NZF seems to be between no man’s land, and not a good place to be. NZ has now enough depth and talent to beat teams they previously would have lost to like Kenya, India and Lithuania, however they are probably not good enough to beat anyone in top 50 or 40, it’s a hard balance to find a team between Papua New Guinea and Peru, and wins in a friendly in neutral location against a team that is an average African side or Middle Eastern side is great for good public exposure and team morale, I’m not sure if it will help long term.. Basically , OFC is holding us back from reaching our true potential I believe..
A big chunk of the team out there today played in the three games mentioned. What we lacked in all three were experienced players like Smith, Reid, M. Boxall and Wood playing together. We rarely get our best XI together due to injuries, club committments, stupid comments (Smith) or Twits in charge. I'd say the last time we had our best possible XI on the park was in SA at the WC. Being at those three games mentioned above and the first one in UAE, we've been pants up front. Too dependant on Wood to win it for us.
Drop Just, he's not there yet, Pijnaker is a bench warmer currently and not sure about Kirwin.
Looking forward to January though with our best finally together: Sail, Mariovic, Smith, Reid, Tuiloma, M. Boxall, Cacace, Champness, Singh, Bell, Rojas, Stamenic, Thomas, Barabaroses, Wayne. Give them lots of games together and I can see us at the WC next year.
6 goals to Wood in a black shirt this year (AWs/U23s). Great form given NZF had no men's football for so long. Just need another striker to step up, here's hoping it's Kosta or Wayne to take the pressure off Wood.