All Whites vs South Africa

Ricki Herbert is ultimately responsible and will have to account for himself.
But tbh the All Whites were uniformly incredibly wasteful, with stray passes everywhere,any promising movement into SA's half seemed to breakdown through poor passing mainly,with SA quick on attack, catching our defence too deep and having to scramble back.At least offside trap and Moss's heroics saved us from massive score.

I was pretty dissapointed. We didn't look nearly as good as against Italy and I just dont get it.
I think we needed to attack more down the flanks and push for corners because against Italy, we looked formidable and dangerous when we worked off set pieces and that gave the team more confidence

The main difference for me was speed of the ball, we were putting ourselves under pressure, by not moving the ball quickly enough.

SA was quicker and that created the space for them.

If we play as statically as this, we have no chance of winning against either Iraq or in the playoff.

+1 on Ricky Herbert has to be accountable... we played an old fashioned slow style of football.. if we're ever gonna improve we need to play at pace, get the fullbacks up putting crosses in.. very dissapointing I think their keeper made one save.. we need to change things NOW.. if we ever make the world cup by some miracle it'll be the same old story.. to win games you have to score goals

Bahrian Vs Saudi Arabia in the asian playoff

Isn't herbert the golden boy, hopefully some of the gold plating has worn off a others can see whats underneath

Arrghh.

Agree ex-1,  SA learnt the lesson from Spain in the previous game..if you play at pace  NZ don't handle it well,are generally half a step off the pace, and revert to ball watching.My impression of the 1st half was yes, SA are ahead but they are beatable, not a patch on Spain.
We didn't come up with the tactics to beat them 2nd half.

Lost count the amount of times a NZ player would pass square to the inside and then stand stock still. No attempt to run into space down the wing

Of course they're beatable. If you're a decent side.

We were never in that game. Never.

Make your own conclusions.el grapadura2009-06-18 09:03:08

ARRRRGGHHHH!!!!!! FRUSTRATION!!!!!!
What a shocking passing display with some of the worst offenders our SENIOR players!!!! WTF!!!!!!

dire

It was that bad a display that one of my cats went and pissed in the corner of the kitchen in disgust (I'm assuming thats why he did it)

Totaly embarassing! Couldn't string 3 passes together all game.  Were consistantly beaten to the ball. No forward movement all game and the off the ball running was non-existant. 

 Azyr05 your avatar's given me a headache...no sorry it was the game that started it!

and the aussie commentators are having a BALL -"no dierction", "no game plan", "its hard to see what they are trying to achieve" WTF!!!!

That was a simply dreadful match.  Not one positive to take out of it, that's no lie, not a single one.  I defended Mulligan in the match against Spain, but I can't now, he was dreadful.  Brown did nothing, Lochhead was far to slow and was often out of position.  Bertos was rubbish.  Why did Herbert sub Oughton on?  Worst managerial decision ever!  Oughton was useless.  The only players who didn't play poorly were Moss and Vicelich.

I used to think Herbert would be able to coach both the Phoenix and the All Whites, but not anymore.  If we play against Iraq as we played this morning he should resign.  Actually, he probably should resign anyway.  He's ok at the Phoenix, but not for the national team.  Some of those substitutions were a disgrace (Oughton).  I have a lot of patience (I support NZ football, after all), and I don't call for heads to roll after every loss, but after this abysmal tripe something must be done.

Thinking about it, while the WC would be good exposure for our boys, it will end the same way as this Confederations Cup - total, unadulterated failure.  Maybe it's just the frustration talking, but I don't want to qualify.  We don't have a hope.  We have got to get out of Oceania.

Rant over, provided I don't think of anything else.

This isnt a defence of Herbert but a reality fact. It wont matter who we have as coach, until such a time as we start to produce players with the technical ability to play at the sort of pace and intensity of international matches we will continue to lose. The place to start is with the most important coaches in the country. Those who coach the 5-12 year olds. By the time a kid is 10 you already know if they have a chance of being a decent player. We have roughly the same number of players playing the game as Croatia and they are roughly 5th in the world rankings. They coach smarter. We dont. Blaming Herbert is putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

I disagree. Now is now, we need to maximize what we have, now, and herbert can't.

