AW v China 12:30am 26th March SS1

Who is this "Daylight" chap?

I believe he is Brazilian.

The one thing I got out of the game was that the new players in the team can dribble, control and pass the ball well enough so the future looks very good.

Won't last then.

(Daylight come and he wanna go home)

Some nice, quick passing down the left...

soccernet has Boyens with an own goal. CCTV5 had DU Wei as the goal scorer

Missed this game completely - can anyone give me a quick overview?

LOL agreed there

I've got the game on dvd, and I will upload a highlights package (Nostrokeeper style) to YouTube this evening.

They opened the scoring after two minutes from a corner, punched by Moss and deflected by Boyens back in to the net.

They ran as riot, Vicelich and Boyens in particular were struggling.

Vicelich's touches were usually just to clear the ball.

Wood had a couple of chances but we spent most of the half defending.

Brockie had a guilt edge header right on halftime go straight to the keeper.

Kosta and Boxall replaced Wood and Boyens. Boxall was a rock at the back, looked so composed and really steadied the ship. Kosta was dribbling and creating chances aplenty.

We started dominating and despite some great saves from Moss, the game was ours to win from there.

McGlinchey scored a long range low shot in to the left hand side of the netting.

Fitzgerald came on and looked to attack down the right.

Rojas came on and did nothing.

Smeltz and Kosta were creating everything in the second half and Mulligan was firing in shots from everywhere.

Michael Fitzgerald is also a great attacking centre back and is an option here too.

Feck sake we need more internationals!

Looked so much better when we got rid of 2 out of the three big men at the front....time to place our future in the hands of creativity and speed.  Shane Kosta and Marco would do it for me.  Killen and Wood are six of one and half dozen of nothing...

Really? I missed the first half, but thought that the second half was quite even - perhaps we had a slight upper hand. Certainly quite a few chances created, but China had the best scoring chances (3 I think counting the last minute save by Moss).

Kosta was great.

(but I am biased)

some excellent stuff in the second half

be good to see how Boxhall develops

Mully looked interested

as an international player, Kosta has benefited from a full- A-league season

I certainly got happier as the game progressed !!
tigers2011-03-26 11:47:49

Does not compute.

Agree with this to some extent. We played much better when we weren't aiming for the taller forwards in the box and played the ball on the deck more. That's not to say I don't like Killen, Wood and Fallon as players, but we play a more attractive and arguably more effective game without them.  Wood in particular can play with the ball at his feet so we don't need to rely just on our aerial dominance to compete, especially with Smeltz, Kosta and Rojas on the park.

And for my two cents I thought Mully was great in the second half. Had some great strikes and added composure to our midfield when it needed it.

Smeltz and Li Weifeng (the Great Wall of China)

Their goal (scored by us)

Did Boyens just fart??

I agree, but doing it in a game where you have everyone together for 1 day prior to the game, and half your squad missing probably isn't the right time to do it.

I can see a 4-3-3/4-5-1 being reasonable successful.

Vicelich caught a whiff, looks like he's savoring it.

Was there an official man of the match?
I'd say Moss. Kept us in the game and was an unfortunate and unsaveable own goal that was the only blemish on an otherwise solid night for him

Thanks mate. Much appreciated. Sounds promising - i've heard of Boxall before, built like a brick sh*thouse? Is he the more likely replacement for Nelsen in the future, with Tommy Smith and Reid playing next to him?

I am appreciative of everything Ivan has brung to the team over the years but it's probably time to hang up the boots (again). Boyens I've never rated.

I think that Rojas probably needs another year in his development to really know where he's at.valeo2011-03-26 13:54:50

if only ricki had played wee mac at the world cup

Only saw the second half, but would agree with McGlinchy. Always looking to be involved, and played some great passes. Kosta did look good when he came on too.

I did not feel at all confident with Moss. yes, he made some good saves, but also spilled the ball 2 or 3 times when he should not have, which put us under pressure. He also looked pretty unconvincing on pass backs- again maybe 2 of them were poor kicks out to Chinese players, and often not far from goal.

