The Road To Brazil 2014 via Wellington feat. Mexico

Now that we have booked out ticket into the next stage of qualifying, I was wondering where we will play the home legs. The games are unlikely to draw big crowds, so will NZ Football look to spread the games around?

Hosting the games in Auckland I guess might get some ex-pats to boost the crowd, but it would be nice to see games in places like Hamilton, Taupo, Palmy or maybe ChCh.

Man, I'd love it if we played Cuba. Imagine a trip to Havana for a game.

Now we know New Zealand will play Tahiti and New Caledonia (Fiji should win PNG). I would play the home matches at Mount Smart Stadium because I can't see them playing at the Westpac Stadium or North Harbour Stadium in full crowds though.

Auckland didn't really come to the party for the Jamaica game, I think it is Wellington's turn again ;)

Although that was a friendly, maybe if the game meant something the crowds would be better...

Do you think Aucklanders would come out to support a qualifier against Tahiti more than they would a friendly against Jamaica? I can't see a huge increase in ticket sales.

Id go for Dunedin, Napier or Hamilton maybe?

Somewhere in the South Island would be nice

If it's during semester then Dunedin should get at least one match I reckon.

So it is New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Tahiti for the Third Round. All Whites v Solomon Islands final.

It is disapointing that New Zealand are not going to the OFC Nations Cup Final and qualify for the FIFA Confederations Cup but they have a chance at the FIFA World Cup.

Anyone have any idea when can expect some more specific news about where and when the next sets of qualifiers will be? 

Don't worry, it'll be a breeze...

Well it will be tough.

Play it down south in the cold.

So home and away semi against solomon islands, an then a home and away final. or do we play all three teams first?

The Dunedin stadium's indoors so the "weather advantage" is surely neutralized there?

Rugby Park, Invercargill!

some breeze.............

Play one in Wellington, One at either Christchurch or Dunedin and then one in Auckland.

I watched the interview with the Solomon Island's coach after the 3rd place game. He was very confident his side would beat the All Whites in both legs come 3rd round play offs.

Just out of interest, how many of the solomon island players play proffesional football?

Just out of curiosity what is the capacity, and is the magnificent effort of building it currently being entirely wasted on eggball?

Test match capacity 25,231 seats (11,140 covered)

Bit hard to find offical figures, but seems they have been close to the 17k mark for 3 games and around 21k for the Southern Derby from match reports.

Traditionally these playoff games against PI teams get SFA crowds. However I think that interest is now quite a bit higher. If NZF promote it properly(a big ask IMO) and the home games are spread out around the country then people will come along. Losing like we did in Honiara will convince many people that these games won't be all one sided. I would imagine a Sunday afternoon game on a non wet day at the ROF would drag in 10 to 15 thousand!!!

Fixed.

Anyone have a clue when the draw is done? The Nix will need to start working out what to do with any clashes in fixtures.

When are the FIFA windows between September 7th and March 26th?

Looking at some of the other confederations qualfiers for the world cup in the time frame that has been suggested these games will be played, these are the dates i am picking we might play our six games.The mid weeks before or after or on the weekends of September the 8th and 9th, October the 13th and 14th and March 23rd and 24th.November 14th also seems possible.

How many points do we need?Three wins three draws minimum.

That is minimum. Good job the 2014 qualifying format is the same as 2010 imagen that Tahiti get thrashed against Bahrain.

FIFA windows are 8-12 September, 13-17 October, 14 November, 6 February, 23-27 March.

Hope the OFC gives us a home game on the 6th Feb, could get a decent crowd in being a public holiday.

6th Feb might be hard to get players released from N hemisphere clubs? (Will need  a big dose of "I don't give a toss" from NZF)

Will the entire campaign require that attitude from NZF?

Having a November 14th game at the RoF would be great, purely for nostalgic reasons.

Really? Do you really think you'd be overflowing with nostalgia watching NZ v Solomon Islands, on a Wednesday, with 30,000 fewer people than in 2009?

It's a FIFA window, so the clubs don't get a say in it. But both the 6 February and 14 November dates are 'friendly' dates, which means that the release period for players from clubs is shorter, so I think it's unlikely we'll see All White qualifiers played on these dates.

Jebus is good to hear a Ricki quote with a bit of conviction!

Nice words RH, agree 100%. Hasn't been mentioned much [if at all] but I don't see NZ as being favourites to qualify out of Oceania at all. We lost that mantle after all of those poor performances in the Solomons. Reid and Nelsen won't necessarily make our chances any better if we replicate the effort we displayed last week. We were terrible and we should be expecting our team to thrash these Island teams, bollocks to this 'they have all improved so much' bullshit, we should be killing them everytime we play them no matter where that is. How can we draw with Italy and Paraguay and yet lose by 2 goals to New Caledonia????r