All Whites Vs El Salvador SS3 1pm

I think in the end we were the luckier of the two to come out with a draw. Good game though, and good experience particularly for the newer AWs.

good work lads

Got to wonder about the decision making of the El Salvador coach after that game.

Suit and tie in that climate clearly does not make any sense.

Disagree. With a bit more luck it would have been 3-1 for us.

True, but they were all over us for the last 15-20 minutes.

I was thinking, would Lochie have got that goal, after getting in that position ?? 

Answer: No, would have sprayed it over the top or to the side most likely

That is the first thing that came to mind when I saw that goal. It is like you read my mind, lochie doesn't score.

Too good an opportunity to pass up but:

And from Jeff Vader a little over a year ago:

"Ian Hogg? Really? He would never finish a game at A League level because of his tackling - you are talking about A League referees here. Had a good CWC but by the same token that Marco has had a good 10 games, thats not indicative of a great career. Good at Premiership, won't last in the A League.

If these players were that good, they would have had a shot by now or at the very least be playing elsewhere at a better level. Remember that your own Mulligan is not playing at that level (or anywhere else either) and he has more talent that Hogg will ever amount to. Krishna - a better player than Hogg, has had a couple of trials and done nowt. If Hogg could easily manage the A League, surely he'd be in the All Whites right?"

You cannot deny that I've been gunning for Ian Hogg to get an All Whites place all along.

Hahahaha!

Particularly like this:

"Mulligan is not playing at that level (or anywhere else either) and he has more talent that Hogg will ever amount to"

Really?

Anyway - well done Ian Hogg - great goal.

Was it a shot or was it a cross ??

In 53 ASB Championship appearances since 2007 he has never scored a goal (At least Wekia says that)

Well he is a defender.

Frustrated we didn't win, thought we should of to be honest.

Want to see Moss in goal next match.

We did OK overall, created a few chances and showed some steel to come back twice in difficult conditions after long travel.

But the bottom line is, El Salvador are not a great national team (and Dewhurst, the AW chances of playing El Salvador in the play-off are infinitisemally small, since they probably won't even make the last stage of CONCACAF qualifying), and at some point we have to start winning games like this, and against this level of opposition, if we are to move forward as a footballing nation. It's a learning process, but we're definitely on the right track though.

They are ranked 49 in the world though. Teams within the 35-50 mark should be good enough competition as realistically its where we should be. I'm not sure whether that was their full strength side but throw in Reid, Nelsen, Moss (plus not during the offseason of the A-League) and I'm sure we'd win that game.

ELO rankins has us only 2 places above El Salvador.

I generally consider ELO a better ranking system.. I dunno, I probably shouldn't.

Would of preferred t face either Panama or Costa Rica instead of El Salvador.

That's the problem with FIFA rankings - they played World Cup qualifiers last year as they had to start early because of their low ranking in CONCACAF. The top 6 CONCACAF teams join the qualifying from next month, which means the current rankings are realtively misleading (El Salvador was able to get a lot of ranking points through WC qualifiers that the top CONCACAF teams couldn't). Things will fall back into place over the next 4-5 months (El Salvador really belongs in the 80-100 region), it is extremely unlikely El Salvador will get past Costa Rica and Mexico to get to the final World Cup qualifying stage in the CONCACAF region.

Ugh, crappy forums, lost my post..

I am thinking we will jump back into the top 100 after these matches and the nations cup.

I guess I consider Fifa's rankings as more 'recent performance' and ELO as more 'historical', not sure about consistency though.

We almost certainly will.

Robb and I thought he was either a used-car salesman or a washed-up porn director.

Enjoyed that game, the only downside was having to go to work afterwards and had nobody to discuss the game with!

Got some good young players coming through, I'd like to see Howieson get some more gametime in the Honduras game, and also like to see Gleeson play for some of the game.

Also, sack Ricki!

I see today's result as encouraging given the factors that everyone has already mentioned. Remember that if we could get that result in a home and away tie for the WC qualifiers we would have a big advantage going into the home leg.

Edvin Jurisevic is an MLS ref. WTF?

He was the ref for the game. Sky and their graphics team failed big time.

The referee was Terry Vaughn unless Edvin added on about 10 years overnight.

I agree whole heartidly with the above statements.

