All Whites vs Russia, Confederations Cup | Sun 18 June | 3am | St Petersburg | SS3

One down, two to go

Ramon can make Auckland City competitive at the club world cup against far superior teams. Why couldn't he do the same with the All Whites?

Because he wasn't given the chance.

Would have been interesting to see what Emblem could have done if he'd kept the position (or even applied for it).

He seemed to be playing to the teams strengths in the two games that he had in charge.

Definitely agree, although I think he didn't have the right coaching tickets to get it permanently. His Olympic side in 2012 also looked the business IIRC.

Tuiloma might have passed the ball around ok, but he didn't track runners back, leading to their second goal and almost another. I can see why Hudson didn't start him.

I don't think I've ever seen a New Zealand team offer so little before. One of the worst performances I've ever witnessed from the National side. We offered nothing, so much so that I've seen more offers at a house auction in Gore.

There is all of this talk about this squad being the most technically gifted we've ever had. Yet we resorted to trying to kick 40/20s to an isolated Chris Wood. What do you expect him to do with 239400 long balls coming at his head?

Only when we went 2-0 down did we relax and start to play. Too little too late, you're 2-0 down mate.

Player review:
Marinovic: 7 - couple of classy saves, kept score line pretty respectable.

Boxall: 3 - own goal and gave them a Christmas present for the second.

Durante: 4 - solid, but way too much long ball. You lead the line and set the platform for our composure. Play like it.

Smith: 4 - always seems two steps behind. Unlucky with the header being cleared off the line

Covley: 2 - subbed off 83 minutes too late.

Wynne: 3 - should have played in a Russian shirt as he passed to them more than his teammates.

Mcglinchey: 4 - didn't feature until Tuiloma came on allowing him to play in his actual position.

Thomas: 8 - our best player. Fight, tried to play, unlucky with right foot screamer late in the game

Rojas: 5 - tried to play when he had the ball at his feet, impossible for him to be in a game with long balls coming in at head height

Babarouses: see Rojas.

Wood: 7 - what do you expect him to do with an unlimited amount of long ball coming into his face. No service whatsoever. He'd get better service at Valentines.

Reviews are based on a rating system of 0-100.

Can be summed up by Tuiloma's shot at the end, open at the edge of the box, shoots and goes out for a throw-in. To coin a phrase "anything can happen in 90 minutes" - you're damn right, that anything was nothing.

Even the commentator summed up our performance by saying "Hard-running". It's football, running is mandatory.

Please do better, don't make me move to Asia and support Australia.

--

I don't expect us to win. But when we lose we want to actually show signs of improvement, playing our style, and go down playing the way we want to play. That performance was worse than anything RH put together in his era managing the team. 

Has there been an interview with Hudson yet?

I thought Russia were a little better than some have suggested ITT, they aren't a great side but they played ok I thought. We made them look very good of course.

The plan of long ball is pretty hard to implement with three short midfielders. Positioning of the defence was definitely worse than usual, though the speed of Russians compared to our defenders didn't help.

Thomas worked very hard and did a few nice things.

Definitely worried about the solomon island games after these last two efforts. Only going to take a couple of decent finishers for us to be in trouble.

After that performance Hudson should resign.

They played badly but no one rating more than 8 out of 100 is a bit harsh.

Woke up again this morning and for a brief moment thought the game was a dream. Jesus, I think we will be ripped a new one from Mexico and Portugal.

Just the post match press conference.

https://youtu.be/U460aWlY3hk?t=9m3s

Hudson at post-match press conference here, starts at about 9 minutes:

RUS vs. NZL - Post-Match Press Conference

A lot of commending the 'spirit' of the performance.

'we played with a lot of spirit'

'plenty of positives to take into the next game'

'definitely a lot of positives we will take from it'

'spirit and fight, blah blah blah, very very promising'

'second half, really pleased with the improvement...'

'there were parts of the game that were very promising and very pleasing for us'

Oh dare.

No mention of our shark team selections or tactics...

He might not get another coaching gig, but at least he is improving his CV for a future sales/marketing job.

The man is full of cliches and talks the talk and doesn't even limp a walk.

