midfield and its not even close. Bell is very good, never quite sure why he gets looked down upon by some NZ football fans.

yung thug

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Endorsed by
kwlapMeSouthernix
about 1 month ago
MetalLegNZ wrote:
 nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
the thing is though, Baze wasn't the first pick coach and I don't think money had much to do with it. Uffie even wanted to job share.
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about 1 month ago
observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
the thing is though, Baze wasn't the first pick coach and I don't think money had much to do with it. Uffie even wanted to job share.
How good was Uffie at Sydney?

What about Rooney... too many peole in here think the name is the most important thing in a manager.

It's dumb!
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about 1 month ago
Joey Johns wrote:
 Noah4thenix wrote:
Going into this tournament I wasn't really expecting us to make it out the groups, or at best make it through off being a good 3rd place team, but still dissapointing. We have some decent talent but we were out of our depth this tournament, especially against Belgium. Bazely struggled to make good adjustments and I question his squad choices, like playing Ben Old so infrequently and playing him on the right wing when he's spent his time in France as an LB or LM. Crocombe isn't our best keeper and I would've rathered he gave Paulsen a shot. Bell sort of just annoyed me all tournament tbh.

Happy for Elijah just though, I believe he is New Zealand's only player to score three world cup goals, huge! Hope he can get a good move after this, had some very good goals.
Bell and Stamenic are our best options in midfield and its not even close. Bell is very good, never quite sure why he gets looked down upon by some NZ football fans.
It's because he's a proper 6, and for some reason that has always been the designated scapegoat position for us for some reason.
Annual finals disappointment enthusiast.

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about 1 month ago
if Bell is a proper six - somone needs to teach him to look up and play the ball forwards! as has been mentioned earlier hos default option is to pass back to a CB or keeper, rarely looks for his 10 or wingers. He may be our best in the role, but that aint saying much.

Queenslander 3x a year.

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Endorsed by
Marto
about 1 month ago
Crockpot in goal laid out another stinking log of the brown stuff.
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about 1 month ago
theprof wrote:
 AucklandPhoenix wrote:
Ok Max, time for you to have the game of your life and keep a clean sheet.

And Sarpreet to stick one in the top corner.


 
that aged well. Max was/is gobshite!
Yeah he is a proper stinker alright. 
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about 1 month ago
MetalLegNZ wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
the thing is though, Baze wasn't the first pick coach and I don't think money had much to do with it. Uffie even wanted to job share.
How good was Uffie at Sydney?

What about Rooney... too many peole in here think the name is the most important thing in a manager.

It's dumb!
He wasn't the best at Sydney I'll admit but at the time he was doing a decent job for us.

You are right about people here thinking the name is the most important thing too. 

Singh, Kosta, Rufer... players that your not allowed to criticise here because they played for us. 
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about 1 month ago
Maaaaaaatt wrote:
Fucking Kosta getting in a shirt swap request with lukaku 
Adding a shirt to the lunch bill he's cracked up. Hahaha
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about 1 month ago
observerfromuh wrote:
 Jazzy Jeff wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
For me, the saddest thing about this game is that it could be Wood's last game for NZ.
No chance, he's already said he wants to play at the next world cup
potentially your right, potentially I am right, he's 34 and there isn't really any games for NZ that matter within the next 12 months. He has been injury prone and will be 38 at the next WC.
Aside from the assist to Just ... which was great on first game ... what has he done tbh. Players don't give him delivery he is used to getting at Forest and was a sluggish passenger for last two games. Would have been better starting Randall and Just up front today. They would have been a good set up for counter attack at pace. Thanks for the memories Chris ... but when NZ not playing in Oceania his onfield contributions with the NZ aren't much ... down to who hes playing with.
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Endorsed by
Ki
about 1 month ago
valeo wrote:
People shitting on Singh while Thomas has been by far the worst player on the pitch. He's clearly not match fit enough to play at this level anymore, physically nowhere near it
Singh has at least done a couple of ok things 

Biggest disappointment is how terrible our defending was for the goal, where the fuck was the keeper? What was Payne even doing? Wood? Amateur stuff 
Yep Crockpot should have come for it but he's not much chop as we've seen. The other two dofuses probably confused by the goalies lack of commitment and combined not so great in trying to clear it. Wombles 
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about 1 month ago
AucklandPhoenix wrote:
What the fuck as the goal keeper doing. If you are not coming for that corner when are you coming?
He's just a shit goalie
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Endorsed by
Joey Johns
about 1 month ago
observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
the thing is though, Baze wasn't the first pick coach and I don't think money had much to do with it. Uffie even wanted to job share.
NZF weren’t keen on job share and rightly so