Yes I did say that, well over a year ago and at the time, it was a fair comment.

In the year since then, I think he was one of the standout players in the Premiership just finished and it was noticiable the difference in play of ACFC without him. Also, I don't think he got yellow carded this year so he has obvious worked on himself. He has matured and developed so power to him and a deserved call up. I think while there is a lot of talk about him and Luke Rowe and the comparisons, Hogg would probably be the fastest player in the Premiership.

Oh lets not get carried away there Auckland Phoenix.

I think age has helped and its hard to forget he is 22 so maturity in any footballer is going to help. A year ago he would just leap into tackles and mame other players. This year, he doesn't do that anywhere near as much and I actually enjoyed watching him play this summer.

By the same token of my initial statement, 18 months ago Kosta and Marco where nowhere and now we are raving over them so I guess young players just need a little bit more time. Hogg would be the same. I'd be intrigued as to what he does over the next 18 months.

Dissapointed i'm late to the party, but I just wanted to say - sack edvin jurisevic!

Thought we actually looked alright going forward when in possession, Hogg looked good, and was good to give the young guys a run.  Was not impressed with Boxall at all, hopefully just a one off poor game.

The best part I found about it was the amount of people that said 'oh we missed Ryan Nelsen' or 'we would have looked so much better with Ryan at the back'

Those same people think he does nothing at all on the football pitch. He doesn't need to do much, he just touches the ball here and there to a guy in the right position. Its minimalist football but its done efficiently or most effectively.

I have to laugh at all these kids that practice these fancy moves and want to be like this guy or that guy. A lot of the best footballers in the world don't do the fancy stuff in 90 mins of football - they just do the basics better than anyone else. I can't recall seeing Gerard or Lampard juggling the ball a thousand time on their head etc. They just do the basics very very well. The same with Ryan Nelsen. He is not at the back of our team to stand out and be a hero. He does what he needs to and does it better than anyone else.

Carlos Valderrama 

I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Not sure I agree completely.  Sure you don't juggle at all in a game, but being able to keep the ball under control while juggling surely rubs off on their touch and accuracy of headers etc in an actual game.

Totally agree Juggling is the perfect exicise to improve touch and your general feel for the ball, plus it is something youngsters can do on their own in the back yard.

However what it doesn`t offer, is vision and game sense which are important parts of Gerard and Lampards

Really enjoyed that game, highly entertaining. Especially the way the AW's played. Its a joy to watch young talented kiwi kids do their stuff. There were some lovely passes and through balls. Costa, Marco and Weemac displayed some great skills. Rojas's shimmy to lose his marker was sheer class.....shame he hit the post!

Big rapts for Ricki too. He gets flack for his A-League style but he has shown a refreshing attitude to the youngsters coming through into the AW's. He has got the guys playing the ball along the deck and moving and passing. Now...if he could perhaps could transfer a bit of that into the Nix.....plus get some pace and youth in there as well.

Hogg would have to put himself in line for an A-League slot. His goal was good but I was impressed by lots of his defending. At one point he showed exceptional pace to turn and track back and block a cross on our goal lone. Pace at this level is an great bonus. Considering it was  his first international and he was playing in a unfamiliar 343 he did really well.

I hope Ricki is seriously considering offering Hogg a contract, would fill one of our U23 spots, and it's always good having more Kiwis in the team. Hogg would offer a lot more than Griffiths or Tsats.

I accept that and I guess I should rephrase. It saddens me that these kids practice all these tricks and stuff but forget the basics and cannot complete a pass or demonstrate a first touch. This is the fundamental difference between footballers in NZ and the next level. Its evident when you watch ACFC at the CWC that what looks like a superior touch at our level in NZ is rubbish higher up. I would rather see a kid focus on the ability to knock a 10-15y pass with zip and also the ability to receive the same and stop it dead on the spot. I still use Ryan as that example but he just has a touch here and a touch there and it goes to the right place 99.9% of the time. For all these kids that have won these juggling comps and can do these amazing tricks, how good a footballer are they? Invariably, I don't see them standing out and climbing up the ranks (and I'll admit to being ignorant of that ones that are if any)

Cameron Lindsay featured on BBC`s Football AM "Skillz Skool" segment for one

There was a link sometime back on the forum but I can`t find