ROAD TO SOUTH AFRICA

 

C'MON THE AW's!

 

my  team

 

                                 paston

 

boyens/old     nelsen   sigmund    lochhead

                      brown / vicellich

    james    mulligan/mc glinchey     elliot       bertos 

 

                     killen/fallon/smeltz

 

 

i would pick  in the roster   2 gk  + ougton  + wood + brockie  + bright  + scott

 

 

More specifically I reckon there are two questions:

 

1. How do we get kids and teens along en masse - they will drag their parents and mates, and

 

2. How do we get each of us to bring 3 non-football mates along rather than just going with our regular crew?

 

I have this horrible fear that if we just let things go along then we'll get the football hard core of maybe 10k...and never get a major All Whites game in Wellington again.

 

We need to get ourselves mobilised for this one.

 

That is something Hard News has already taken care of.

 

There will be a White Noise Zone in the same place as the Fever Zone.

 

Mad props to Hard News and NZF for sorting that one out.

 

edit - of course MAD is the correct adjective to describe the props I want to give News, rather than BIG which I had used...I'm getting old...

this is  a  war  of  football  the  biggest  show  on earth !

 

regards  from Argentina 

 

Javier 

 

 

Ideas?

 

PS Javier your interest in the all whites is a little bizarre but awesome. Or are you just a forum mebers alter ego? 

$15 adults, $8 kids IMO, maybe even cheaper if you get in early.

 

                              Paston/Nicholson

                          Vicellich                 Nelsen

Mulligan/Pritchet                                            Hogg/Lochead

                     Mc Glinchey     Elliot      A.McGeorge

                                        Bouckenooghe 

                              Smeltz              Woods/Killen

 

and 1st home Nix game and Tigers on sky v chels

 

 YYYEEAAAHH!!!

Just had a think about the crowd, I dont really care if its not a sell out (which i do think it will be) And i dont really see the point in dragging along non football people to the game, It will only serve to dilute the atmosphere, and may actually see some people who care miss out if its sold out.

 

Its not like the Nix where its some part our responsibility to build a big crowd and keep the team alive. Obvioulsy it would be great to get NZ football a large gate, but the WC is bigger than that. Im there to see us qualify and i wouldnt care if I was by myself if we did.

 

Bare minimum if your bringing along people that won't get involved, get them some tickets sitting with families or something. I dont want to be sat anywhere near someone who will not be going berserk if we do manage to pull this off.

 

The difference though for us this time around, is that the opposition will most probably be Saudi Arabia i.e. puritanical, non-drinking, terrorist-breeding Wahabi Islam- the most fundamentalist religious state on earth. So, stuff like that could not just result in "a war of football" but, who knows, maybe some kind of "fatwah" against Kiwi football supporters. But then again, we're playing them in the second leg at home, so there's no chance for them to retaliate against our "'infidel western imperialist" team and supporters afterwards.

I've been teaching English to some Saudi students- they're pretty arrogant about their team's chances against us and seem to assume they just have to turn up to take the points and qualify.

However, a major factor in our team's favour is that none of the Saudi players are currently playing abroad and few of their players  ever have (i.e. outside the Arabian Peninsula). So, they have no experience of European or British-style football and are quite tactically naive.

They seem neverto have heard of any of our players- I think we'll catch them totally by surprise.

 

OUGHTON PLAYING BETTER FOR HIS CLUB THAN ELLIOTT CURRENTLY

 

I mostly agree with your suggested line-up, except I'd have Aaron Scott at right-back ( not sure that Old or Boyens are adequate in this position and are better at centre-back).

Also, I'd give Duncan Oughton of Columbus Crew a run- he's one of our most experienced midfielders after years playing at a good level in MLS in the States.

He's also been earning rave reviews in the US recently after a brilliant display out of his usual central-midfield position on the right:

 

 ELLIOTT OUT OF FAVOUR BUT OUGHTON EARNING PRAISE

Elliott seems to have been apportioned some of the blame by his coach Frank Yallop (ex-Ipswich Town) when he last played for San Jose in a 0-2 loss to Chicago on 19 July- he gave the ball away rather softly near the goal-line from which Chicago scored a scond goal in injury time. He hasn't taken the field for San Jose since....

 

However, Duncan Oughton seems to have curried a lot of favour with his coach recently, after an impressive display out-of-position on the right wing. See full report:

 

http://columbus.crew.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20090720&content_id=5962134&vkey=news_coc&fext=.jsp&team=t102.

   

Oughton draws praise on right wing (edited)

COLUMBUS -- It is possible to teach an old Columbus Crew new tricks.

For a veteran team that has been set in its ways successfully for the past 1-1/2 seasons, the need for change Saturday vs. Real Salt Lake was born out of desperation.

