OFC Nations Cup 2016 - vs Fiji | Sat 28 May | 6pm | SS Popup

No idea, but I would love to know what he said or did wrong.  He seemed (admittedly from a distance) to know what he was doing.

jeebs, brotherton really does struggling with th econcept of defending. he has nice passing however

luke adams looks to have improved a lot since leaving the phoenix

Or ragged on a bunch of local coaches, booted them out and installed a couple of his new mates in their place. 

Wow that corner decision... 

Reffing has been surprisingly good but that was a shocking call

Now this decision. Handball by goalkeeper wtf lol

Again wtf???

I don't even....

Two shocking calls by that ass ref

A win is a win but gee Russia seems a long way off 

Two shocking calls by that ass ref

Anyone else's sky go just cut off? 

Reasonably positive result, didnt play the best but deserved - I thought Prelevic played well towards the end and Patterson had some good moments. Rogerson was impressive when he came on.

All I can say is thank god for Themi.

Just rewound and slow-mo'd it.  Was well inside the box when he let it go.

i'm just wondering if marinovic has had any bad moments since he came into the side?

there could be a very good keeper for us there

i really do rate moss, but i hate his fouled mouthed fudge codery

and as a rabid NZ fan i always hope that there are better and better players out there for us

i get the feeling that marinovic could really be the goods

They have got the job done, but nothing further than that. Patterson, Tuiloma and Rogerson had their moments but IMO no one played well the entire game. On the other hand, Brotherton and Prelevic were really poor

stunnign question by the interviewer there: "do you have a bit of a break before the next game"

About the same as foster park... average

Really don't get all the hate I've been reading. This tournament is about results, nothing else. No point trying to be all fancy and play one touch attacking football trying to walk it in if it doesn't get the win. I would have thought after the uproar about Hudson not winning in those first few friendly games (where results mean nothing), people would be happy now that when it counts, the team has won and won quite comfortably. Onto the next game now.

there's was just so much wrong with the setup of this team today. i'm not talking formation

we never played out and we never even went into midfield to come out to the full backs

midfielders only got forward when we were crossing, they never got in front of the strikers from general play or even when we hammered it long which made the long ball ineffective and easier to deal with

our 3 centre backs sat deep. all of them looking to mop up. i cannot recall a defender pressing the general play apart from adams once early on. and i noticed that when adams then galloped forward, tuiloma went and sat in the back five to cover for him while fiji had 1 player up

we defended with many spare players. we generally asked our back 5 to hold 3 players and our front 2 to hold 5 players. the fijian full backs sat deep, so why did we need to do this?

when we got possession there was no one to play through. our plan was simply to win a throw in near half way, then work it to someone to hit long

if this was all deliberate, then i applaud hudson for having a plan. by the time herbert had finished we had no plan. but i do not like this plan, we should not be playing like this and certainly not against fiji

i will add that once thing i had noticed about this team under hudson when he first came in was that they played direct. i quite liked this, for me it was a good balance between playing good footy to feet where possible and getting the ball in to dangerous areas when possible. 

Marinovic has done well each time he plays for us. Brotherton was utter sharke. Team seemed bit panicky at times and half a yard off the pace in getting to 2nds. Won is a win though and when was the last time we scored 3 in a game?

If AWs don't win this tournament Hudson walks or gets the boot, pure and simple. If he wants to bring in his coaching mates so be it, he's the head gaffer. Steve Hansen, and Robbie Deans hate each other guts so they could never work together - even if by some quirk they were a dream coaching pairing.

I think Hudson's realised for this gig, that he has to be pragmatic and that winning is everything. So if if it takes route 1 against the Island nations in 35 degree heat, and 100% humidity so be it.

As we all know, that style is from the dark past and has no hope of success in intercontinental playoffs next year (should NZ be there) - but for now winning is everything.

At the moment we're waiting on Brockie, Marco and Boxall to show up. Wee mac is supposedly being protected due to an injury scare and Kosta is on the bench. It suggests a team capable of more than one approach. Perhaps if we play a few games, we may see it.

Though we are short on good central midfielders, possibly.

I saw Emblen's team and it was okay. The Under-20s WC played a much better style than this.

Also Emblen was the assistant coach for the 2012 team.

3-1 win is a good result. It wasn't great, but in the end it was effective. I don't expect a coach who rarely sees his players and hasn't played a game with them in IIRC- two years to try to drill them like Ange's Brisbane or anything. But I do want us to win this tournament.

Also though the ref was fairly good and there wasn't too much niggle in the game.

Well hang on, winning is everything in those playoffs as well. So why is he going to suddenly change the style there?

We did not even play long ball football well.

that was the linesman flagging it not the ref.

Passing the ball on the deck isnt fancy, its smart.  Explain to me just how effective this long ball game is when 90% of the long balls end up back in Fijian possession. Thats no exageration it was that bad. We were not effective.

Brian Clough from way way back in the 70's.  "If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there"

All we are doing is practising at playing archaic football. We could win these games playing a more intelligent style. However we arent practising a passing game so if we switch we dont have those habits in place.

I'm not expecting a side that- even now- isn't all together to play like they have played together for years. Even Ernie with the 'Nix has had mixed results, despite the change to a better style.

I'm happy with the results and if the overall quality goes up as be get our better players on the park that would be good too.

I can't expect anyone to argue that Brotherton and Prelevic would be in our top squad.

If we've got  Wood, Kosta and Marco, with Bill, Themi, and Wee Mac behind them and still playing rubbish then let's start throwing stones...if we can't play a good game in the semis and finals let's worry. 

The other fact is that we are unlikely to play the ball around a Latin American side, so it doesn't hurt to have more than one game plan. Though yes if we'd played that against Mexico you'd think it would have been a ten goals plus scoreline.

If we do make it to the the Confederations cup I won't be watching that crap when we are playing the Spain's of this world and we are down 4 nil at half time.

That's embarrassing.

So what's your game plan with our squad to beat teams ranked 150 places higher than us?

If AWs play that style against 5th place South American team next year, it will just end giving them 80% plus of possession as they just attack in wave after wave.  However hopefully October in either NZ, or South America won't be 100% humidity and 35 degrees. So will have much more energy for trying to play a possession, passing game.

Ever tried to play 90 mins sport in sauna conditions. I have in QLD here (admittedly no athlete) and it ain't much fun. Even prof footballers would be big on trying to conserve their energy and reduce their running where they can. Route 1 helps with that, as a means to an end.

Also AWs will hopefully have a much stronger midfield for big games next year, and plenty of time to change from long ball between now and intercontinental playoffs.

"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."  Vince Lombardi (or maybe not)

Not to give them the ball with every kick would be a good start mate

This is 100% true and is the correct response to "only results matter". Good luck playing hoofball against Uruguay, Colombia or Ecuador. No chance we'll survive. 

There is another stage after the Nations Cup before the interconfederation playoffs so there's plenty of time, but we will struggle with this style. Admittedly, I have no idea what style of play could work against a South American side considering they'll have better midfielders so a possession-based game will be nullified by their interceptions. 

Lets face it a very large dose of luck will be required to beat likes Uruguay, Colombia or Ecuador over 2 legs - whatever the game plan.

However when the home & away Oceania qualifying games start later this year, Hudson knows he'll have a better chance of unleasing his 'tika taka' style against the Islands when playing under lights at North Harbour on a good pitch in 10 fahrenheit degree heat.