All Whites vs Peru | Second leg | Thurs 16 Nov | 3:15pm | SS1

Right. The USA were crap. They did not make it. 

At a guess, we play approx 3 games in the next 18 months and don't see Reid and Smith for 2+ years.

Part of Australia's success was in logistics of managing a playoff travel, both this time and in 2006 WC against Uruguay, as I commented elsewhere earlier on.

Honduras tanked in the second half yesterday, but Australia still could not get a goal in free play against them, winning through a free kick and two penalties. Honduras scored consolation goal through free play.

With all due respect, Australia would struggle against Peru if they meet in a group play in Russia. They are a decent team but have no class of the golden generation of ten years ago. Mooy is good, but he's not Viduka. Rogic is good, but he is not Kewell. Cahill of 2017 is still surprisingly good, but he is not the Cahill of 2006.

Shark result for you guys. Should have played Wood for the first 45 and rolled the dice... At the end of the day, Peru deserved to go through to the WC. Good luck to them. They've waited since '82 for this. 

It will feel better after a few beers :)

Peru much the better team, especially today. Can't be bothered wasting any more energy on Hudson. Just hope we get some meaningful games next year

I didn't like the plan B. Figure Wood should have started. If anyone was going to gather the scraps, it should have been Thomas and some late runs from deep

funny watching the tv coverage

mulligan clearly unhappy with hudson and not answering when asked what he thought

of course that snake zoricich, who is on the payroll, praised hudson and his work

If we were going to score you'd think our best chance was while our most attacking players were still relatively fresh, on the counter.  Surely you start Wood.  And we defended better in Wellington without Tuiloma.  

Anyway, congrats Peru.  Hope they get their captain back and show more for their fans in the WC.

the main thing I enjoyed from all of the all whites shark in the last year or so has been the fact we have an exceptional, young central midfielder in ryan thomas.

Hi Guys,
I feel great sorrow for you, I was on NZL side, too. 

But it happened, what I have feared long months ago: 
The draw result, to face the south american opponent, that was a nearly mission impossible.
At the end it was Peru, but it has even been Chile or even Argentina ... 

I know, this hurts in a double manor, only 15 ours, after the arch rival Australia has booked their tickets to Russia, but they had been lucky in the draw: Honduras wasn't as long as strong as Peru. I am pretty sure NZL would drive to russia and Australia not, if the draw result would has been vice versa ... 

the sad thing is that we would have bought nothing to the world cup, just toilers and battlers

we need to build a team that plays the game properly and commit to a set of principals that can actually take us forward and make us a team worth watching

Yep, we need a coach to come in and do what Hudson said he would do but, you know, do it.

I heard Ange is after a job.

and Wood and Reid are class.  

and Boxall can do a pretty good international job at CB; with Smith, our back three starters are as good as we could reasonably  expect

as someone else said, our wingbacks can do a reasonable job

and Barbarouses works his butt off

yet with Thomas, Rojas, Barbarouses, McGlinchey and Wood, we set up to play like we did, with two of them off the field.

Ange would be looking to Europe. He would hardly pick NZ

I'm always pleased Australia makes the WC. It's great for the game in our region. I do miss the Socceroos v All Whites WC qualifiers though.

B U G G A

I was being facetious. He's obviously not going to quit Australia to come to NZ.

Graham Arnold liked the idea a few years ago; said he'd love to coach these players

Gutted that we did not at least score....Reid missed a tough header, Wood put his header too close to the keeper and then shinned the on one. Just wasn't our day.

I am happy for the Peruvians.....this will be huge for them. All of their fans I met in Wellington were super cool, friendly people. I wish them well at the WC.

Not sure on the tactics for this game......why do you park the bus from kickoff. We were way too defensive in the first half. We had no outlet and the pressure just kept building. A goal was almost inevitable. Wood looked full of running and dangerous when he came on. If he had started and we nicked a goal n the first half then all the pressure would have gone back on Peru. More tactical genius from Hudson.

If we can get the right coach then the future is bright for the AW's. Our back three of Reid, Boxall and Smith are of a good international level...so is Marinkovich...he should be playing at a good level in Europe. Thomas is class....and at only 22 has years of development left. I was pleasantly surprised by our wide defenders...Colvey and Wynn did a job for us. Barbarousses and Weemac played with a lot of heart over the two legs. Wood could have made the difference if he had been able to play the full 180 minutes.

I reckon they did blxxdy well! 

It was actually a very close game and we were not out of place there. With the prep Peru have had and the opposition they've played in their qualifiers then for us to be so close is a real credit to the team and coach. Whatever you think of it Hudsons approach was oh so close at the end of the day. Perhaps Wood could have come on a bit earlier but at the end of the day he wasn't 100%. Maybe if the ref adjudicated their fouling just the same as he did ours then we may have been able to apply a bit more pressure - we always seemed to lose the 50:50s..

I'm happy with our effort - just a bummer that we lost - but everyone always said from a couple of years back that it was the dead end road to Russia but it wasn't the pasting everyone expected back then- we ended up almost making it.

It was a fun ride while it lasted. Now for the next thing....

He's been tough on us but not outrageous. We should have done better

I really hope we don't have Mexico or a 5th placed South American team next time...