That was one of the more depressing games of football I've ever seen. We just didn't look anywhere close to threatening a goal, normally I expect us to be on the back foot but to have a couple of chances on the counter and maybe get lucky. But I've never been so confident that we wouldn't score as I was last night. I was stoked when Russia scored a second goal because it meant I could go back to sleep. This was a depressing reminder of how much NZ football has regressed since 2010.

>> Please do better, don't make me move to Asia and support Australia. <<

You could move to Asia and support the Philippines. I think you would get far more enjoyment.

To a man they were sharke know body can come out of this game with any credit whats so ever.What a load of dribble and it starts with that impostor of a coach.His selections over the last few years have been poor i don't no what he see's in a lot of these players he has discarded a lot of players at the start of his time here who would do a better job than this mob of over rated players.The defending from front to back is poor. God the back five are so slow.Things have to improve or we will get smashed in the next two games thats for sure .

Hudson deserves about that rating for the last two matches probably. The way he talks about the All Whites sometimes it's like the entire side is amateur players.

I'm afraid to say that nothing will improve.  I'd like to know what the players think of their performance.  I'm not feeling proud of my team yet.  

Hudson - GTFO

The main endorsement for Hudson in his time with team has been that the players like working with him. I'm beginning to subscribe to the theory that if players are that content, there's a good chance they are not being pushed hard enough, or too much is being done to accommodate what they want. The best example I think would be all four of McGlinchey, Thomas, Rojas, and Barbarouses being played centrally. They are probably four of our best eleven players, and have all at some point expressed a preference to play through the middle, but it doesn't make the most of Wood, and prevents us from being able to exert any control over the midfield. 

I've been a bit of a supporter of Hudson, but yes he got it wrong for this game. AWs were poor, Tuiloma should have started.

Still can't blame coach for the defensive mistakes that lead to both goals. What a difference Reid would have made with his composure and skill at the back. Fear it is only going to get worse. Sigh

You can blame him for providing slow centre backs and inexperienced wingbacks with no midfield protection.

Seems there is no balance for the style of play for the personnel we have. We play a very defensive oriented game where we have some prime attacking players. We are not playing to the best of our players abilities and there is a false impression that we play defensive because we are historically shark. I don't buy into that, we have quality players that are playing to a rubbish gameplan. Not even Lionel Messi can make this team look good with the style of play that this poor imitation of a coach wants them to play. If we went want to play defensive and give up possession cheaply then we better be the best in the world at playing defensively. Get a coach that knows how to mould a team around retaining possession we won't need to rely so heavily on defensive grit.

What other realistic options does he have you think?

And presumably the lack of positional awareness in defence might be related to tactical instructions or lack of the right training to implement it. You can't say our defenders have been poorly positioned because of coaching but you can't say they weren't either.

What is funny is that Hudson is constantly name checking Bielsa and talking about how much he admires how Bielsa's teams play, yet they're almost the polar opposite in style from how the AWs have been playing.

The key thing is the lack of midfield protection - he could have played a formation with a genuine DM or not selected wingers to play in central midfield

Yeah I really do wonder what's going on there

It's like he has this big "style of play" that he is coaching to but when he gets a look at the opposition up close, he sharks himself and freaks out and changes everything.

Who knows but fark it sucks

This. Also, I would much prefer Doyle, Roux and Themi to Wynne, Colvey and Durante.

I was surprised to see Durante play ahead of Themi... hopefully this changes going forward.

We can play hoof ball and fight for scraps with the midfield we have - too small. Against Mexico it might be a little more effective as they won't be as physical, but its not a long term plan, nor one that will win you enough games.

but quite funny

I think we are going tremendously well. This was our first loss in 5 matches in major tournaments since June 2009. Nothing to worry about. 

cant lose in major tournaments if you don't qualify for them. Outstanding spin there.

Hudsonesque? ?

Have labour hired you for the election campaign as a spin doctor yet?

is this where a young Jose says he doesn't liked to be compared to anyone.
Pretty average set of questions from the press. Most seemed to be about Russia (from Russia journos). Given Burgess is over there, there didn't seems to be much depth to any questions.

But who?

Tuiloma, Tzimopolous, Keat, James, Ridenton, Lewis, van den Broek, Musa, Hudson-Wihongi.