Lewis's contribution over all in the various the games? Zero. Woud pulled off some excellent saves during the 120 mins but he could do better in dealing with penalties. However he certainly redeemed himself in this game.
Poor choices in Lewis and Cacace. Not natural goal scorers. Still- we saw Champness and Just in regular time. That was our best chance, some poor protection of possession, a couple of helpful decisions and we just weren’t composed with the PKs.
Pretty tough to criticize anyone that takes a pen in that situation. I'm just fudgeing stoked we played some good football and pushed them the whole way. Very very proud of the team.
Sadly we just dont seem to be tuned for penalty taking as other teams. Possibly an area to focus more time on since we are playing better so the chances of needing good penalty options in big games are higher. I guess the positive is that we end up in positions where we need them - we didnt lose the field game after all.
Get us some games! Some amazing talent in the squad and a lot of guys like Ingham who maybe is a little less talented or developed, but who put all his ability into the game and didn’t shirk. Was a good tournament and we definitely had our chances.
I missed Woud's poor game but he was the MoM for me today from either side. All keepers have one shocker (or more if your Marinovic). Think he will be stellar in the future for us and likely long term AW first choice.
Get us some games! Some amazing talent in the squad and a lot of guys like Ingham who maybe is a little less talented or developed, but who put all his ability into the game and didn’t shirk. Was a good tournament and we definitely had our chances.
Exactly and although Covid has screwed things up, how about some decent opposition and not from Oceania.
Across this tourney (men's and women's) it is clear we are weak at RB. The Nix / Ole really need to go hard developing some decent young men and women in that position. Elliot looked average in the position yet the Nix have just resigned him for that role.
Get us some games! Some amazing talent in the squad and a lot of guys like Ingham who maybe is a little less talented or developed, but who put all his ability into the game and didn’t shirk. Was a good tournament and we definitely had our chances.
The worst aspect of losing is most definately not knowing when I'll get to see such a talented bunch of footballers together on the field again. And I'm sorry but games against the islands don't count, as a footballing nation we are way past that and it just brings us down a level toward attracting unecessary criticism when we don't beat them by 100 goals on half a pitch in 90% humidity.
Get us some games! Some amazing talent in the squad and a lot of guys like Ingham who maybe is a little less talented or developed, but who put all his ability into the game and didn’t shirk. Was a good tournament and we definitely had our chances.
Exactly and although Covid has screwed things up, how about some decent opposition and not from Oceania.
Any game is a good game for NZ, especially right now.
Men's football has been hamstrung by the complete lack of games against anyone at all. Look how few caps Winnie and Chris have after 11 years in the national side. We did well in 2010 as the boys played a load of games prior.
Get us some games! Some amazing talent in the squad and a lot of guys like Ingham who maybe is a little less talented or developed, but who put all his ability into the game and didn’t shirk. Was a good tournament and we definitely had our chances.
The worst aspect of losing is most definately not knowing when I'll get to see such a talented bunch of footballers together on the field again. And I'm sorry but games against the islands don't count, as a footballing nation we are way past that and it just brings us down a level toward attracting unecessary criticism when we don't beat them by 100 goals on half a pitch in 90% humidity.
Yipe NZF you now need to work overtime to find some quality friendlies (likely Europe) for Sept-Oct-Nov windows this year. Games needed otherwise you are setting up this team to fail re next year's June intercontinental playoffs, and that would be a crime. Last year's planned games against Belgium & England showed some intent.
Then longer term (next WC cycle) need to push FIFA and/or OFC/AFC hard for entry into either a AFC WC qualifying path, or some sort of OFC/AFC Nations League. Infantino was pushing the Nations League concept hard pre Covid. Just seeing this group of players for a couple of games every 4 years at a bloated 48 team WC from 2026, will do nothing for the growth of NZ football.
Fudge they played well tonight. Congrats to the players and Hay. Replacing an injured Reid with McCowatt at not even 60 mins was a real statement from Hay. Losing a pen shootout ain't important in the big picture. Japan I think weren't as good as Korea, but still a great performance. Garbett impressed. Stensness too good for CCM. I reckon some Euro club will make an offer.
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not but he just seems to lack a little something for this level. In saying that, he played quite a few minutes as a successful part of a very good team.reg22
i thought lewis grew in to the game bummer about the penalty
Poor choices in Lewis and Cacace. Not natural goal scorers. Still- we saw Champness and Just in regular time. That was our best chance, some poor protection of possession, a couple of helpful decisions and we just weren’t composed with the PKs.
Pretty tough to criticize anyone that takes a pen in that situation. I'm just fudgeing stoked we played some good football and pushed them the whole way. Very very proud of the team.
