AW v Chile Wed 9th 11:30pm

was smeltz who passed it to whoever shot. i had the spanish espn feed, was clear as day. thought it might have been smith that took the shot but not certain.

A Chilean guy I know says this is their best team in years - very attacking and plays a similar style to Paraguay, ie, a lot of individual skill on attack and often attacking in numbers. So it was probably a very, very useful exercise for us.

That feed had everyone with short bodies and long strides. It was hard to see who had what ball in the far side of the field. It was only when the commentators mention an latinized NZ name that I get to notice who may be who.

But the picture made Wood look bigger across his [barrel] chest and we know he is a tall solid boy as he is. He was a giant among the Chile players.

A lot of that then-young sided team whipped us 4-1 on that ill fated trip to Chile in 2006. Quick and attack on mass.

I remember Valdivia being a particular menace in that series

Paraguay is a better, from what I've seen of both teams in the last 12 months. But they'll miss Cabanas, he's been a very important player for them.

what a weird summary of the match from Rattue...he's a bit of an odd character

Found some highlights. Sounds like a swarm of bees making out with the birds in the backround..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScvUtQNZsck darkhorse2010-06-10 04:47:01

Cheers for that Darkhorse. 1st goal should have been saved by Bannatyne. Do we need to start panicking about the quality of our keepers? (Moss aside)

Yeah, just seeing the replay of the first goal again - Bannatyne should have done much more there.

Paston will play 2 games. Moss will play 1. So no.

How did Clapham do???

I don't think Moss is any great shakes either.

 I don't even know if moss will play 1. If that was the plan then they would have given him some game time surely
?

I don't think Moss will be starting in the third match. Surely Ricki would have played him today if he intended to start him. He will only play if Paston is either injured or horrible in the first two games.

I agree, Paston for all three.

Didn't get on apparently, Miles Davis on the Radio this morning said he looked distraught afterwards.

how did vicelich play in def mid?

yeah, he should really of given clapham some game time.. think he earned the right to prove himself against an international team before the worldcup.. what happens if we get a string of injuries and end up relying on him and he hasnt even played against international opposition.. hopefully won't come to that though,and fingers crossed brown is actually ok! strikeforce2010-06-10 12:01:25

what was the point in even taking him then? now we will never know what he offers

Because we have to take 23 players to the World Cup?

The reality is we have 15-16 players who can hold their own - to a greater or lesser extent - at this level, the rest are not there yet and really just passengers.

Clapham's time will come, just not yet.

Aaron Clapham 2010 ='s Theo Walcott 2006

so he'll be dropped for the next world up then

Found this on the stuff site:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/fifa-world-cup/3795222/Video-Inside-the-All-Whites-v-Chile-game

Link from the main Sport page.

Yeah, give everyone a go so they all feel good about themselves

Who cares what we know?  I'm pretty sure Ricki knows what he offer since he was in camp for the best part of a month.

One of our smaller guys was making a lot of nippy runs at the Chileans down the left in the last 30 rather than trying to go over the top like most of our attack. He seemed to be creating some problems for them. But I couldn't tell who it was (crappy picture resolution). I though it might have been McLinchey as he came on late didn't he? Most defences will be expecting in to come at them with long-ball and aerial attacks - be nice to know we have some other options there.

If we can stop giving the ball away especially in mid-field it would also help...The Chileans messed us up a fair bit with lots of quick pressure whenever we had the ball. Made us boof it up the field a bit too much...

But even with all that we were unlucky(again) not to get at least one goal. Some of these chances are going to start going in sooner or later. I'm just hoping we're holding all our luck back until the real games.

Shows how ridiculously big Chris Wood is

Look at those shoulders.

That photo needs a caption contest for Smeltzy...

Brockie yet to get a shot on target in the warmups by my reckoning?

"Brockie had two excellent chances to give New Zealand the lead in the first half an hour, but first headed a beautifully crossed ball from Leo Bertos over the goal and then only managed to hit the side-netting when the ball dropped invitingly after some aerial ping-pong in the box.

The winger played well but knows that a goal would not have hurt his selection chances.

"We had a few chance ourselves and I should have put one away. Or at least got one on target.''

Yes, this:

Hopefully he's stopped or he's going to have a sh*tload of injuries and wont be able to last full games very often