Herdman screwed us around to get more coin with Canada

Monied City Football Group were keen to keep Des

I think Pragnell said there were other interested parties who hearing the salary didn’t bother applying 
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about 1 month ago
Hearty wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 Jazzy Jeff wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
For me, the saddest thing about this game is that it could be Wood's last game for NZ.
No chance, he's already said he wants to play at the next world cup
potentially your right, potentially I am right, he's 34 and there isn't really any games for NZ that matter within the next 12 months. He has been injury prone and will be 38 at the next WC.
Aside from the assist to Just ... which was great on first game ... what has he done tbh. Players don't give him delivery he is used to getting at Forest and was a sluggish passenger for last two games. Would have been better starting Randall and Just up front today. They would have been a good set up for counter attack at pace. Thanks for the memories Chris ... but when NZ not playing in Oceania his onfield contributions with the NZ aren't much ... down to who hes playing with.
wood is fine, he was like most of the team, a bit useless today but was used effectively in the other two games to draw in defenders and give Just more space to operate. AT 38 he will be fine to play the way he has at this world cup, but would be good if we had another option up front depending on the game that needed to be played.

yung thug

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about 1 month ago
brookem wrote:
Well....not overly happy. But will have to just say All Whites did better across the 3 games then I thought we would. Yes there were very poor moments. But all honest I thought we wouldn't get any goals 
I actually expected better. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

I am quite dissapointed with the piss poor showing tonight and our poor second half against Egypt. We had a team capable of getting at least 3 points from our group.

Heads need to roll at NZF, coaching team needs replacing and some players permanently dropped.
Supporter of the world's best football teams: Waikato..., Kingz FC, NZ Knights, The Nix, The Argyle & of course the All Whites

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Endorsed by
PK
about 1 month ago
Not upset or disappointed as its pretty much as expected, had hoped we wouldnt give up easy goals but sadly thats just what we did. Think Just and Surman probaly added some money to their asking prices but none of the others showed much consistently to enhance their reputations.
As long as New Zealand Football continues with it amateurish trips for the boys mentality we have no show of progressing.
Why with a squad of 26 we didnt include some young guys who may well be there in 4 years time just beggars belief.
Know watch NZ Football waste the money they receive on nothing that progresses the game. 

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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Endorsed by
brobPKscribbler+2
about 1 month ago
observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
the thing is though, Baze wasn't the first pick coach and I don't think money had much to do with it. Uffie even wanted to job share.
How good was Uffie at Sydney?

What about Rooney... too many peole in here think the name is the most important thing in a manager.

It's dumb!
He wasn't the best at Sydney I'll admit but at the time he was doing a decent job for us.

You are right about people here thinking the name is the most important thing too. 

Singh, Kosta, Rufer... players that your not allowed to criticise here because they played for us. 
That pile of sand you have had your head buried must be massive because your so far off the mark if you think Kosta, Singh and Rufer havnt copped criticism on YF forums over the years. 

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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Endorsed by
brNelfoosNpSouthernix+1
about 1 month ago
Southernix wrote:
Between being overawed this match and losing our heads last match, I'm not sure our "cultural architect" was doing much.

Also might be time to wear black kits more, because we seem to be worse in white
So agree with the black comment. I'm sure most of out good results have come in black. Its our colour whereas half the world wears white (Iran, England, Czechia, Bosnia, Haiti, Cape Verde etc. just at the WC).
Supporter of the world's best football teams: Waikato..., Kingz FC, NZ Knights, The Nix, The Argyle & of course the All Whites

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Endorsed by
Fo
about 1 month ago
As one of the few people who was at the England, Iran, Egypt and Belgium games (Haiti was too short notice) I've picked up a few things: 

- I'm annoyed that the coaching team seem to have done nothing to improve on our weakness at crosses. 5 games we've conceded from them on the trot.

- Bell cannot pass forward. He was generally average although had a great game against Iran, probably the best I've seen him play for NZ.

- De Vries, Randall and Crocombe added nothing by playing.

- Crocs should have been dumped to the bench before the Egypt game.

- Wood did nothing except chase shadows bar the Iran game where he twice set up Just very well. MIA the rest of them. Still waiting for first WC goal even though he's played more WC games then any other kiwi.

- We did not use our bench well at all in any game. In fact we used it especially bad against Haiti.

- Thomas is cooked and probably not up to it any more.

- Kosta, Smith and Boxall should all retire from the national team now while a few others should be dropped or at the very least regain some club form before being picked again.

- Payne was way out of his depth but Elliott was no better.

- I'm not sure how Just looked on TV, but at the stadiums he carved up Prem and Ligue 1 players like they were in the NZ Northern League. He's well on his way to being our best attacking midfielder ever and I can see him quickly eclipsing Wood's scoring record.

