All Whites, Ferns, and other international teams

NZ 5th place Play Off Home Game

235 replies · 5,128 views

almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I'm seriously hoping for Bahrain. I'm not underestimating them by any means, but I suspect the likes of Saudi Arabia would exceed them.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Bahrain are actually a very, very good side. They would be extremely difficult for NZ to beat.

After Australia's win last night which all but assured them of a WC place, Mark Bosnich made one of those typically arrogant statements that Aussies are apt to come out with whenever they feel on top. Asian teams are "mentally weak" he says (but Australia are tough, surprise surprise). Well, he obviously hasn't seen Bahrain in action - in fact he even admits that.

If he'd bothered to watch them he would've noted that not only are they speedy and highly skilful but extremely determined with a fight-to-the-death attitude, as shown against Oz, Uzbek and especially against Japan. In that game they were a man down, 3-0 down, yet almost grabbed an equaliser in injury time.

Saudi are a good team, but they do run hot and cold. They might be preferable opponents.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I think it's more likely to be either North Korea or Iran to be honest. Both will be very difficult but whoever it is the All Whites have got to go out there with a positive attitude.

The clash in Pyongyang between Iran and DPRK on 6 June will be an absolutely key.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Saudi Arabia or Bahrain IMO .... I think Saudi Arabia .... hope you win through..

Socceroo/ Mariner / Whangarei

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Hmm, which is more liberal (i.e. better for supporters to get on the hammer?). Really, really don't want to have to go to pyongyang, and unlikely to ever be let in (or let out again)

Normo's coming home

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I think it'll be a team from Group 2 - one out of Saudi Arabia/Iran/North Korea.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

el grapadura wrote:

I think it'll be a team from Group 2 - one out of Saudi Arabia/Iran/North Korea.

Regardless of which team we end up playing, we would have to improve 100% from the performances in Thiland.

If you are old and wise you were probably young and stupid

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

StopOut wrote:

Bahrain are actually a very, very good side. They would be extremely difficult for NZ to beat.

ï¿½

If he'd bothered to watch them he would've noted that not only are they speedy and highly skilful but extremely determined with a fight-to-the-death attitude, as shown against Oz, Uzbekï¿½and especially against Japan. In that game they were a man down, 3-0 down, yetï¿½almost grabbed an equaliser in injury time.

ï¿½

Saudi are a good team, but they do run hot and cold. They might be preferable opponents.

Mark Bosnich does come across as a bit arrogant, but he does know his football,

If you are old and wise you were probably young and stupid

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Im picking Saudi Arabia as our opponent and a retuen to the glory days of 1982. I well remember the 5=0 away win in the middle of the nite.

A small town in Europe........looking to bounce straight back up....well that aint going to happen

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Yeah, on that freaky fluoro green plastic pitch. All 5 in the first half: silly sods couldn't manage the one more that would've put us straight through without having to play China in a playoff.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Boro4eva wrote:

Im picking Saudi Arabia as our opponent and a retuen to the glory days of 1982.ï¿½ I well remember the 5=0 away win in the middle of the nite.

Things are a bit different now.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

el grapadura wrote:

Boro4eva wrote:

Im picking Saudi Arabia as our opponent and a retuen to the glory days of 1982. I well remember the 5=0 away win in the middle of the nite.

Things are a bit different now.

True..but its nice to reminise(sp)

A small town in Europe........looking to bounce straight back up....well that aint going to happen

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Does anybody agree, though, that if we play a team from a very hot climate that if we play in a cold, miserable part of the country (think Dunedin) we will have an advantage?

Having said that, the crowd would be better in Wellington and Wellington would still be colder that whatever country we'd be playing (chances are, anyway). Wherever we play, though, I'll make the trip.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

loyalgunner wrote:

Does anybody agree, though, that if we play a team from a very hot climate that if we play in a cold, miserable part of the country (think Dunedin) we will have an advantage?

Out of curiousity, I looked up the average range of temperatures and evening humidities in November for the Asian teams:

The BBC says:

Pyongyang (N Korea) between -2 and 9 (morning humidity 73) - no evening hum given.

Seoul (S Korea) between 0 and 11 (hum 52).

Tashkent (Uzbekistan) between 2 and 12 (hum 55).

Tokyo (Japan) between 6 and 16 (hum 58).

Tehran (Iran) between 6 and 17 (hum 66).

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) between 13 and 29 (hum 33).

UAE between 18 and 31 (hum 59).

Bahrain and Qatar between 21 and 28 (hum 70).

For comparison, Wellington was 10 to 17 (hum 69), Auckland 12 to 19 (hum 64), Christchurch 8 to 19 (hum 64) and Dunedin 7 to 17 (hum 69).

SiNZ2009-04-12 21:33:31

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Any news on where its gonna be played?

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I'd love a game against North Korea. Trip to Pyongyang, if it could actually be arranged, would be magic.

Plus, you could probably anger the opposition into making silly fouls by sings that "I'm so ronery" song from Team America...

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I went to the World Cup Qualifier between Nth and South Korea two weeks ago. North Korea looked ok... good technical ability. The South Koreans should have won by more though, but they were just playing with them... (last few games between them had been boring draws..) South Korea got a goal in the last 5mins.

There was no North Korea supporters at all at the game that i could see.

I think we would have a good chance against Nth Korea..

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

monthen wrote:

I'd love a game against North Korea. Trip to Pyongyang, if it could actually be arranged, would be magic.

Plus, you could probably anger the opposition into making silly fouls by sings that "I'm so ronery" song from Team America...

I really want to go. Am organizing a round the world trip for next may-sept/oct so might be able to make it.