In fairness, possibly a nervy defense in front of him- although a lot of the time in 2nd half I thought they looked pretty composed and played it out well.

Legend

I reckon the glass is more than half full for the AW's. We are starting to get real talent in depth in many positions....especially central defenders and attackers.

In some ways this game reflected the transition stage we are in. First half we had the big guys up front and lots of stuff went forward in the air. Second half we had the little guys playing and we started to look real good. Nice movement and passing along the ground. McClinchey was outstanding.....I thought he looked much more comfortable playing in the second half where his short passing game came into its own. Kosta looked the goods too. Rojas had little ball but did nothing wrong.

This was a most encouraging performance.

For most of the first half, I was thinking "oh, here we go again, no attempt to play a constructive passing game ... I feel slightly embarrassed for what we do at national team level ... laughing stock ... yadayadayada"

But the second half was a different kettle of fish. It was actually pleasing on the eye (it DOES matter), and had some very encouraging performances from our young 'uns - Kosta, Boxall and McGlinchey in particular. Even Marco, while quiet, seemed like a likely outlet, and was sought through short passing rather than the welly. And, I thought of the forwards in the 1st half, Wood showed the most promise getting into the best positions and wanting the ball a little more (Killen and Smeltz were practically anonymous).

So, it had a real glass full feel about it. And the future looks so promising. Realising that promise is another matter.

If only we could play more regularly against such (and slightly better) opposition, and then this could gel into our best ever national squad.

Mulligan averge at best, i thought he was the dead ball wizard from what i saw he never bet the first man, Boxall look good when he came on and i thought Moss/ McGlinchy best all whites on the park - brockie work man like as was ivan

I agree that the glass was very much half full from what i saw in the second half. Given the lack of buildup, missing players etc, and a not bad China team, thought we look good- and played constructive, attractive football for the most part.

More games are crucial, but difficult to arrange and costly, especially if involving euro/ us based players.

I have always thought that there would be value in playing an nz/a-league based squad against some of the Oceania teams outside of the world cup/ confeds cup matches. Arguably it is a no win situation for us- if we lose, it aint good, if we win, well, that was expected. But . . . It would provide an opportunity for "fringe" players to get more experience; it may help boost the experience of the island nations, which could give greater credibility to the confederation and also help identify and provide a pathway for some of their better players who would get greater exposure. I know this would not necessarily generate a whole lot of interest, but think it would have to be better than not playing. And even though it might be seen as helping our lesser rivals, well, tougher qualification matches in oceania would be a good thing I reckon. Means if we get through to playoffs from other confeds, we have a deeper pool of internationally experienced players. And if we fell at the earlier hurdle, we clearly would not deserve to be there anyway.

There are probably more reasons that this is not a good idea? Assume it would probably still be expensive, so that would be the main thing?

Really? He was woeful in the first half, and only after Kosta came on and Mulligan had time and space in deeper midfield areas he started resembling something like a footballer...and even then as a defensive midfielder he continued to be poor - you could depend him to be two seconds too late from where he needed to be like clockwork.

On the game itself - first half absolutely woeful, lucky not to be 3 down in first ten minutes. Second half was much better, Kosta made a big difference in that he was dropping to get the ball in advanced midfield areas, forcing the Chinese midfield to drop back further and leaving us more time and space in deeper areas to build play from the back.

Boxall looked good (couple of times got caught out positionally, but that's OK for debut) so hopefully that'll be the end of Boyens.

China was interesting to watch - they try to move ball crisply and their movement off the ball was quite good, but technically they just weren't good enough to capitalise on it. Can't escape the feeling that both sides have a long, long way to go before they can aspire to be anything more than average international sides.

If only we will never know the last 10 mins against Paraguay when we needed a goal to win the group i thought he should have been on then will we ever get to that position again .

China happier I suspect..76th versus 56th...

some may argue that NZ don't deserve to be 56th, and that FIFA rankings really mean f**k all.

not that im saying that...

Brockie is not a catholic - it was a gilt-edged header