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

Had a compulsory meeting during the game that was moved to Monday instead. The Football Gods are shining down on me. Will be able to watch on my phone/from my desk now.

If Wood is starting, I don't think we will press as hard.

I'm gonna be in a 2 day training for everyone in similar roles to me from around NZ. Wonder if anyone will notice if I don't come back from afternoon tea...

#truepatriot

The other alternative is SkyGo on my phone under the table!

yeah looking back Gareca only made 1 offensive sub. Hurtado for Carrillo, the other two were more about maintaining the status quo. Polo was probably just for killing time but he is usually used by Gareca when he wants a hard working wide player not a player to bring offensive power

Says a lot he kept Rudiaz on the bench, putting him in would have indicated he wanted a win or nothing

Am I correct in thinking this leg will only go to extra time if it's a nil-nil draw?

yes, if its a score draw we will win on the away goals rule

Hudson has said that the squad is fully fit so likely we're starting with Smith.

I hope Wood and Smith are both fine and that we show Lima that we can play a bit more football, whatever the result.  It would be fantastic for us to go a goal up from open play.  Dreams are free.

I don't really know enough to say, but Peru were pretty lack lustre in attack here and with a change in formation and intent, maybe this could all be over very quickly. If so, fair enough; but we defended so well that they'll have to play a heck of a lot better than they did here.

But one thing is for sure.  Italy would rather be in our shoes than theirs.

After the major hype of the weekend, do you think if I get there around 1430 hours, there will still be a spot?

so far there have been 3 playoffs finalized 

Sweden knocked out Italy

Croatia knocked out Greece

Switzerland knocked out Northern Ireland 

2 out of the 3 winners won at home and drew away...taking the away goal out of the equation

The Swiss won away and drew at home 

the Irish, Australians and Peruvians all got 0-0 draws on the road. Will be interesting to see how the games go

I read somewhere on the Italian media that to date no one has reversed a 1-0 loss in the WC playoff first leg, so I would feel a lot better heading into Thursday's game with a goal advantage. But this being said we still have all to play for.

maybe they meant uefa playoffs because Uruguay has overturned a 1 0 defeat to australia for the 2002 wc

Australia won 1 0 in Sydney

Uruguay won 3 0 in Montevideo

maybe they meant uefa playoffs because Uruguay has overturned a 1 0 defeat to australia for the 2002 wc

Australia won 1 0 in Sydney

Uruguay won 3 0 in Montevideo

^ Good point. I have very little faith in the Italian media and the FA anyway. Sweden deserved to kick them out so well done to them.

Away goals rule also applies to extra time (if needed if scores are still 0-0 after normal time); if it remains 0-0 then penalties.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_...

"In each tie, the two teams will play a two-legged home-and-away series. The two winners, decided on aggregate score, qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time is played. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out.

France overturned a 2-0 loss against Ukraine four years ago, so that's wrong.

Numbers. How do they work?

always found the away goal rule in extra time a bit much...extra time after 180 minutes is also overkill.. just go to pks and sort it out that way

Lima is a good venue for NZ - near sea level and moderate in November at 20 to 22 degrees and dry. 

The Estadio Nacional stadium has a similar capacity to Westpac at 39,305 spectators, not including boxes (official Peru FA information after stadium reconstruction 2011). In practice the capacity is now 38,700.

The biggest crowd for this World Cup qualifying round was 38,700 vs. Brazil in November last year.

There is a much bigger stadium in Lima, the Estadio Monumental, with a capacity of 80,093 but it is rarely used for internationals (not at all this World Cup cycle) despite only opening in 2000. It's now the biggest stadium in South America since the Maracana in Rio was reduced to 78.838.

There's even a second stadum in Lima bigger than the Nacional, the Universidad San Marcos with a capacity of 43,000. 

I feel Rojas is more accustomed to playing in the #10 role. Without doubt

it was used vs Bolivia due to the estadio nacional having been used for a concert and the coaching staff not satisfied with the quality of the playing surface

I find it odd also that it's being played so late in Lima, surely despite being aclimatised to NZ it would have been an advantage to the Peru team to play it earlier in the day?

I imagine when negotiating the first leg kickoff time, the return leg was also a compromise. Or maybe I'm giving NZF too much credit...

Whose commentary do we get to enjoy?..hopefully not Andrew Dewhurst and whoever looking at a screen back here!

They usually play their home games at 9.15pm. I guess it's back to normal routine for them.

I'm a little worried that Wood being brought into the side will mess with our pressing game - I thought Kosta and Rojas did well to usher their players down the flanks and put pressure on them. We won't be quite as mobile up there with Wood, though obviously he's our best attacking force and most likely to score; we will have one less player tracking back to defend.

Interesting one.

Hopefully with Wood up top we won't have to do as much chasing as he will help us to hold possession, or force them into clearing it out, not finding a player etc.

He's pretty fit, so I still expect him to put in a good shift.

if you watch the way Wood plays for Burnley he does plenty of tracking and pressing. If he's fully fit he has to play. Peru looked petrified of him

Trains are on strike on Thursday in Wellington so that works really well with me not being able to get in to town for work hahaha so its get comfy at home ready to watch the game

petrified is an exaggeration. No offense to the quality of Wood but those two cbs have had to deal with Suarez, Cavani, Falcao, Gabriel Jesus, Alexis, Neymar, Higuain, Aguero and of course Messi 

in terms of physical presence they have dealt with Caicedo of Ecuador and Rondon of Venezuela 

They will be wary of what he can do but not petrified. Rodriguez will look to anticipate him constantly cause that's how he dealt with Suarez and cavani. There was one encounter they had were he ghosted in front of Wood who didn't know what happened

So just found to my disgust that Foxtel/Bein aren't televising the game. WTF? They show every WC qualifier from deepest darkest Africa, plus a bunch of meaningless friendlies but not this one?

Q: If I manage to avoid hearing the result is there some website that shows a replay of the game without giving the score in advance? I can't watch it live online because of bloody work.

If we can nick an early goal, it will be all on. The pressure on Peru could just be the undoing of them.

from what I gather from peruvian player interviews is that there is a lot of respect to what Wood brings to the AWs. They understand better than anyone how  a talisman changes the teams mentality 

Big issue for us is if Peru press us harder we will end up with much less of the ball which will lead to pressure and mistakes.  Got to try and beat the press and play the game higher up the pitch.  Sounds simple enough but it's definitely important!