With the players available, and knowing the way USA AND JAMAICA PLAYED (i watched the whole game 0-0) if i were Herbert i would go with
MOSS
SIGMUND DURANTE SMITH LOCHHEAD
VICELLICH CLAPHAM/JAMES
BERTOS/HENDERSON MC GLINCHEY/ROJAS BROCKIE/kOSTA
WOOD/FALLON/SMELTZ
Sigmund at right back? Hows that Argentinian hooch?
The right hand side has zero pace.
YES, but thats up to the tactic , if you wait dont need pace but positioning and grit, that's up to herbert's tactics any way, if you go for it, you need pace to cover up their fast forward counters, this Mexico team is there for the taking because they are not sure about it and the public is against them and BIG RICH MONEY FROM TELEVISA AND FRIENDS, they just defeated a local based Finlandia with players taking their firsts caps 4-2, but the main issue here is the altitude, and the mexicans will try to take advantage of that, so how do you cope with it, since this team is use to the altitude, just wait and play your fastest, MORE MOBILE and more experienced team, and play , the first half you wait, and made it hard to break and play a mind game with the tiem clicking , second half you can bring young legs with kosta and rojas,
i would like to see 3-4-3 kosta, brockie and wood up front but could be too risky...because of their 2000 mts
I agree, this under-fire Mexico team is there for the taking but only if we attack. Let them get confidence by the AWs just sitting back in defence and they will eventually tear us apart. I'd much rather Roux than Lochhead, he has shown enough composure and ability for CCM to warrant it and he's fast. Bertos is no good in defence because he's not a good tackler. Love the idea of three attackers as their back line is shakey.
But this is Ricki Herbert we're talking about - we'll have a lone frontman and try and park the bus. It's not going to be pretty.
Pace is irrelevant for us at altitude. Even if we had it we would blow our lungs trying to use it. If we are going to attack the only way is to play the long ball and spare the midfield. They will need every breath just on defensive duties.
By the second half you can expect to see us sitting back simply because there's no other choice - the lungs and legs will be gone.
A key part of our overall game plan has to be for every player to run the shortest total distance possible and run as few sprints as possible. Obviously a lot of the running they have to do will be in defence, which greatly limits our attacking options.
From what we know of this Mexican defence the long-ball probably isn't a bad option anyway. They will mop up plenty but there's always the chance Wood or Fallon will manage to turn (or clatter) their marker and get a shot away.
Mexico DF is around 2000 mts, we played in Quito, Ecuador last June or July drew 1-1. This may be useful for the fans of NZ nat team, because you can have a dimension of what is to play at altitude, even though in SOUTHAFRICA most games were at altitude, dont know hot the all blacks and other rugby teams prepare to play at altitude. In football you are correct, you have to use your energy in a sensible way,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dWBw5FWnL4 link to first half of ecuador 1-argentina 1, at altitude argentina 5-3-2
We parked the bus but we didnt quit the idea of speedy counterattacks with pace and direct play, and we played 5-3-2 against them, 3 tall a bit slow center backs, a young speedy right back with pace, 20 years old Gino Peruzzi, as for the left back
Marcos Rouge, 3 central midfielders
banega, mascherano and di maria and
aguero and palacio up front,(messi was recovering from an injury and played last half an hour for aguero) , The tactic if you watch it was simple, long passes to the empty spaces for palacio and aguero to run free, supported by the skinny , speedy Di Maria and 7 men behind the ball, Ecuador players are stronger than the mexicans they are like an African team playing at altitude, tall, speedy, physical, and powerful , they are really athletes like Usain Bolt. The ball has different rebounds because of the air is not so heavy at altitude, it is really hard to bend it like beckham to take the curve, while shooting, and any simple shoot is stronger at altitude.
If you take a look , we went for it, we tried to cope with the altitude, we got a penalty and then we tried to slow down the tempo, hold on the pressure and we didnt play it nicely at some dangerous places, we put aguero and palacio to run around from left to right to complicate the back 4, and the passes were at empty spaces at the backs of their right back and left back that made their 2 center back to cover it , so we tried to put our forward in a situation of one on one with the last defenders.
