NZ 5th place Play Off Home Game

Interview with Michael Glading at 07:55.
http://www.radiosport.co.nz/ThisWeek/41130.wma
Agree the majority of people will buy tickets (or not) after the away leg.

Thats abit half arsed.

1 month between games?

True, but then if the first game away turns out to be a draw/win or narrow lost then there would be plenty of time to buy the tickets for the home game and hence better crowd.

If it had been home first and then away, we could suffer the ill treatment of what those Uruguay crowds did in their home second leg against Oz in 2001. It would be a shock to the Oz team then.

If their home crowd trash us, then you can be sure our home crowd will trash them in the return match. Eye for an eye maybe.

I really hope that is not the case.

God I hope it is in Wellington now because Nov 14 is pretty much exam week for me and that makes getting to Auckland rather hard.

Yeah me too!

I remember the Irish coach said after playing Iran that he chose to play the home leg 1st and then the away leg after, He based this after watching the Iran/Australia play offs.They won the home game 2-0 and lost 1-0 in Tehran.

Of course the score is going to matter. If you want a full house (or at least 20k), there'll have to be a good amount of fair weather supporters in that lot.

And they ain't turning up if we get clobbered in the first game.

A little birdy told me Hamilton and Christchurch might be bidding for it too

Ok... I heard prior to today. Our chances increase slightly then.

I think Hamilton are bidding for it, and their students won't bother with exams, so they'll get a good turn out

No offence to Hamilton, but surely they'd have to be rank outsiders behind Auckland and Wellington...?

Surely Wellington and Auckland will bid higher given that they have larger stadiums and thus be more likely to make money out of the whole thing.

Waikato Stadium is larger than North Harbour Stadium.

Yeah. Wikipedia just told me. I should stop assuming things.

The two larger stadiums in Auckland haven't been ruled out, though.

The bigger stadium can also lose more money if there's a poor turn out. So it probably comes down to whether NZF have the balls to take the risk.

One larger. Half of Eden Park has been torn down.

How many are they claiming for Mt. Smart ?

These days it must be close to the same as NHS... only NHS doesn't have a stupid running track and has MUCH better acoustics...

www.mtsmartstadium.co.nz/about-mt-smart/
No. 1 Arena

No. 1 Arena is the best known as the home of the Vodafone Warriors. This venue has a capacity of up to 30,000 for a sports game or up to 47,000 for a music event......

I have my doubts, weren't the Warriors calling 22k a sellout last year ?

But if the local councils/promoters/stadiums/whoever are bidding for the game, then some of the financial risk will be taken off of NZF.

It's 3k with added seating, so I imagine it'd be 22k without. Either way Westpac is bigger.

I'd be impressed if Mt Smart sold out. Westpac won't.

depends on the hype brought on by the media.

plus first result.

The issue is which venue do NZF choose. They can't choose the venue based on the hype the media create or the result of the first leg because I assume they have to announce the venue before the first leg.TopLeft072009-06-04 00:24:10

Yep, on the face of it, I agree Westpac looks better,as far as capacity goes..up to 35,000... bigger than any other available Stadium.
Waikato Stadium...over 30,000..
North Harbour ..25,000 ... Mt Smart 22,000- 25,000 (realistic)
 as others have said, we are centrally located for football supporters from all over NZ.

Biggest is probably not best as far as NZ Football are concerned though.

They will look to the best bid from Councils to offset risks and costs, but will probably prefer a smaller full stadium to a half-full one.
One word, Auckland: Beckham .....
My fear is, NZF will be risk-averse in these challenging financial times and opt for an easier to fill northern stadium.
Of course, if Wellington City Council can come up with an awesome package ....and we all pull our fingers out and front up on the day (with a bit of help from the rest of the country's football supporters) ..it would be a bloody marvellous event!


RedGed2009-06-04 00:17:41

Yep, totally agree.

I think NZF press release on here said venue confirmed by 26th June with tickets on sale by mid July.

When was that? Irish is Irish, you should look at the opposite.

To put the record straight . . . . the Irish coach was wrong. Australia did not go to the World Cup from those matches, Iran did.

FYI. Australia played Iran in 1997 World Cup playoff match in which they played firstly in Tehran and then a week later in Australia. The first game in Iran was 1-1 draw and the second game was 2-2 which gave the Iranians the win by away goals, . . . . actually very late two goals to Iran, or otherwise it was really in the bag and then it was out of the bag in the last minutes.

But if you are to take an example of home and then away games, then history has been against Australia as each time they had their home game first. But they fair slightly better with the away game first and then home game in the second leg.

Consider their WC playoffs;

1973 neutral "playoff" venue in Hong Kong. Australia wins 1-0 against South Korea.(not quite a playoff as South Korea could not go through but the last counted pool game) leap frogging Iran to go to 1974 World Cup.

1993 won playoff against canada (CONCAF runner-up) on penalty shootout of 4-1 after a 3-3 aggregate. Away game in Canada then home game in Australia after two weeks time. After these playoffs, they went on another playoff against Diego Maradona's Argentina (group 1 runner-ups). They played home in Australia first and then away in Argentina in two weeks time. They drew at home 1-1 and then lost 0-1 in Argentina.

1997 see above. It was Terry Venables Oz team, they were leading 2-0 at home, second leg but then two late goals by iran sealed their fate on "almost but not quite" campaign.

2001 Australia played Uruguay. First leg was a home game which australia won 1-0. The second leg was the away game a week later in which they lost to Uruguay 3-0 giving a 1-3 aggregate.

2006 Australia played Uruguay. First leg was an away game which Uruguay won 1-0 and then 4 days later the second leg was a home game which Australia won 4-2 penalty shootout after a 1-0 win.

As you see, the home game and then away game has been a definite death trap for the Australians in 1993 vs Argentina and 2001 vs Uruguay, whereas the away game in the first leg and then the home game has been good in 1993 (penultimate playoffs) vs Canada and "should have been"in 1997 case vs Iran and a definite winner in 2005 vs Uruguay.

So better to have an away game and then home game especially if you have to go for a penalty shootout. Then in which case you need your home crowd support.

What I am worrying about is the one month gap to keep the team on match fitness. It is a bit unnerving allowing the Asian team a month to prepare since it is more than likely that their team are home-based professionals where as our team is not home-based and I am not sure of the players club commitments in that time of the year despite having those international windows.

Uhhh i never said Australa went to the world cup in 1997?, Just said the coach watch the game(prob a video) and based his tactics on that. And the Ireland national team won the first leg 2-0 then lost 1-0 in Iran.


convict2009-06-04 01:38:35

Oh I see.

In any case, you can't base your strategy on old footage. The chance are that the conditions were similar having the same Iranian team as well as following Terry's tactical ideas which nearly pull it off. However, the Rep of Ireland team was 47th that year and an very capable team.

The only real difference is the penalty shootout after a drawn aggregate if it comes down to it. A home crowd tends to make a difference because the away team would feel under pressure being in a different and unfamiliar environment. Whereas the familiar home ground, the players would settle their nerves better. Slight enough edge when taking a penalty shootout.

The big danger in playing second game at home when you're an outsider (as the All Whites will be) is that the opposition's goals in that game become much, much more valuable, and can put enormous pressureon the underdog home side.

Thus our prerogative is for Smeltz, Killen, Woods, Brockie, Fallon (????), Smith to net at least one away first then.