All Whites vs Iran | Tues 16th June | 1:00pm (NZT) | SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles

Tighten the screws boys! Get another!!!

FUCK!

Oh ffs

that's poor from Libby and the two centre backs.
great header.

You gotta be fucking shitting me

What a soft f**cken goal.

Beautiful cross but he shouldnt have been free

Unmarked ffs

Big test now.

Subs? No subs? Who?

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Its actually quite cold now here in the stadium. These brakes are a farce.

Interesting choice in Thomas. I hope he helps us hold the ball a bit more. While Old can add some pace to the left side. Not that Libby is slow

Thomas and Old on. Come on boys!!!

So Thomas was on the pine.

Their crossing so much better than ours. Still Wood’s layoffs will always give us a chance

cool heads will win this. 

Surely Bindon over Elliot now?

How do we get some spark out there? We've gone a bit flat. Maybe bring on Waine or Kosta? Or Bayliss?

Ohh Soo close from Surman 

our defence is gonna have to be better against Egypt!

Iranian player fouls Wood then his mate runs into his shoulder.

Not the first time Iran has cried wolf.

Very tired players out there now, come on boys

Singh needs a break. His touch has gone

Just a little bit of luck, a little bit of quality ....

Regardless, those who wanted them to do us proud have already had that delivered.  Now you'll be wanting more.

everyone calling for Baze's head cos he's too defensive should be keeping very quiet now, we've played very attacking footy, scored twice, taken the lead twice and forced a solid Iranian team to work very hard.
We manage to sure up the defence (I'm looking at you Mr Boxall) and we'll push the bigger teams.

Right now we top the table with Iran.
Randall comes on for Singh.

Bell has been outstanding 

Entertaining game. Amazing we have 8 shots four on target.
We look composed on the ball and there is  some nice link play involving Wood 
But it looks really shakey at the back. Our keeper looks nervous and we are scrambling everytime they enter our area.. There are more goals to come.
The French commentators are raving about the AW goal at half time.
We can win this. I dont want to hear any plucky loser stories at the end.

You had it,  defensive distrations

Ryan Thomas saved you at the death 

Fantastic effort from the boys. Just a shame we shipped two easy goals. We'll have to bring everything to egypt. Still unbeaten since 1982 lol

I guess better then losing, but also losing lead twice due to soft goals does suck... Not sure what to make of it

Everyone was outstanding. Bit worried with the two Elliot challenges giving corners, but what a game!

And we tried it before with de Jong, but getting Just closer to and crumbing off Wood, rather than an isolated Woodsy! The goals came from Wood’s control and passing. 

Wow! 

We should have won that to be honest. 

I loved the moment when the Iran captain decides that Just is a threat and he needs to take a yellow to stop him, and acknowledges his game. Great moment. 

Well! Unlucky. So close.

Surman was immense today.  Even the kids noticed "the number 16 in pink boots"

Dead proud.  All part of our footballing development.  As Rachael Hunter used to say: a win won't happen overnight, but it will happen.  Was teaching (overseas) when our first goal went in, went nuts...students looked me as if I'd gone insane.  Took some explaining...some beautiful memories right there....

Yes Surman was outstanding. Stamenic had one if his best games as well. Cool combinations up front.

Top of group G thanks to Yellow cards. 

Great game to watch, shame we couldn't hold on Just playing so close to Wood was key. Iran ranked 6 places higher than our next opponents, Egpyt. No further injuries, and belief - particularly belief that we can play well and score. Can't wait for the next game.

Should've won, was  our best chance to win a game in World Cup history.

However - we're the lowest ranked team at the WC against one of the heavyweights in Asia. The boys should be incredibly proud of what they did today. Everyone played well.

Would've been nice to win. But I will take the 2-2 draw. As others have said the boys should be proud

McCowatt makes a difference to our press and passing game? 

Knows how to keep discipline? 

I suspect he might have helped. 

Was I wrong that they sat off us a bit? 

Wood’s knock downs were something we didn’t show in build up so that’s a bit of a plan. Shouldn’t have taken that free kick either!! lol.

I did notice as well that the boys who’d played a lot of football- McCowatt, Bell, Stamenic, Surman, Just etc came into their own with fitness in that second half where previously we might have needed to sub more players. 

Great game with one or two what ifs…

44 years unbeaten

I thought Singh really, really grew into the game. He was involved in every good attacking moment in the game. You can tell he's still not quite match fit, but we don't have many players like him.

I still think Ben Old is wasted at LB though

Eli Just is the next Messi also, he's been building slowly with his career and has done it the right way - we finally have an attacking player to bounce off Wood.

I thought Bindon's little cameo off the bench was good also and would not be surprised to see him start next

Gutted.

Will take the draw, but still gutted.

"Should have won" is what both us and Iranians are saying.  I think it was a good game and i am very proud of our boys.
Inasmuch as I would love us to win, the classy skills of the Iranians and ball awareness was there to see, reminding us they are some 60 places above us in FIFA rankings.  Unfortunately their attempts to cream any minor foul marred their scoredcard  - it was just ugly; luckily with the Italian referee (who has seen it all before) they did not get away with that.  The AWs played their usual honest game, and I was very impressed with Just and with Bell in the midfield.
Up till now I was unsure of Bazeley's quality as a coach, and am happy to say he set up the team to play aggressively and not park the bus.  
If I were more critical I would say Boxall cost us two goals. But it never is just one player, so hard to single him out alone.
Shame about Garbett. Hopefully Rogerson will arrive in USA soon, but goodness he will have little time to acclimatise.