Away from the team itself, it seems that we, NZ get taken for granted. I looked high and low in Tampa, LA, Seattle and Vancouver for NZ merch and struggled to find any. At the stadiums they carried very little AW stuff and quickly sold out. At the final game they made a t-shirt with a cool mountain design on it but used the Aussie style South Cross and big star from their flag! C'mon FIFA you can do better.

USA was proper rip off as a host and it felt like the WC wasn't even on/they didn't care. Accommodation in Canada was crazy expensive but Vancouver has been partying hard. Everyone here has football (yellow) fever!

Finally there was the choice of ref and other officials for the Egypt game. That would never have happened to a South American or European team. It wreaked of a FIFA hatchet job ensure that Egypt got through at our expense.



Supporter of the world's best football teams: Waikato..., Kingz FC, NZ Knights, The Nix, The Argyle & of course the All Whites

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Endorsed by
ajc28brMainland FCNelfoos+4
about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
observerfromuh wrote:
 Np wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 djtim3000 wrote:
OK can we sack Baze now and not waste the best generation of footballers we've ever had?
problem is if Baze only got it due to nobody wanting the role. Who would want the AW gig.
Anyone, literally anyone! Maybe someone from here!
you then haha. 

Why pick Rufer, Bayliss, Kosta and AP when you ain't even gonna play them.

I am critical of Rufer but he could have done a job in the second half against Egypt if Baze wanted to contain the lead when we were up 1-0 at HT.
He had chances to prove that but didn’t. 

I think Haiti in particular made Baze gun shy about changing players, but Finland showed how much we missed Bell and Woodsy.

All the teams we played were much better than us. We marginally overachieved on pre-tournament expectations and under achieved on post Iran game expectations.


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Endorsed by
PKyomcat
about 1 month ago
ballane wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 observerfromuh wrote:
 MetalLegNZ wrote:
 nufc_nz wrote:
 LG wrote:
Will Bazeley get the AFC gig? 

Fu(k I hope so. They’ll never win anything.
By all means, please explain the difference a coach we can't afford would have made.

Baze has been solid.

Before this tourney half of you were saying 2030 would be our year, and now that looks the case you are pitching about 2026.

I hate losing. And I am not a fan of Baze, but hes been decent... end of. 
the thing is though, Baze wasn't the first pick coach and I don't think money had much to do with it. Uffie even wanted to job share.
How good was Uffie at Sydney?

What about Rooney... too many peole in here think the name is the most important thing in a manager.

It's dumb!
He wasn't the best at Sydney I'll admit but at the time he was doing a decent job for us.

You are right about people here thinking the name is the most important thing too. 

Singh, Kosta, Rufer... players that your not allowed to criticise here because they played for us. 
That pile of sand you have had your head buried must be massive because your so far off the mark if you think Kosta, Singh and Rufer havnt copped criticism on YF forums over the years. 
Ballane, this lad is clearly one of those Ayn Rand high achievers. Don’t let your loser lefty Phoenix facts disrupt his genius flow. 

Or he’s a weak one trick troll. Blame the Nix or Nix fans for something they didn’t do, wait for the reaction.


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Endorsed by
PK
about 1 month ago
Did McCowatt and Singh get short changed? 

Singh with being played too much and McCowatt being played too little?


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Endorsed by
MartoTreeFiddy
about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
I don’t think we marginally overachieved on pre tournament expectations.

If someone at the beginning of the tournament told us:

1: We would lose by four to Belgium.

2: We would lose by two to Egypt.

3: We would draw against Iran (which being the opener really was a game we should have won considering the shit they had to deal with)

The only saving grace is we discovered we actually have a gem of a footballer in Just who popped off three goals.

Without his contribution then the tournament would be called a disaster. 

And losing by four to a team around our ranking pre tournament wasn’t flash either.

Now, if we take some learnings from the last few weeks (which at a minimum begins with getting a new coach and refresh) then something would have been achieved.










Auckland will rise once more

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about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
mjp2 wrote:
Ollie and Bev have been good on the TVNZ+ pre, half time and post game commentary.

As Bev says, two young CBs will be better come next WC. Just, clearly a talent.  A lot of players who will all mature for the next WC. And other younger players to come through and challenge for places over the next four years.

We're playing better footy to watch than Aus but without a result in the first two games this one was realistically over.  A bit too much defensive frailty.  Some poor keeping.  And we're gone.

Not good enough this time but we're more at the beginning of this generation than an end. 
The Socceroos comparisons can be a bit done to death, and they will always have a far greater and deeper talent pool. 

But they also have a real physicality and a mentally tough edge. That goes back to well before Poppa. Bell and Stamenic are potentially our best midfield combo ever but currently they don’t stand up well compared to tough nuts Metcalfe, Irvine and O’Neil

An AWs older squad in 2030 will naturally be more hardened but I think the next coach also needs a more unforgiving ruthless approach than nice guy Baze.  

