Though it is nice to have some senior men’s football (or close to) confirmed to watch in NZ, watching games against OFC nations will always be pretty blah tripe.
This almost an instance where the best result would have been a tourney in Honiara, or similar re the right prep for the Olympics.
It's going to be hot in Tokyo come August, very hot.
The whole staying in OFC verus trying to enter AFC has been debated ad nauseum to death.
But the fact is watching OFC games is shark, though on those incredibly rare occasions when AWs play at home near full strength, it's great for kids esp to see Wood, Thomas etc up close. Apart from a few real tragics, none of the NZ football public are looking forward to watching say Vanuatu play. That ain't ever going to change.
Hopefully, hopefully FIFA can get that Global Nations League off the ground, and thereby sort of force AFC & OFC to combine for some meaningful games outside World Cup qualifying campaigns. Having Japan, South Korea, China, Socceroos etc play the AWs in NZ every few years in games that matter, should be the aim. That's if NZF want to be serious about promoting the AWs as a face of NZ football, otherwise they will just be a bit of a NZ sporting footnote, rolled out every 4 years for two World Cup games on at 4am NZ time.