VUW AFC - Victoria University Football for life

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

monthen wrote:

I'd love a game against North Korea. Trip to Pyongyang, if it could actually be arranged, would be magic.

Plus, you could probably anger the opposition into making silly fouls by sings that "I'm so ronery" song from Team America...

I'd love to see the guards reaction. And the knees up before the match would be a bit dull.

Must order a few more grey suits!!!

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Fifa have posted that there will be a 1 month gap between the home and away playoff with Asian 5th team and New Zealand?? Why does the other intercontinental games get played with a week in between.

playoffsconvict2009-05-24 00:37:04

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I guess that with the Phoenix not having a fixture that October weekend and Australia being practically safe from needing to be involved in the match, FIFA figured it was safe to schedule the first leg for the October international fixture weekend instead. At least both games will be a Saturday fixture now.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Yeah but does it work in New Zealands favour or 5th place Asian team? I just dont get it.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I don't think it works in our favour.

Don't know about the Asian team.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I don't think it favours or disfavours either team. I don't see how it could - unless I'm missing something?

It does mean we don't have to worry about a midweek evening match, as both games will be on a Saturday. That has to be good for both sets of fans.

I imagine that is behind the thinking of the change - if so, good on FIFA for being sensible and taking advantage of what would otherwise be an unexploited gap in the calender.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

SiNZ wrote:

I don't think it favours or disfavours either team. I don't see how it could - unless I'm missing something?

It means we'll have to get half of our squad from halfway accross the world twice in the space of a month, rather than just once.
More expensive, more fatigue involved with the travel, and overall disruptive to team cohesion.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

From the FIFA site:

The dates for the play-off matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africaï¿½ have been confirmed. The intercontinental showdowns between the fifth placed team in Asia and New Zealand will be played on Saturday 10 October and Saturday 14 November 2009.

The draw to decide who will be home or away will be conducted on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in the Bahamas.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

bun1 wrote:

From the FIFA site:

The draw to decide who will be home or away will be conducted on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in the Bahamas.

One issue with this. If we get the home leg on 10 October then chances are it wont be in Wellington because Westpac Stadium is booked for the Home and Garden show.

Bum.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Then When are the matches to decide who the 5th placed asian side is? weren't they meant to be 10th and 14th of October? or has that now been put into the August/September FIFA window (would make sense since the group phase winds up in June)

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Walksox wrote:

These games are on September 5 and 9.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Wellington are only an outside chance at best to host the home leg. Although I'm sure the stadium, the council and capital football (and the fans!) are all keen there are various things going against us. Mainly because NZF already have an agreement with North harbour stadium and we're also competing against a few other cities who are keen to host. Basically we'd have to trick NZF into thinking we'd get a bigger crowd and that Wellington would make a festival of it. lol!.

(Sorry if I'm repeating anyone I couldn't be F'd reading all the previous posts)

Fruglo on 15.01.2013 wrote:

Fuck this stupid game

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Surely wellington will get the Qualifier even if though Auckland has a bigger capacity stadium, wellington has the more keen supporters and its location is brilliant being Halfway between both islands.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

It's official....the All Whites will be away first (October 10-14) and home second (November 14-18).

Venues obviously TBC

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Probably not what NZF was hoping for. The crowd in the second game would be massively dependant on the score in the first game.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

they were actually wanting that

Founder

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

That surprises me - if we lose 3-0, we'll be lucky to get 5-6k to the game.

The flipside I guess is that if we get a good result, then we could get a very good crowd.

Even from a strictly footballing point of view, think we'd have been better off playing at home first. Still. If NZF got what they wanted, I'll assume they knew what they were asking for.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

The All Whites will decide their 2010 FIFA World Cup destiny on home soil after the draw for intercontinental playoffs was made at FIFA Congress in the Bahamas on Wednesday morning (NZT)

New Zealand will play the fifth best Asian qualifier away on Saturday October 10 then return home for the decisive second leg on Saturday November 14.

New Zealand Football CEO Michael Glading was present at the draw and was delighted the All Whites would now have support behind them in their most important match in almost 30 years.

"It's a real positive for us," Glading said.

"Knowing what you have to do going into the final match is always a preference. Certainly when you hear interviews from managers in the UEFA Champions League they always hope they get the home game second and there's a reason for that."

With the playoff date locked in, Glading said New Zealand Football would make a final decision on the host venue by June 26, and was confident tickets would be snapped up when they go on sale in mid July.

"It's without a doubt the biggest game New Zealand's played since 1981. It won't get any bigger than this. I'm sure we'll get a sell-out crowd."

Football fans will also be marking September 5 and 9 in their calendars, as the two third placed teams in each of Asia's two final qualifying groups square off over two legs to decide who will meet the All Whites in the Asia-Oceania playoff.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

el grapadura wrote:

Probably not what NZF was hoping for. The crowd in the second game would be massively dependant on the score in the first game.

Then we'll have to win and play good football.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Hopefully the crowd wont depend on the result, with the vast majority of tickets pre sold. but of course thers no guarantee they wont be down 4-0 which means the NZ game could be a fizza.

Please let it be wellington, the city would get in behind it. There would be people that go along just to make up the numbers and show the jaffas. Need i remind people of the Beckam game. (The Auckland one)

All Aboard the Phoenix/ All Whites Bandwagon!!

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Much as I hope this isn't true, I get the feeling people will hold off buying their tickets for the home leg until after the away leg.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Know what you mean. I thought it pretty adventourous for NZ football to say they would get a sell out. We can always hope.

All Aboard the Phoenix/ All Whites Bandwagon!!

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