All Whites vs Mexico, Confederations Cup | Thur 22 June | 6am | Sochi | SS2

One of the great AW games......exciting, end to end stuff...and we could/should have got something out of it. Why the hell didn't we play like that against Russia, Belarosia, NI

Thomas is one hell of a player...he just ran and ran all game. That shot was just brilliant....cut inside beat two players and curled it...shame it hit the top corner. Lewis should be a pro player somewhere...Nix maybe

Wood post match interview said it all  ""I should have done bettër" He has pretensions of being a EPL  striker...well and EPL striker would have scored a hatrick on the number of clear changes Wood had.

Poor young Ingham has a lot of potential but he is a baby at this level...he got baddly shredded on a number of occasions

All we ask of this side is to make us proud of them...well they did that tonight.

Good fight at the end too.....I really dislike the Mexicans.....they put in a lot of shiiite....pulling shirts, diving , flopping....they are cods

Ref was way too weak...and VAR sucks

Still massive questions for me. We are capable of occasional performances like this but we also serve up crap like the last 3 games. Team and squad selections still odd sometimes too. 

Told me we would lose 2-1 before kick off and I would have taken it, now it feels annoying that we didn't even get a point. Woods miss chances the difference along with a what if Thomas shot had gone in.

Ingham got left out to dry and why Hudson made the change and pulled Lewis instead who was excellent is beyond me. But a very entertaining game and well worth getting up for. 

Also shout out to Four Kings for their Irish Breakfast, was superb.

Apparently Tommy Smith Is known as CMNT in Russian, as well as to many on this forum. 

I don't know why Roux is not playing, Ingham got skinned way too many times. We were fortunate they rested alot of their top players but also unfortunate not to take the opportunities in the 1st half, Lewis should be pro, Thomas is our best player he is everywhere and almost leveled the game for us. I still don't think we are suited to this formation but it was a good performance, proud but disappointed they failed to deliver. If Portugal play their top team they'll have a field day down that right flank.

portugal are full of wingers - nani, ronaldo and quaresma, so our left flank is proabbly at severe risk as well

fixed

Why did Lewis come off, bad choice. Tuiloma should have started instead of McG and Roux for Ingham maybe even Doyle for Whyne. Apart from that Thomas looks a future hero for club and country. Encourging performance by Lewis, hope Phoenix ofer him a deal/trial. Ingham is not ready for the AW. Wood is not BPL quality, he needs to improve his choices and finishing a bit. If we can keep thease performances up, we have  areal chance for the WC.

Wood is EPL quality - yes he missed chances, but all strikers do, even the best. Look at Costa in his first season at Chelsea. Wood made good runs and linked smartly.

I wonder if we would be better starting Kosta ahead of Rojas - Kosta has a better engine and is a little quicker.

Really impressed by Lewis, some of his passing was top notch, and possibly a step ahead of the players around him. He should start against Protugal. Hopefully another decent game by him and someone might knock on his door. Good work rate as well.

Durante is a risk - he gave the ball away cheaply a couple times putting us under pressure. He is a fighter, he's hard working, but he lacks the ability to play any form of possession game.

I feel bad for Ingham, but look at the quality of winger he was against compared to what he faces in the A League. I'm not sure Roux would have done any better, we'll never know. I still think he will be our best RB in a couple seasons and will probably end up overseas playing. Would be happy to see the NIX try to pick him up as a RB option.

That was very fun to watch.  Ref got it badly wrong not giving out yellows in the last fifteen for the professional fouls when we were breaking.  That ruck at the end was brilliant, god I wished we'd scored after that from the free kick

I still think we need to be more decisive in our attacking play.  It still looks a bit off the cuff

Wood can be very frustrating at times. It seems for the AWs he screws up chance after chance. Can't be too hard on him though, no one else seems to step up to put them away. Rojas is another disappointment for the national team. That free kick wasn't up to scratch and often too weak on the ball.

I think this is just about my favourite Frankie Mac post ever.

Still think we are a long way off having a real chance of qualifying for the WC. Yes, that was an improved performance but let's not get carried away. Even if we snuck some sort of result at home we would need to hold our own away in South America against a vastly superior side with everything to play for.

Gutted to see Wood miss those chances but he showed quality by getting himself free and available so often against good defenders, I won't begrudge him.

Thomas, what a player he is. Love that kid. 

Lewis had already impressed me when I'd seen him previously for the AWs (not seen him play SSP), but this morning showed he can play that well against higher quality opposition too. Seems a very exciting prospect. 

Overall that was a great watch, exciting, lots of chances, great hunger and desire from the lads, I want to see that against Portugal, and moving forward, consistently.

Hudson appears to have two very different game plans - on the deck, lots of running, creative stuff, like this morning, which involves a lot of desire and passion, and then this long-ball crap that he seems to send them out to play in some games, but not others. 

Why on earth has he not just ditched the long ball game plan altogether??? Leave that sh*t for the last 5-10 minutes if we're losing and need to try something. We just don't do it well. We don't have guys at the back who can play good long balls, we only have one big guy up front and ironically he's not really a bring-it-down-and-lay-it-off kind of player. It just doesn't work with this team. And contrasting that, the other game plan appears to work very well.

Just give that long ball sh*t up already Hudson, and play this way every time, regardless of opposition. We all want it as fans, the players probably want it, we're better at it, it's a no brainer. 