Weird aside but we have no visibly tatted up players I can think of. That’s rare in today’s world. We need a tough tackling midfielder with stamps all over!


Will be fascinating to watch the Socceroos against Egypt in the R32. Pity it sounds like Salah maybe injured 




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about 1 month ago
We were great against Iran, the 2nd best performance i've seen from us after Italy in 2010. We played really well through the thirds and were super effective going direct to Wood, who completely dominated that match.

The problem was that it's easy to adjust to that tactic and Egypt did so and Belgium were never going to have a problem with it. So we needed to come up with something different and couldn't, we just don't have the quality.

Rather than sit here and say Baze is rubbish, I want to offer observed criticism of two things:

1. Our rest defence. It's non existent. Both full backs leave the centre backs and no midfielder drops in when we are attacking. On transition, we are left with two big slow lumps as the first source of delaying a counter. Bell tries hard but isn't great on defensive transition. So our three furtherest back are susceptible and left exposed due to the tactics deployed.

2. On the ball, Surman and Boxall are dodgy as fuck. They shouldn't be asked to play like that. They look like they're going to stumble over when they are about to execute a pass. The obvious solution is for Stamenic to drop in to create a three and for him to play out. I only saw that in the second half of today's game.

Other than that, I'm not going to criticise a coach who doesn't have the cattle and who at least has us playing the ball around when we can. Our goals against Iran were also a thing of beauty.
 

360footballnews.com

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Endorsed by
coochieeFUMainland FCmartinb+2
about 1 month ago
Have got to agree with most of the comments on Wood. 
Just completely lost and a one dimensional player and that's it. To be fair, that's why he's done fairly well in the UK game, especially with sides traditionally more one dimensional with their play.
I'm more than happy to see that as his last game but the question becomes who's the next forward that adds more spark and overall quality??
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about 1 month ago
coochiee wrote:
 mjp2 wrote:
Ollie and Bev have been good on the TVNZ+ pre, half time and post game commentary.

As Bev says, two young CBs will be better come next WC. Just, clearly a talent.  A lot of players who will all mature for the next WC. And other younger players to come through and challenge for places over the next four years.

We're playing better footy to watch than Aus but without a result in the first two games this one was realistically over.  A bit too much defensive frailty.  Some poor keeping.  And we're gone.

Not good enough this time but we're more at the beginning of this generation than an end. 
The Socceroos comparisons can be a bit done to death, and they will always have a far greater and deeper talent pool. 

But they also have a real physicality and a mentally tough edge. That goes back to well before Poppa. Bell and Stamenic are potentially our best midfield combo ever but currently they don’t stand up well compared to tough nuts Metcalfe, Irvine and O’Neil

An AWs older squad in 2030 will naturally be more hardened but I think the next coach also needs a more unforgiving ruthless approach than nice guy Baze


Will be fascinating to watch the Socceroos against in R32. Pity it sounds like Salah maybe injured 



I agree.

I'd add that Australia gets the luxury of picking the best players who are in form and who fit the tactic.

We're just looking for 14-15 who can play. We even have to pick players who, as professionals, are washed. And we have to try to make this work. 

360footballnews.com

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Endorsed by
coochieeMainland FCSouthernixwh
about 1 month ago
Woodsy is in a form dip. 

And I thought his Iran game was the best we’ve seen from him. Two great assists to unlock Just and our younger attackers. 

Our style of play against Iran and early on against Egypt was clearly an improvement on previous teams.

Just’s goals came because we were trying to create chances for him.


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Endorsed by
brPKreSouthernix+1
about 1 month ago
Rusty Dunks wrote:
My favourite part of the game was seeing all the AWs ask the Belgian players for their shirts after getting reamed.

Apart from Wood. He looked pissed off, so no shirt for you!
Just happy to be there right?

Today was embarrassing. 5-1 is embarrassing.

Three for me, and two for them.

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Endorsed by
Marto
about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
Thomas & Singh were really poor: Clearly lacking in match fitness.Thomas in particular is a shadow of the player he was 5-6 years ago. Not much mention here of Cacace's (non) performances: Again, not fit enough or match hardened to play at this level. He's been a major disappointment given his publicity in the last couple of years...
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Endorsed by
coochieeKi
about 1 month ago
Nothing was a surprise. 

Just had been a goal scorer for us in recent years. MCCowatt occasionally too. 

Woodsy less so tbh. 

And Singh not at all. 

Our best route to goal in recent years has been corners. Half our goals here were corners. 

We have seen better from Bell, Cacace, Old and Thomas. But remember…BELGIUM. World number 7.


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Endorsed by
brFUre