For the moment, Tommy Smith is the exception. For how much longer who knows. Issac Hughes could start every ALM game for the Nix this season. Smith on the other hand may start not much more than zero for Auckland.
If that 2017 team below could win 6-1, (admittedly the Solomons are often not that defensively minded), a full strength 2024 side can hit double figures against both Vanuatu & Samoa (highly likely). Especially as these days games are more 100 mins than 90 mins.
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2024/11/11/all-whites-in-the-november-wcqs-squad-yarns-amp-previewThe other selection tendency that people need to know is that Darren Bazeley doesn’t do mid-strength squads. He’s often hampered by injuries and sometimes there are club situations that require a little bit of goosing with the bigger picture in mind... but with the exception of the Oceania Nations Cup, which took place outside of a FIFA window shortly before the Olympics (and which wasn’t originally in the plans for NZF, until they decided they needed the rankings points), Big Man Baze continually picks the strongest group available to him. Even for windows like this where he doesn’t need all the main characters to get results. Rotation is not a priority for this team. Bazeley picks the best team whenever possible. He’d have easily gotten away with some lenience for these last two squads but nope the thought never entered his mind.
It’s always cool to see different guys get an opportunity in the national team but at the same time they do have to earn it. By avoiding the temptation to leave a few of the European-based hombres behind in November, Bazeley is effectively saying that every game matters, every tour matters, and that it is a privilege and an honour to represent Aotearoa. Standards stay high as long as there are quality players outside the group keeping everyone on their toes with good club performances. It also reflects on the fact that these top players want to be there. They want to play against Tahiti in Vanuatu. They want to face Malaysia and Vanuatu and Samoa on home soil. There’s a great vibe around the playing group and they don’t take this stuff for granted. Plus they realise that if they take a tour off then some other joker might just swoop in and take their position.
The risk of this approach is that this becomes a kind of boys club where the same guys are picked regardless of how (or if) they’re playing in the club scene... but the exclusion of Bill Tuiloma seems to show that isn’t the case. The depth pool is only getting deeper so it’d be curious to see what happens if one of the regulars goes on a form slump and how much benefit they’d be given before getting dropped. One gets the feeling that Bazeley would take a Blackcaps-esque ‘hard to get into the squad, hard to get out of the squad’ approach... which is not such a bad way to go about it, really. Here’s a quote explaining some methodology...
Darren Bazeley:
“Bill [Tuiloma]'s a top player and he's got 40-odd caps for New Zealand but he's in a position at the moment where he's not playing consistently for his club over in America and we've had that conversation with him - it's very difficult to select you for the All Whites when you're not playing for your club. The All Whites environment has changed now there's competition for places and that's the challenge for the players. You have to be match fit you have to be ready to play because we've got other options now, other good options.
To have a player like Bill who is not consistently selected in the squad just shows where we are at now. The thing with this squad now and these players is they all want to play in every single game, I think most of them could see now that there's competition for places and they don't want to be missing out on a game and not be available because somebody else can take that shirt and you never know then how that person might play that's the way football works.”
.....The last time they (AWs) played at home against a Pacific team was a 6-1 win against the Solomon Islands in 2017 in which Chris Wood scored a hat-trick.
The starting line-up that day was: Marinovic, Roux, Tzimopoulos, Boxall, Brotherton, Wynne, McGlinchey, Thomas, Patterson, Barbarouses, Wood. The three subs used were: Musa, Bevan, Colvey.
Looking back, that’s half of a really good team and half poorly-aged Anthony Hudson shenanigans (the back five being highest on that list... the two teams then drew 2-2 in Honiara four days later with seven NZ starters in common). Times have changed.