But at least there is hope again

I love Chris Wood's attitude for the All Whites.  Turns up for every game, goes hard and looks like he loves it and he really cares about playing for NZ

We are out of the tournament and we don't have sharkshow of a chance to get to Russia next year. The hope is the next World Cup Cycle which Thomas should be in beast mode, Reid will still be injured in his twilight years, Brotherton should be stepping up, Tyler Boyd should be getting first team runs, Tuiloma should be playing regular football, Lewis, Moses and TAHW should be Pro's, Rojas and Wood will be in their prime as will our current wingbacks and then theres the younger talent coming through that such as Joe Bell, Myer Bevin, Sarpreet Singh.

Have to be realistic, that could have easily been 5-2 or 6-3 on chances created

Play another defensive mid, keep the ball on the deck, and what do you know, we look a shark load better.

What I loved though, is that you could see nearly every minute how much it meant to the players.  To use an overused cliche, they left everything out there.

Also, ref was appalling.  Completely lost control.  Good to see Mexico feel pressured enough to have to pull out their horribly cynical tactics.

There should have been numerous yellows for their shirt pulling stopping our counters.

Loved the passion in the melee and watching Smith come from nowhere a give one of the Mexicans a hell of a fright for pushing around some of our smaller boys.

If anyone can upload it, in a slow mo form I would be very thankful!!

This! You won't be seeing the referee anymore in this tournament and he has blown any chance of being part of the World Cup. The handbags at the end only came about because he lost control of the match and then with the VAR they blew the calls with giving now red cards out as well.

Here is the whole thing including the VAR mess

Their number 8 backed off REAL quick once Smith turned up

At the end of the match, just before the post match interviews on the field, I saw Lewis standing there with a Mexican shirt. Not sure who's it was, but he also had ice around his leg. Must have been from that knock earlier, which sparked him to come off.

one keyboard warrior on twitter bombarding prettymuch everyone with his/her thoughts at every opportunity

Thank god @NZ_Football is out it is a danger against high level players ! Dirty players shame on you !

— Christian Meier (@chris2168sport) June 21, 2017

Must have missed the two footed studs up lunge earlier from Rafa

Our wing backs were badly exposed. Im not sure why there is not more cover for them, either from a central defender (since there are 3) or from a midfielder getting back. I dont think it matters who plays in these positions. Its a flaw in the formation, that there will be a  lot of one on one chances for the opposition wingers on both sides.

Other than that I think we did our best. Wood should of got at least another goal. I thought Thomas, Lewis and Smith played well. And even Rojas had a couple of nice touches and passes.

that situation calls for more watson or even a siggy

Should listen to the 2 differering press conferences, bit of a shark storm when its only about the benches and what Osario said and their bench and what he says our Assistant said to him in Spanish. He seemed like a cry baby about how physical the game. Hudson was pretty good at straight shooting it.

Also just done a brief look on youtube for the pre-match conference of the game with Anthony Hudson and Marco Rojas speaking in Spanish to their media. Thats a good look, too bad our country is too caught up in Rugby, I bet if any rugby player done that it would be all over the news.

Good performance, should of got something, why is Wynne playing again tho, horrifically out of his depth, and still cant believe Bill is not starting or Themi for the crocked Durante. 

I agree with you, but actually think Wood did a really good job of winning the ball in the air today and bringing others into play.

Lets not get to carried away Mexico rested a few players and the performance had to be better it couldn't get any worse.We will always leak goals with this back line they are far to slow and the wing backs are just poor defenders.When Boxall is playing badly he wants to be a thug Ronaldo and co will make him and Durante look like fools but it was an improvement , by reading the other posts the fraud Hudson stays now.

I think if you're going to play wing-backs high up the pitch you need a more mobile back 3.  It's an issue

Hudson was never going to go after this tournament.  There's no obvious successor and he's developing this team towards the WC playoff.  We still haven't qualified from Oceania so why would we sack the coach mid-campaign?  I'm not saying I'm a supporter but practically it makes zero sense even if we played like we did against Russia in all 3 matches.

Let's be honest, the Mexican players were an absolute disgrace. With the most minimal contact, every 10 minutes one of their players looked like they were shot by a sniper. I don't want to bring rugby into this, but would you ever see an All Black player behave in this manner against a minnow nation like Romania/Russia etc? Or against any team? 

Ryan Thomas was fantastic. He is our best player for sure imo. It's a shame that shot towards the end of the game didn't go in, so close.

I also don't understand the hate towards Ingham. I think Wynne looked much worse than Ingham, was constantly getting beaten on his flank. Ingham is only 18, has tremendous skill and pace. Obviously he is not up to the class of the Mexican players (no All White is), but he will be our best fullback and possibly one of our best players in the future, mark my words. I don't get how people can't see the potential this kid has. I would start Ingham and Roux for our next match.

Also, why was Jai Ingham not included in the squad? I think he could have offered us another attacking option off the bench alongside Patterson.

All in all I'm stoked with the performance. Mexico is by far the better team but we weren't afraid to play good football and take it to the Mexicans. It's one of the best performances from a NZ football team I've ever seen. If Wood was more clinical we could have pinched that one. 

Then don't. Nothing rugby does should be compared to football.

Why not? We are comparing two world class teams of different sports. I know a lot of people here hate rugby, but that is not a reason in my opinion to draw comparisons. Yes Rugby can be compared to Football.

That's the end of our tournament.

The players looked keen and on the back of recent results and performances that at least signals to me that there is belief amongst the team.