AV has been reading the game thread.
I think Paulsen & Bindon are also in consideration to start.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360996469/should-all-whites-have-made-changes-earlier-their-fifa-world-cup-loss-egypt
Bazeley didn’t turn to his bench until the 66th minute, after the lead his side held for 43 minutes had been erased, when he introduced Old, who soon found himself back on the sideline waiting for a pair of torn and bloody shorts to be replaced.
I think Paulsen & Bindon are also in consideration to start.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360996469/should-all-whites-have-made-changes-earlier-their-fifa-world-cup-loss-egypt
Bazeley didn’t turn to his bench until the 66th minute, after the lead his side held for 43 minutes had been erased, when he introduced Old, who soon found himself back on the sideline waiting for a pair of torn and bloody shorts to be replaced.
Old came on for McCowatt, with two more changes following in the 76th minute – Jesse Randall and Ryan Thomas for Liberato Cacace and Sarpreet Singh – and the final two following in the 85th – Tyler Bindon and Francis de Vries for Eli Just and Tim Payne.
Bazeley was asked about whether any of them could have been made sooner in his post-match press conference and said: “We talked about it at halftime.
“We knew backing up [our first half performance] was going to be difficult, but we looked at it at halftime. We spoke to the players and the medical department and everybody was fine.
“We were doing so well, so it's a difficult one to predict – that we wouldn’t be able to replicate the first half performance.
“I think you'll see that we reacted pretty quickly and tried to get some help on the left side with Oldie defensively, with their right back pushing right on. Then by how we got players on to try to get back in the game, in regard to Ryan and Jesse coming on.
“I think we made changes when we could. Who knows, if we made them earlier, maybe we would have been able to change it, but I think when you look at the first-half performance, the players on the pitch were doing really well, so well it would be hard to take them off.
“We made changes pretty early.”
“We made changes pretty early.”
The question is whether changes could have been made proactively, before Zico’s equaliser, instead of reactively after it, and whether more could have been made immediately after the scores were levelled.
At the time, early from the second half, watching from the media tribunes, it certainly felt as though fresh legs in midfield – Thomas – and pace on the counter in attack – Old and Randall – would have been useful.
They were the first three men brought on, but in hindsight, the timing of their introductions does feel like it was slightly too late.
Captain Chris Wood was asked by Stuff after the match if fresher legs were needed sooner and replied: “Not necessarily.
“I think we just needed to do better in the moment to weather the storm. This is international football and it's good sides [we’re up against] every single time we play.
“We just have to weather the storm better. If we do better on their first goal, I think we can get ourselves back into the game, but that's how games go.”
Bazeley stuck with the same starting XI against Egypt that began the 2-2 draw with Iran the All Whites had in their first group G match in Los Angeles.
With just four days before their last match against Belgium – one for recovery, one off and two for training – he is more likely to make changes this time around, with Old, Thomas and Randall all likely to come into consideration to start.
The match at 8pm Friday local time in Vancouver (3pm Saturday afternoon NZ time) is effectively a must-win match for both teams with regard to making the knockout stage.
World No 10 Belgium have had two draws so far – coming from behind to earn a point from a 1-1 stalemate with Egypt, then hanging on with 10 men in a 0-0 draw with Iran.
The All Whites have never beaten an opponent ranked that high in the world by FIFA.