History for Big Pete 65

coochiee

Marto

I think the next 3 games will show where the OFC is really at. Fiji has been on fire this tourney.

I think some here have forgotten how bad OFC teams used to be (see Fiji vs AWs in the 80s etc).

But there have also been times since then when OFC teams have beaten the AWs. Vanuatu 2004 (neutral Adelaide) plus 'Horror in Honiara' 2012. 

This severely weakened AWs team hasn't been troubled at all to date. Don't see that changing.

I'm old enough to know that OFC teams were actually good enough to beat both the All Whites and Australia even back in the 1980's.
We take them lightly at our peril, especially when playing in the Islands.
That 13-0 NZ thrashing of Fiji in 1981 was really an anomaly and not typical.
(That Fijian side was ill disciplined, had been out drinking before the game etc.)
Fiji recovered from that 1981 low point to beat both NZ and Australia a few years later. They beat us in in 1983 and in two friendlies in 1988 as well.
Australia lost to Fiji in a World Cup qualifier in 1988.
(They had in previous years even lost their first ever meeting with Fiji in 1977)
The year before that 13-0 thrashing, NZ only won one game at the 1980 OFC Nations Cup under John Adshead with many of the same players as in 1981 and failed to progress from our group.
We were thrashed 4-0 by Fiji and 3-1 by Tahiti and our sole win was over the Solomons who were weak in those days.

coochiee

Marto

I think the next 3 games will show where the OFC is really at. Fiji has been on fire this tourney.

I think some here have forgotten how bad OFC teams used to be (see Fiji vs AWs in the 80s etc).

But there have also been times since then when OFC teams have beaten the AWs. Vanuatu 2004 (neutral Adelaide) plus 'Horror in Honiara' 2012. 

This severely weakened AWs team hasn't been troubled at all to date. Don't see that changing.

I'm old enough to know that OFC teams were actually good enough to beat both the All Whites and Australia even back in the 1980's.
We take them lightly at our peril, especially when playing in the Islands.
That 13-0 NZ thrashing of Fiji in 1981 was really an anomaly and not typical.
(That Fijian side was ill disciplined, had been out drinking before the game etc.)
Fiji recovered from that 1981 low point to beat both NZ and Australia a few years later. They beat us in in 1983 and in two friendlies in 1988 as well.
Australia lost to Fiji in a World Cup qualifier in 1988.
(They had in previous years even lost their first ever meeting with Fiji in 1977)
The year before that 13-0 thrashing, NZ only won one game at the 1980 OFC Nations Cup under John Adshead with many of the same players as in 1981 and failed to progress from our group.
We were thrashed 4-0 by Fiji and 3-1 by Tahiti and our sole win was over then Solomons who were weak in those days.