Injuries had robbed the Crew of their top two goal producers in Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Alejandro Moreno. A suspension sidelined assist leader Emmanuel Ekpo and defender Chad Marshall and Robbie Rogers were away with the U.S. national team, leaving the team lacking 17 of its 22 goals this season.

And one other thing: The Crew had scored three times in the previous four games.

Enter a wing man that would have made Tom Cruise proud in the movie "Top Gun" and the "Crash and Dash" attack that lifted Columbus to a 3-1 win for a record-tying 18th consecutive regular-season home game without a defeat.

That 32-year-old midfielder Duncan Oughton got the start for Ekpo -- his first since June 14, 2008 -- was not a huge surprise because coach Robert Warzycha only had 16 players available. Seeing the longest tenured Crew member running the right flank was.

Oughton has been used in the middle almost exclusively since joining the club in 2001 and said his last play on the wing was about six years ago.

The veteran looked at home. He controlled the tempo differently than either Rogers or Ekpo would have and defended well. He led the build up on the first goal and assisted on a classic third goal.

"There was a lot of one-touch passes on (Oughton's) side," Warzycha said. "That's how we broke the pressure. Duncan did very well."

Ekpo and Rogers provide speed down the flanks and a go-for-goal attitude that sometimes leads the team adrift defensively. Oughton and his counterpart on the left side, Eddie Gaven, kept the match at a manageable tempo.

"The old guy out there," forward Jason Garey said of Oughton. "He's just so smart and knows the game and was able to control the game a lot of times, slow it down when we needed to slow it down and speed it up when we needed to speed it up."

It was Oughton's through ball to overlapping defender Frankie Hejduk that led to the first goal. Hejduk sent a service into the box that was poorly cleared and forward Steven Lenhart took advantage for his first goal of the season.

"Playing with Frankie is amazing," Oughton said. "He's up and down. He covers you when you need covered. He talks to you and puts you in good spots. He's such a great player. He's an engine, that guy. He's ridiculous."

Said Warzycha: "There was a lot of understanding between him and Frankie and also between him and (central midfielders) Brian Carroll and (Danny) O'Rourke."

 

 -- and the final was a quality effort. Garey had a give-and-go with Oughton before Lenhart received the ball while surrounded by three defenders. His one-touch went to an open Garey near the top of the box.

"The third goal was a thing of beauty," Oughton said. "It was a good combination and Jay finished it amazingly well."arzycha will have some decisions to make before the Crew hosts Toronto FC on Saturday. Ekpo will be available and Moreno (groin) could be although Schelotto (hamstring) is expected to sit again.

Will Oughton return to the bench and what about the Garey-Lenhart combo? The coach has a few days to decide.

"The tactic we chose for this game (RSL) paid off when we decided to go with two forwards," said Warzycha. "When we play against some different team maybe we go with a different formation

 

 

 

 

 

Checking Saudi Arabia's record of the last few years on FIFA.com:

http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=ksa/fixturesresults/gender=m/index.html#

shows they simply don't get to play sides outside of the Asia/Middle East zone much any more:(probably European or South American sides don't want to venture there because of security concerns). In the past, pre- September 11, they used to gain experience by playing more friendlies against top European or South American opposition. All of their last 19 internationals have been against Asian Confederation teams.

 You have to go back to 9/11/07 before they last played a European side (Estonia is all they could manage- the same kind of weaker European team NZ has played in friendlies).

The last time they played a South American country was Paraguay in a friendly on 20/08/08.

 

And how many of their team survive from the last World Cup Finals in 2006?  The only tournament they've played outside the Arabian Peninsula (where they failed in the Gulf Cup this year) since then, was the last Asian Cup  where they did not do well.

They failed to win a game in the 2006 World Cup Finals- the last Saudi win in a World Cup Finals was in their first appearance in 1994. Since then their record reads: 1998:2L 1D; 2002: 3L (including a caning of  8-0 by Germany).

 

At least the All Whites have played a variety of opposition over the last couple of years , including the useful experience of the Confederations Cup in June and friendlies against vastly varied opposition.

 

Saudi Arabia's record over the last year is not impressive: of their last 19 internationals (all against teams from the Asian Confed.), they've only won nine.

This includes losses to Oman in their most recent game ( a friendly last week 12/8/09), an earlier loss to Oman in the Gulf Cup Final, a loss to Qatar in May, a loss to North Korea in a World Cup tie in Feb., and 0-0 draws with both North and South Korea in World Cup qualifiers.

They only managed to win two of their last five World Cup qualifiers this year.

 

Saudi are ranked #64 by FIFA and our other possible opponent, Bahrain #65.

In their two meetings last year, honours were even between Saudi and Bahrain, so there's probably not much between them.