I don't know, I feel better now than after we got dropped by Mexico. Even though the team showed guts in the 2nd Mexico game [WC last time sorry], we were well outclassed over both legs. Today, I feel we did a great job last Saturday and better today than we probably had a right to expect.

We have some young talent in the squad and I hope they kick on.

Our next coach - personally I'd be ok with Hudson but I think he'll go and of his own accord.

We really need more internationals against teams of a good standard - of course we will need to play the Oceania qualifiers but lets play against some of those countries ranked in that #20 band.

I really feel sorry for the Gregorio family today. No Italy or New Zealand at the World Cup.

#PrayforRaf

Grandma is 90 and her granddaughter is 5.

Watching them both yelling at the TV...doesn't get much better.  Even if one kept forgetting her match etiquette.

Right ive calmed down a bit now - over the 2 legs against that level of opposition youd have to be pretty happy. Was fairly disappointed with the long ball crap that clearly wasnt working today - why did somebody not step up and take control?

That ref was shocking - dont think he got many calls right. 

Initial thoughts post game.

Disappointments:

- Our first touch, so poor a lot of the time today! Can recall a few attacks breaking down as a result, case in point Wood through late on and poor first touch gave the keeper a chance to block, Tuiloma driving forward 1st half but gave it away. Different surface perhaps?

- Tactics. Wood had to start, surely.

- Early non-call on Kosta. Dead set penalty as I saw it, could have changed the game.

- The first goal. Getting caught on the counter when we were set up so defensively really rankled.

Positives:

- Thomas. Didn't have as good a day today but he is class.

- Marinovich. Looked very strong today, one error when he parried right to Farfan but great reflex to save the follow up.

- Colvey. Really impressed by him. Put under the gun a lot over 2 legs and came up trumps for most of it.

Agreed re Colvey. Have been underwhelmed by him before but he was one of our best today. Most of this side young enough for next cycle so lots to build on

Like the penalty for the Reid handball.

Considering Reid did not move his hand towards the ball and the ball was deflected within metres of Reid.

I don't know how you can argue that it was intentional... given that it's not a hand ball.

How many penalties have you seen given that were not intentional. Plenty. 

I was actually agreeing with you. Just used that one as an example.  You easily spit the dummy, just like the clown that agreed with you. 

After the Peruvians the next group of people to be happy will be the NZ rugby crowd. Now they will have 4 more years to think they are the number one sport in the world.

                                                                      BUMMER.

Needed a goal and leave your 2 probable candidates on the bench??

This is the same peruvian team that beat brazil with neymar in copa america last year, tied argentina with Messi  in buenos aires, beat uruguay 2-1 with suarez this year. Same team that has finished 3rd in copa america twice in the past 10 years

We were totally outclassed today , period , they toyed with us in the first half , and the second half it was more of them getting nervous and putting the foot on the brake than us really playing better. They were already up 2-0 

Only reason the overall scored was so low was due to us parking the bus in the back with 6-8 defenders. I m sure we could keep a low score against a lot of good teams if we keep doing it. However this strategy is not going to win us game , and a team with more luck can put us to shame 

We have tied better teams than peru before , by playing ultra defense strategy , nothing new here.

I don`t think we can beat any southamerican team playing like this . Even a concacaf team would be a struggle for us.. Therefore we really need to change up the strategy if we want to make world cup, unless of-course we get match up with a team from a different confederation 

As per the comment regarding peru vs australia. To be perfectly honest australia would put up a better fight , however these peruvian team has also played against concacaf teams and aside from mexico and usa , they never had a problem beaten them , even playing with a B team . So I would still put peru as a favorite , but Australia can def put up a good fight and beat them

Also , keep in mind the Peruvians are missing guerrero who probably has a bigger impact than wood on the field for them. Its almost like facing uruguay without Suarez. Its a totally different team. Peruvian team with guerrero would`ve beaten us much worse 

The All Whites put on a bigger challenge than anyone in Peru thought would be the case.

They were organised in defense and fought all the way to the end.

Not playing more competitive teams more regularly makes a difference.  Something to consider in the near future.

I hope there are many more Perú New Zealand games in the future.

Special regards to the 40 or 50 AW fans that showed up at Estadio Nacional.  I was sitting nearby, they went ahead and cheered for the AW despite being massively outnumbered.

The atmosphere at the stadium was great, do hope crowd numbers at Westpac Stadium are regularly similar to those at the game on Saturday, large crowds do help team performance.

In the game itself I agree with many comments here that the ultra defensive strategy was not the most appropriate, the AW did create a fair bit of danger near the Peruvian goal when they tried.

Being very defensive when all it takes is one goal to change the tone is very risky, something that Italy, who excel at defense know very well, remember that Italy Uruguay game in the 2014 WC?

I also felt that the AW didn't take much advantage of their physical advantage, using the body a bit more in one on one situations could do a lot for them, in this game the smaller sized Peruvians managed to protect the ball a fair bit more.

It is a disappointment today but time provides new opportunities.

It is really a great feeling to be back at a WC after 36 years.  I am sure the AW won't have to wait that long.

All the best

Alex