All Whites vs Haiti | Wed 3rd June | 12:00pm (NZT) | Fort Lauderdale

I know it's not constructive at this point in time but I truly do wish Baze went for a 5 at the back ages ago. 

"In the last 20 years, the list of teams to have scored that many against the All Whites reads as follows: Brazil in 2006. Costa Rica and Venezuela in 2007. Italy and Spain in 2009. Mexico, twice, in 2013. Japan in 2014. Portugal in 2017. And now Haiti in 2026."

Sweden also put four past us not that long ago didn't they?

In fairness we were all begging him to ditch the Danny Hay back 5 and we looked better once he did. Difference now is that Bindon and Surman have come up so we have 3 starting quality CBs.

I still prefer the back 4 but it needs a strong midfield in front otherwise we get what we saw yesterday.

Truest statement: 
‘Bell in front of the CBs will help immensely.’

I think as well let’s acknowledge ratings don’t mean anything. Haiti were a good team with loud local support who were up for the game. And the played well. Their players hit the corners of the goal. Randall is in a form slump and missed every chance, though created several. And their keeper saved another good chance.

I’m not actually worried about the defense. I’m worried that we didn’t score, in a fairly open game. 

Just psychologically we’ve played a lot of good football in the last two years where our shooting has been poor or their defense has been a step up. We need to find our best paths to goal and go for a wander down them. 2-1 and that’s suddenly a different game. And it wasn’t far off.

I remember the 80's campaign to qualify. Half the country that was alive at the time would.  We had a serious number of games in fairly short period against some decent quality sides.  And they became a well-oiled team, that knew each other on the field, knew their strengths as a team and how to get wins and how to defend collectively. We've had bugger all games this time by comparison and been coming and going with who is taking the field.

But we have played better and I'd repeat my earlier post that Haiti turned out to be a bad match up for us.  So long as the guys can get their heads back up and muster some traditional NZ physicality, grit and determination, they've shown that they can do better.  We're not good enough to consistently handle good sides, and we've not had enough time together.  But they can do better.
 
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I mean compare the prep this side has had versus the '82 side. 

"
New Zealand’s famous 1982 World Cup qualifying run spanned April 1981 → January 1982 and involved an extraordinary 15 qualifying matches, the most ever played by any team in a single World Cup cycle at that time. 

The qualifying journey began on:

Total duration: ~8.5 months of competitive qualifiers.

🎮 Number of games played

New Zealand played 15 World Cup qualifying matches, broken down as follows:

First Round (Oceania/Asia Group Stage) — 8 matches

Opponents: Australia, Fiji, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia

Final Asian Group (Second Round) — 6 matches

Opponents: China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

Intercontinental Playoff — 1 match

"

Different eras. Back in the 80s & 90s (hell even in the early 2000s), almost all the AWs were based in NZ or Aussie. Much easier to assemble the team for games. I have hazy memories of watching the lads play Hungary at QE II Park in ChCh not long before heading off to Spain.

I imagine NZ Soccer worked the National League around the AWs matches with that '82 campaign.

Now there are limitations with 2 games per short FIFA window. Made harder for NZ with the tryanny of distance, and long flights required.

My (banged on) beef is why didn't the squad start assembling 2-3 weeks earlier in Florida aka the Socceroos. 
Important players Libby, Garbett & Singh all returned to club action after lenthy injury spells, just before their club seasons finished, about a month ago. Same Smith, though he is unimportant. Payne missed a big chunk of A League games. 

Barba, Crocombe, and Bindon didn't play much end of season stuff at WSW, Millwall & Sheffield United as all a bit on the outer - Bindon maybe because his club coach knew he was returning to Forest, and the Blades were safe from the drop.

So you have about 8 guys all a bit short on match fitness/sharpness (some very short of), just doing some post season cardio or whatever waiting at their clubs for Baze to say lets go America. A lot of their club team mates having left for Benidorm, Bali or wherever to get on the piss. A really wasted 2-3 weeks potential quality prep in my view. Too casual, too lazy. I mean a WC only comes around every 4 years. Do everything you can to be the best prepared you can.

Libby looks nearly WC ready. Payne I thought was okay. Crocs it's hard to know, but that 45mins against Haiti, was his first game since Finland in March. Other important guys like Singh & Garbett, they look way behind the 8 ball. Something that a team like the AWs, with limited squad depth just can't afford. Hopefully the next few weeks I get proven wrong.

4-1-4-1 formation?

It's taken me a few days to grapple with the loss and the large deficit.
However, important to move on and not see the negatives as insurmountable.
Having looked at the Haiti squad in some detail before the game, it was much stronger than their FIFA ranking suggested.
They'd recruited well from the Haitian diaspora, some since qualifying, and had two guys who had played most of their team's EPL games this season, a third player with recent EPL experience with Burnley and heaps of others with solid Ligue 1 experience in France, Dutch Eredivisie, Turkiye etc.
I'm now picking them to be a real dark horse in the WC who could cause some big surprises - like Morocco last time.

What was closest to our best 11 did okay in the first half in what was a cracking, highly entertaining 45 for both sets of supporters.
This game had the intensity of an actual WC match, unusual for a friendly two weeks out from the tournie.
We're not brimming with depth and all the second half subs were inevitably going to lead to adrop in quality.
The resulting (almost Auckland FC) back line of Elliott, de Vries, Pijnaker (and Boxall) is one we won't see in the actual WC.

There's some genuine reasons for concern after that performance - but that needs to be balanced by the fact it was treated by Baze as a chance to give multiple players a run, rather than chasing a result as you would in a competitive match.
I compare it to England's disappointing two final home friendlies in March, the 1-1 draw with Uruguay and the 1-0 loss to Japan.
Tuchel and the team were much criticised - but if you look at the lineups, he was clearly using these as trial games and games to experiment and give players a run, they were a long way from his first-choice lineups. 
The English media think that he will experiment vs. NZ too - with the four Arsenal players being omitted after arriving late. 
England have one more friendly after the AW's match (vs. Costa Rica next Thursday NZT).
Perhaps the AW's should have scheduled another friendly next week too.
Maybe they could play a local club side?

True. 11 substitutes unlike World Cup. Fitness still building. & Joe Bell, Ryan Thomas not used. However, didn't score a first half goal and awful passenger 2nd half, just chasing back. Only Serbia did worse in a friendly now with an own goal.