Emotions aside...How good are the All Whites!?

Emotions aside...How good are the All Whites!?

I love the All Whites and anything to do with NZ footballers. It has been great NZ have had the opportunities in all the Age group world cups and Olympics, confederations cups etc in recent years, mainly due to Australia moving to Asia. It has given a lot of our younger generation real goals and chances at becoming professionals and given the exposure needed to help secure pro- contracts.

We are moving in the right direction and it really gives us supporters something to look forward to, whether it be the All whites playing in WCQs or Nelsen taking the field for Blackburn.

But...

Its quite scary when you look at the All whites results over the last few years leading upto the confederation cup and Asian WC playoffs.

Q: When was the last time the All Whites won a game? 
A: About 7 months ago. 10/09/2008

Q: How many games have the All White played against Non-OFC teams in the last 10 years who were ranked in the top 100?
A: 29

Q: How many of the 29 games did we win?
A: 0

There are more and more historical facts that are really quite depressing. However I always look forward to our next games and hope for a win.

It shows though how rare and important getting a win is at international level.

 

It think you make some very valid points.  Our ranking is over inflated due to our ability to win our OFC and WC games against the Islands but even amongst that is a loss to Fiji now! As a nation we never seem to have a set goal or aim...even in this WC campaign we have stumbled upon qualification nearly by default.  Nations that have made improvements like Japan went about it in various different ways like the establishment of the J League, importing coaches from Brazil, exporting coaches and players to Brasil to learn and of course playing many international matches in a properly developed program.  I'm really looking forward to the games that NZ has lined up this year but I know it's because of the Confeds Cup and WC.  Next year we will probably be back to no games and this is my point.  We should have a program in place that says ok we need to get better at playing in Asia so we organise to play Thailand, Malaysia, Indo, China, Korea and Japan.  The next year we can alternate the venue or try different countries.  Our players need more experience at the top level to be able to knock over a top 100 team.

It's odd to think that 25 years back we beat Japan 5-0 and Korea was on a par.

If you were to clone 11 All Whites so you had duplicate teams and had them play each other, but with one team having played in OFC qualifiers and the occasional friendly, and the other having played in Asian WCQ and the Asian Cup, what would the result be?

Was Estonia in the top 100 when we beat them?

Estonia were ranked 79th, we didn't win, we drew 1-1. Which was a great result. I only included wins in my analysis to make a stronger point ;)

We beat Georgia(thats prob what you were thinkg) they were ranked 101st at the time :)

I agree as well, I think we have benefited over the last few years with Aussie leaving the OFC but now to move forward we need to get into Asian confederation as well. It will also help our fan base having regular games and get the next generation more into football.

For now I think perhaps the best thing for NZF to do is cram in as many games as possible and show the AFC that we're serious about moving up the ranks.

What we underestimated is how bloody good that the 80s All Whites team was and the chemistry that they had. They beat Mexico 4-0 in 1980 (just don't mention the Canadian games) in a friendly.

BTW, we did beat Australia 1-0 in July 2002 and they were in the top 100. (Ok they were OFC nation but then with their strong ranking it does count) In the last 10 years, The teams that were in the top 100 at the time we played then; Oman, Egypt, Thailand, Poland scotland, South Korea and Wales, we had decent solid draws against them, that has to count somewhere.

We lack experience, the 80's team had lots of experience in the years before 1982 playing top teams outside of OFC and the result we got to the 1982 world cup finals.

I think it was the major difference. Which is great that we get the confederation cup experience under our belt. It is an experience plus some top opponent games leading up the the confeds that is important to us as top dog of the OFC. If we do get to knock a few upsets, then the door to other higher leveled teams will open and this would feed back to our our playing standards.

With access to high leveled age group tournaments, we can build the standard to a competitive level and then later we maybe ready to enter the AFC.

Its just too early to do so because we don't have the infrastructure to allow the improvement that allow us to benefit adequately.AllWhitebelievr2009-04-10 00:20:47

It's a chicken and egg situation. You could say we need to improve before moving to the AFC but I think we need to move to the AFC in order to improve.

The normal excuse/reason for not playing more games is the cost and NZF's lack of funds.

Sadly, I think sh*te is the best description I can think of. Jag2009-04-15 09:39:09

I'll just stir up the pot a little bit here - the simple answer to the question posed is pretty poor. But what surprises me the most is blind over-estimation of the All Whites' place in the footballing world by some AWs supporters. The reality is that we have terrible footballing infrastructure in this country, national body which was nearly bankrupted last year, weak national league, only one professional club which has to rely on Australian players to be competetive in the HAL, and a smithering of players playing at various levels (and with various success) overseas. Months (and occassionally years!) go by without the AWs playing - to expect to have a decent national team considering all this is foolhardy. Our chances of getting to the World Cup are probably at their best since 1982, but this has nothing to do with the quality of the AWs team but more with the way FIFA set up the WC draw. I still think we're highly unlikely to make it to SA next year, and to be honest, if NZ belonged to any other Confederation (and faced with the circumstances as they are now), we'd be nowhere near WC qualification, and quite possibly already eliminated by now. We're a long, long way from being a competetive side internationally, and I do get very bemused when I hear expectations from some quarters of this AWs side.

Isn't that just a longer version of what I said, EG?

I just like to ramble a bit, that's all. But good to see we're in agreement.

I think though that we are progressing in the right direction. I base this on what I have seen on the fields.

This is the most accurate post I have ever seen. Thank God for an honest reply.

yeah I was bugger, 101, so close, thanks for that mate.

...and how did they rank when you played for them Leggy ?

Not that well, but we did have a lot of guts