I’m not criticizing the players, but their selection as takers. Look how comfortable McCowatt was in comparison. But yeh- their keeper and takers were very composed. Lewis and Libby were totally spent. Anyway absolutely agree- this is an amazing feeling for a Kiwi fan to reasonably demand more from a very talented bunch! We’re on uncharted ground to reasonably have the expectation of semifinal football. I think the whole squad, possibly with the exception of Lewis enhanced their reputation. And he showed why he is in the A league compared to Bell, Doan or Kubo in Europe. And despite not having his greatest tournament he played 120 minutes of quarter final football and left it all on the pitch. Personally think maybe I would have got Bell or Stensness who showed an insane amount of composure to take one earlier. I’m living in Japan and I’ve talked a lot about the Kiwi players at work, but I think maybe some of my colleagues may wanna listen after this!
Significant improvement tonight. Still very reliant on wide delivery but at least there was someone closer to Wood to make it much harder for the opposition to double team him out of the game. Nice to be able to hold some possession to take pressure off defensively.
Think we only had 8 shots of target during the whole tournament which highlights how much we struggled up top. Really felt like we were relying on a defensive mistake. Don't think anyway is measure xG stats, but reckon it would have been super low.
Significant improvement tonight. Still very reliant on wide delivery but at least there was someone closer to Wood to make it much harder for the opposition to double team him out of the game. Nice to be able to hold some possession to take pressure off defensively.
Think we only had 8 shots of target during the whole tournament which highlights how much we struggled up top. Really felt like we were relying on a defensive mistake.
How much we missed Singh! Or needed just a bit more from McCowatt as an experienced play maker. Thought McCowatt was just warming up today, ready to be the player of the semifinal!
Who would people rate as the kiwi of the tournament?
Maybe going with the grain here picking our best player, but can't look past Chris Wood. He is so good. Clinical in the early games to help us on our way, and his hold-up play is absolutely world class and in a Hay system where you often play the long ball it's so important to us. So many attacks come off him holding it up well and laying it off for a teammate. Every game I've seen him I've been so damn impressed by him I've got to say even when we haven't scored.
Elliot, Lewis and Ingham weren’t great, but they were serviceable, and this Japan team is a whole lot better than any A League team, their players were, at worst, J League, which is probably the strongest Asian league. However, at their best they were regulars in Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, I think it’s more testament to what Stensness, Bell, Pijnaker and others can do that they nullified them. This team was one of the highest scorers in the group stage, and had just put 4 past a French team who, whilst nowhere near full strength, all play at a higher level than anyone except Chris Wood. The backline of Stensness, Pijnaker and Woud kept 3 clean sheets, and the three Honduras goals were all avoidable mistakes that we know how to fix.
No doubting his ability but I don’t think he did anything at the Olympics deserving of your accolade. If he had been provided better service, I have no doubt he would have scored a bucketload if that had been the case. lthomas20
Marto
Who would people rate as the kiwi of the tournament?
Maybe going with the grain here picking our best player, but can't look past Chris Wood. He is so good. Clinical in the early games to help us on our way, and his hold-up play is absolutely world class and in a Hay system where you often play the long ball it's so important to us. So many attacks come off him holding it up well and laying it off for a teammate. Every game I've seen him I've been so damn impressed by him I've got to say even when we haven't scored.
Happy with that performance last night, everyone performed pretty well. First half wasnt pretty but we really pushed japan in the 2nd and extra time. Shame about the penalties but thats the way it goes. Not too bothered with the performance of Elliot or Lewis as alot of players (bar stensiness and bell) really struggled to adapt to the games, I think they will be fine for the nix.
I wonder if Reid leaving the field actually helped us. End of the first half Japan had the bulk of possession, end of the game we were just ahead and (although I was a few beers in by game end) I seem to remember Japan's best chances and most incisive football happened in the first half too.
Of course, it was all helped by the humidity and the game opening up as people got tired.
Wood is obviously world class but he looked absolutely knackered pretty early in that game, the A-League players and regular starters for NZ would have experience in those sorts of conditions from playing in Australia and the islands but the last time Wood played in conditions like that was probably in 2016 in the OFC nations cup. Pretty impressive that the team seemed to outlast Japan in Japanese conditions, their fitness and conditioning is incredible, but some of the players were handling it better than others.
I was pretty confident we'd win it in extra time. Shame it went to pens.
Great result and well played team Would, Stefan will always be number one but you have redeemed yourself
And as for those two centre half’s something is wrong if they are playing at the same level they currently are at this time in six months
How folks continue to butcher Woud's 4 letter name, defies belief really.
I'd say, re AWs keepers, Sail is no 1, then anyone of Marinovic, Woud or Tzanev. But Oli ain't likely to get a game anytime soon for the AWs, as the MIQ requirements will rule out anyone in NZ/Aus for awhile yet.
I was critical or Danny hay, when Reid off I thought he would put stanger on and would try and defend with 5 and end up losing because stanger isn't reid. But the decision to put mccowett on and change tactics was a master stroke. Credit where credits due. I'm very impressed with the subs in this game.
