AWs V Japan Wed 5th March 11:30pm SS1

I'm finding this game very difficult to put into perspective. Every so often I thought I was watching the junior AW's then realised this was the full team.

How did the AW's performance in this game compare to the two games they played against Mexico? Would this team have performed better or worse?

Durante - just don't think this guy is int material.

Reira - would he make the AW's if available?

Moss has to be a bit careful.  He makes some amazing saves.  But he lets himself down by being a bit gaff prone.  Just this season off the top of my head:

- 1st in away leg against Mexico

- in the 1-1 with West Sydney goal went straight through him

- second against Heart

- 4th against Japan

- can't remember the exact game but there was one late on in an A-League he fumbled over the line which didn't affect the result so didn't get a lot of attention.

Our performance v Japan was much better c.f. Mexico - but it was a friendly not a crucial World Cup play-off. Japan would have killed us if the WC finals were at stake. They noticeably stopped pressing us in our half after their 4th goal and in the 2nd half, and as we were allowed more time to build play, we looked and were noticeably better. Flatteringly better IMO.

Durante is OK at this level I reckon, but he'd be better if he wasn't the 'main man', i.e. Smith and Reid were alongside. Bill T doesn't look to have the pace or positional sense to be a wide defender. And whether he's anything like the tackler Riera is, is debatable. Kosta also looked lost tracking back, so RB and LB are still a problem if Boxall and Roux aren't on top of their game or they're being skinned by pacy attackers. IMO the best candidate for LB is still Smith, if available. And yes, we badly need a class back-up to Moss. He had an awful game. Ryan T, Boyd and Wood (all ex-Waikato!) our best.

Shame we can't play Mexico again in a friendly. Or can we? After the World Cup? I reckon it could be a crowd puller.

Tuiloma is very sharp and a real athlete so not sure why your questioning his pace Jerry.

Also, we can't really question his ability to play DM when we are yet to see it.

Riera would be gold for us if he becomes available and would certainly add to our team.

Gave away the 4th Japanese goal. Poor marking, too slow to recover.

Japan beat Belgium and drew with Holland, arguably outplaying them so they are no slouch....

people keep talking about how they let off

but there is a place in the world cup squad for these players, i doubt they would easy up when there is a chance they could miss out.

i think they were lucky to be up and some players AKA Kagawa are getting a lot of slack for how they preformed. lots of pressure on them.

They were lucky we didn't get a couple more - e.g. from Boyd and Wood. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to learn we had more chances to score than them.

is there actually a chance that albert can pull on the white jersey soon? how long has he been here?

C'mon mate, he scarcely speaka de Engleesh! He's a proud Iberian here on holiday (sort of).

He's been here for 3 years so atleast another 2 years away for Riera

With the fourth goal, should he have been on the man or should have one of the CB's picked up the run, after all he received the ball in a very central area.

perhaps there was too much ball watching from the cb's and they didn't drop in (Tui may have been asking for this to happen)?

Either way poor marking doesn't make him slow which is the point i questioned.

Watch the replay and see what he did when the ball went past him/behind him. Maybe he's not slow at running but his reaction seemed slow. To me, anyway. Like he'd half given up. Well, it was already 0-3...

It was before that - offside. Second goal was falling over after ball had been cleanly lost - not a great ref decision. It just shows why virtually every striker will fall over in the penalty box with any sort of contest for the ball - they'll never be carded or simulation and they will more often than not get a penalty. Later in the game Wood got taken out well and truely on the edge of the box and there was no foul given at all.

Other two goals were good ones.

I just mention it as i think we were a lot more competitive than the scoreline suggests and I think that Japan didn't ease off at all. We just made less mistakes and actually got going. Remember this is a team playing in this combination for the first time ever; away; with 2 days prep; missing its 3 best players (two of whom are key defenders); and an average age of 22. I've noted a few articles where they say a Japan was missing two players - but nothing about our situation which was much less helpful. I thought we did very well and were a bit unlucky the scores weren't closer - given the number of chances we had we could have won it. If I was them I'd be worried about the world cup.