I just listened to the news and Ricki's excuse was that Killen and Smeltz didn't perform or retain the ball well enough. What a poor excuse, what about the pitiful defence & the non existent midfield. More excuses and no acknowledgment that we were terrible.

I know we've taken bigger hidings score wise but that was truly the worst display by a NZ team - ever.

and Sepp Blatter was there watching. Wave bye-bye to Oceania.

This is absolutely right. We simply don't have players who can compete successfully at this level.

You can rant all you want against Herbert or whoever, but it's not his fault the players on the field can't string 3 passes together and look like a bunch of schoolboys.

Whoever coaches/manages the team will struggle as long as they only have this calibre of players to choose from.

I didn't hear the interview.. but if he thinks that is why we lost then that is very disturbing. It's pretty hard to retain the ball, when the midfield can't even get the ball over half way...

Worst game of the last three. We tried playing passing football against the world number 4 and number 1 but when we play a team that has a similar ranking to us we were content to rely on long ball and put men behind the ball. Were we ever going to win the game when it was played like this? No. Bertos was the only creative outlet in midfield. Smeltz and Killen were playing high up the field, except had to track a long way back to even see the ball, I recall seeing Killen in a right back and centre back position on our 18 yard box for periods in the first half.

I don't see why Oughton was subbed on for Brown. Sure Brown was poos but surely the better option to sub on would have been James/Brockie/Smith/Barron instead of Oughton.
    The entire back four were poor. The pairing of Boyens and Vicelich doesn't seem to be working and they appear to be low in confidence, which would happen after conceding 7 goals in two games from two very good sides.

We were content to keep players behind the ball with little or no go forward. We weren't even getting the basics right. For example there were virtually no one-two passes up the line (Lochhead should be more than capable at doing that), no one moving into space, no one moving with the ball or for the ball or after the ball. Our throw ins are a joke. Nobody moves and the poor person taking them has to stand there like a dick waiting for somebody to become an option. However, this could be attributable to the short amount of time spent together and if so I understand.

Christie doesn't deserve a starting role next week. He is  the sort of player, like Oughton, that would be brought on in as a defensive midfielder in order to close the game out when you're ahead or for damage limitation when you're several goals down; not one goal and is not a specialist RM!

I would like to see a change in the lineup and formation for next week.
I'd like to see:
                                                              Moss
Scott/Mulligan/Anyone--Vicelich/Sigmund--Boyens/Old--Lochhead

                                     Brown/Oughton--Elliot

James/Smith/Brockie/Barron                                          Bertos

                                         Smeltz
                       
                                                      Killen


There better be an improvement against Iraq.

A positive, surely?  I don't care that if we move to Asia (or whatever) we won't get entrance into as many tournaments.  We simply don't deserve it, we get embarassed everytime, and it does very little for us.  If we qualify for tournaments through Asia, playing proper opposition and a few more games then it would be a lot better, but beating Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea does nothing for us.

Lets face it we were soft too... we should have stepped up our aggression a bit more. But then again we were 3 yards slower so catching them to soften them up may have been difficult!

Good point.Agreed

not a lot the coach can do when his players cannot seem to pass the ball to each other? I'm pretty sure his tactics were "pass the ball to the SA guys" then "conceed goals down the left flank" - once on the field all he can do is sub and yell, if noone listens, then nadda happens...

With my South Africa hat on:

Bafana Bafana still need to be more clinical in front of goal.

With my New Zealand hat on:


Mulligan and Christie? WTF?

Now for New Zealand to get some points from the Iraq game and/or South Africa to get some points from the Spain game.
Bullion2009-06-18 10:38:51

Also, that Booth player for South Africa who was booed everytime he touched the ball, had he committed some grievous offence equal to that of Hyuk Su Seo or was he hated because he was white?  If it was the latter then that's pretty poor from a nation who has strived for equality since apartheid, very poor indeed.

Edit:  My mistake.  From Wikipedia... "He has won a soft spot in the hearts of South African fans, with them shouting out his surname Booth everytime he touches the ball (often mistaken for booing)".

The commentator at one point also thought it was booing, he made a comment about it in the first half.
loyalgunner2009-06-18 10:47:40

Some one must have informed him later on because he did explain it.