NZ 5th place Play Off Home Game

 

I do remember going to a Thailand v Liverpool match when I spent a year working on a project in Bangkok. Funny story actually - apparently Houllier had warned the ref prior to kick-off that he intended to make wholesale subs at the 60 minute mark. The ref misunderstood and thought he was being requested to play 60 minute halves, for the first half anyway and with it being an exhibition match the ref thought why not. (We didn't know this at the time, it was revealed the next day in interviews.) Anyway, when the first half reached 50 minutes, we in the crowd were looking at each other wondering where all the stoppage time had come from. Houiller and Peter Withe (Thailand manager) were on the sidelines gesticulating and screaming at the ref more and more vociferously. By 60 minutes, it had become greatly amusing - we all wondered what was going on and whether we were ever going to stop for half-time. When the whistle eventually came, the exasperation of the players and coaches was tangible from the stands.

 

After the break, I think Liverpool changed their entire line-up. Thailand didn't have that big a squad and as we got closer to the 90th minute, or rather the 105th minute (second half was a standard 45 minutes),  the Thai players become more visibly knackered and unable to keep up. I can't remember the score, but it was an easy win for Liverpool.

 

14k was av good effort for a game that was a pretty meaningless friendly for which we, to the best of my memory, fielded what was largely a 'B' team of NZ-based players (pre-Phoenix days).

 

For those of us in the UK Bahrain, Quatar or Saudi would probably be best.  A quick trip to Dubai for some boozing and then head to the match.

Group 1 Team MP W D L GF GA Pts Australia 3 3 0 0 6 0 9 Japan 3 2 1 0 7 3 7 Qatar 4 1 1 2 4 8 4 Bahrain 3 0 1 2 3 5 1 Uzbekistan 3 0 1 2 1 5 1

Group 2 Team MP W D L GF GA Pts Korea Republic 3 2 1 0 7 2 7 Iran 3 1 2 0 4 3 5 Korea DPR 3 1 1 1 4 4 4 Saudi Arabia 3 1 1 1 3 4 4 United Arab Emirates 4 0 1 3 4 9 1

Upcoming matches in this window:

 

Do you mean the away leg? Why wouldn't it be in Pyongyang, North Korea? The only neutral venues matches in 2010 Qualifying have been against South Korea. In 2006, they played the home leg against Japan on neutral ground. Given the history, North Korea will probably continue to play those two countries at neutral venues - I only have a WC database, so someone else will have to advise whether North Korea have forgone home advantage in other comps.

 

Apart from that, in World Cup games anyway, they play in Pyongyang but years ago played one in Nampo. The vast majority of games on neutral turf were in "hosted" stages, where Asia would typically assign a group in the earlier rounds to one or, latterly, two countries and play all the matches in a mini-tournament over a short period.

 

For the home leg.... probably be in Auckland, but for obvious reasons most YF members would prefer Wellington.

 

I wouldn't put as first choice either, but you might get to tick off a country that you wouldn't normally get to for an away game!

 

 

I think it would have to be a neutral venue if we played north korea. Otherwise nobody would easily be able to go watch it (who didn't already live in North Korea).

Japan  0-0  Australia

Uzbekistan  0-1  Bahrain

 

North Korea  1-0  Saudi Arabia

And after 65 minutes, Iran lead Korea Republic 1-0.

 

Either these eight teams are well versed in the finer points of defending, or they've taken the idea of playing not to lose to the nth degree!

 

Meanwhile, in the Turkish U-18 competition, Adana Demirspor are 11-0 up at Ceyhanspor an hour into the match, after leading 7-0 at half-time.

 

One-sided it may be, but at least there are some goals being scored!!

 

 

Cheers,

 

JR

 

 

Standings at the halfway point:

 

Group 1 Team MP W D L GF GA Pts Australia 4 3 1 0 6 0 10 Japan 4 2 2 0 7 3 8 Bahrain 4 1 1 2 4 5 4 Qatar 4 1 1 2 4 8 4 Uzbekistan 4 0 1 3 1 6 1

 

North Korea get to play all their other games at home, so I can't see FIFA saying that NZ would be allowed to get the game moved when no-one else does.

 

The only teams NK don't seem to let in are South Korea and possibly Japan. For those matches, NK voluntarily move the games.

 

I doubt many, if any, away fans would make the trip - the registration process is apparently long winded and complex -  but that doesn't mean they aren't allowed.:

"Tourism in North Korea is organized by the state owned Tourism Organisation ("Ryohaengsa"). Every group of travelers as well as individual tourist/visitors are permanently accompanied by one or two "guides" who normally speak the mother tongue of the tourist. While tourism has increased over the last few years, tourists from Western countries remain few. The majority of the tourists that do go come from China and Japan*. For citizens of the US and South Korea it is practically impossible to obtain a visa for North Korea. for US citizens are made for the yearly Arirang Festival."

*Interesting, I didn't expect Japan!

I have seen conflicting information. NZF has it listed on their website as October 10-14 and November 14-18.

 

Soccernet has what looks like the asian 5 place playoff as Oct 10-14 and then the oceania playoffs as November 14 and 21.

 

I tend to believe soccernet as there isn't usually such a big break between playoff games.

 

Ideas anyone?

Group 2 Team MP W D L GF GA Pts Korea Republic 5 3 2 0 9 3 11 Korea DPR 6 3 1 2 7 5 10 Saudi Arabia 6 3 1 2 8 8 10 Iran 5 1 3 1 6 6 6 United Arab Emirates 6 0 1 5 6 14 1

 

Third place in B a lot more competitive than 3rd in Group 1... looks like you'll be playing off against Saudi Arabia or North Korea IMO.

We are going to have our hands full, whoever it is