An older hardened head in Rufer will be handy if the Tahitians try throw in a bit of niggle. Veteran Howieson has also played Island teams a thousand times with ACFC. And then Libby who some in the Tahiti team will look at with a bit of awe given they know he plays in Serie A, doesn't mind getting into the sharkhousey.
Last session for the All Whites before their OFC Nations Cup Semi-Final 🇳🇿⚔️🇵🇫 pic.twitter.com/JTtC3wp1aK
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) June 26, 2024
Crocombe to start in goal bit of a surprise. Presuming Paulsen will start the Final or 3rd/4th playoff game, ie they get 2 games each in the tourney.
But still with the Olympics so close you think Bazeley would use the opportunity, to work on combinations for France. Likes of Bindon & Libby wouldn't have played with AP much.
Nice to see right before our Olympic campaign that Tahiti are looking just as violent as our previous encounter with them. Hopefully nobody gets injured.
Missed the goal. Can anyone give us a brief description of it?
Just wins a central free-kick a couple metres out from the edge of the box, Cacace with a beautiful curler to the right, keeper tips it onto the post but it rebounds right in front of the empty net. Three or so Kiwis right there, but it falls to Surman who pokes it home
Four weeks before the olympics too... Bindon shifts to RB with Smith on.
Changes all the talk about him as one of the 3 overage players then too
Baze should have taken Hughes as reserve CB to this tourney. He’s more a CB than LK-H.
I’ve always said that Bindon to RB was an option for the Olympics with o/a players Wood, Singh and Libby. Now we see how Tyler goes at RB next 2 games. Unless OVH gets a run there
Pray to god this doesn't mean Bindon plays RB at the Olympics. He is not, not, not a RB. Waste of a brilliant, communicative left-sided CB if so
Yeah get that, but if Libby, Wood and Sarpreet were all available would suck to leave any of them out. Payne or any other o/a RB options are not in their class
Explosive end the finish the half there. Game over really, Tahiti haven't offered much.
Can see them getting much more physical in the 2nd half. The tackles are already flying in, but they've been second best to everything so far. Would like to see Mata up front, preserve Waineo for the final.
Pray to god this doesn't mean Bindon plays RB at the Olympics. He is not, not, not a RB. Waste of a brilliant, communicative left-sided CB if so
Yeah please don't waste our best young CB prospect in a while on playing out of position. He looks a class player so far for us and some nice touches for a young lad.
Good first half for us, could have been 4/5 Tahiti really arent up to much. I know we have to win this to qualify but it's largely a waste of time, beating these teams never helps our global rankings which in turn means we arent a drawcard for any bigger teams to bother with so our opportunities to get teams to come and play us at home are limited. Guess we just keep beating up on the little guys and hope we get more opportunities away from home.
Pray to god this doesn't mean Bindon plays RB at the Olympics. He is not, not, not a RB. Waste of a brilliant, communicative left-sided CB if so
Yeah get that, but if Libby, Wood and Sarpreet were all available would suck to leave any of them out. Payne or any other o/a RB options are not in their class
My absolute dream would be Sutton LB/Cacace RB. Surprised that hasn't been trialled at some point
edit: we're getting the other way round for the second half - let's see how this goes!
Good first half for us, could have been 4/5 Tahiti really arent up to much. I know we have to win this to qualify but it's largely a waste of time, beating these teams never helps our global rankings which in turn means we arent a drawcard for any bigger teams to bother with so our opportunities to get teams to come and play us at home are limited. Guess we just keep beating up on the little guys and hope we get more opportunities away from home.
Winning this tourney will definitely improve the ranking of the AWs. It’s the primary reason NZF did an about turn and entered at pretty late notice
Will have 2 quality friendlies in Sept and OFC WC qualifying will be done and dusted by next year’s March window. Post that it’s likely means 10 or more good friendlies in the lead up to WC 2026