We must get more games for these guys - the foundation is definitely there but will there be any attempt to build on it?

Of course Japan eased off. They were 4-0 up in 20 minutes. Every team in the universe chills out if they're that far ahead.

Some mental relaxation is of courase inevitable because you think its a cakewalk - but they are professionals  in front of a noisey home ground vying for worlld cup spots. They seemed to keep running just as hard all the way through. Its just that for the remainder of the game they had to do more of it chasing us rather than the mayhem of the first 15mins. You can't say that the reason we looked good was because they suddently switched off. We got into the game as well. Thats my feeling anyway. Bloody encouaging performance for the team we put up whichever way you look at it.

1. No.

2. I can.

3. Yes.

I think Japan did ease back a bit, but it's hard to say by how much because the goals came so quickly from lapses/refereeing calls that there was no real spell of dominance before they scored, if that makes sense. Basically they scored a flurry of goals right at the start of the game and then they stopped scoring. The reason is probably a combination of us sorting ourselves out and Japan easing off but how much each of those factors contributed depends on your point of view.

Anyway, I think another factor no one has mentioned is the fact that friendly matches often change a lot once the coaches start to throw all the subs on to give them a run. The loss of structure in the game once this started to happen helped us more than it helped Japan.

In defense of Tuiloma I would like to point out that he has been training and playing as a DM for Marseille for the last 7 months. He has not gone near playing LB. So why are people surprised that he looked out of place at LB. He is specialising as a DM. OK he played some age group stuff at LB and made his AW debut at LB but its a huge leap from there to assume that he can train and play as a pro DM and then just slot back as a LB against world class opposition like Japan after just two training sessions.

We are talking about international football here. England would not just throw Lampard into LB for a full international. This bullshit idea of switching players out of position when they are not prepared properly is just crazy. Rickie was prone do doing this stuff( Killen to DM, Brockie to wingback etc) 

1. I never proposed Riera for the All Whites. Quite the opposite. Read back.

2. None.

3. I know. But in this game he was too easily exposed at LB. Only my opinion of course. Sorry if it offends you.

4. Get real. We're talking international football here. I'm just pointing out what I saw.

So much angst.

Apart from conceeding some sloppy goals I came away with more positives than negatives.

We look to have a decent side in the making with a bit of flair to boot. 

I'm happy, would have like to have won, but am realistic and knew that wasn't going to happen. However, I also didn't expect us to create as many chances as we did and the way we did from open play.

^^ this x 100%

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 7:31a.m.
All Whites great Steve Wooddin is on the show as we get his read on this morning’s 4-2 loss by New Zealand to Japan.
http://www.radiolivesport.co.nz/Steve-Wooddin/tabid/454/articleID/17530/Default.aspx

Just say in internationals I can't recall Paston gifting many goals. Moss has given away the first goal a couple of times in internationals not knowing when to come off his lines and when he does, not getting the ball.

I think we did well and will have won some plaudits for the way we played. We were able to move the ball and hold possession. 

But I also think that Japan could have continued to roll straight over the top of us, they missed a tap in for 5 and they eased up a bit after that.

But really if you look at the creative players from Milan, Manchester and strikers from the Bundesliga they are a much better team than Mexico at the moment. I was thinking we might have shipped 8-9 and I predicted 5-1, so was very happy at 4-2. The second half Japanese team didn't gel so much. 

Kosta does tend to die with the ball a bit. He did it during qualifiers against the islands a bit. I think that is where you can look at some of the best midfield players and they always keep the ball alive. He's good, but I think we want to aim to be better- or have him up his game. 

I'm really warming to Boyd, he's a good team player and links with others really well and he's got pace. If he could add a few goals that would be even better. 

Thought McG was good too.

Some rather suspect calls from the officials (1st goal clearly off side, dubious penalty) and not Glens best game for NZ but good things ahead.  I would like to see these players gain some confidence playing against teams more at our level like Canada etc again as we have been punished a bit in our last three internationals (13 - 5 on aggregate). 

Am happy that we have managed to score two goals in two games against quality opposition, bodes well.