Relax, it's all good. Three games in a week - that's actually pretty decent.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/9236020/All-Whites-confirm-build-up-for-Cup-playoff
A bit late in the day maybe but well done NZF. Any of the critics want to have a little taste of humble pie?
Yes, on the face of it, 3 games in a week and a decent training camp is pretty good, but coming 7 days out from that? Thats not organisation, thats buying a lotto ticket and hoping your numbers come up. Yes its a good result but nothing to go 'In your face AW fans' over.
All that aside, Ricki now has a golden opportunity to do something here, more so than perhaps he may have had. He needs to take over his 22 and replicate the whole thing top to bottom. I expect he will use one game to trial a lot, the 2nd game to rule out some stuff and fine tune and the last against T&T to be a full dress rehearsal. I would expect that he will trail the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 or 4-2-3-1 and see what works with what he has. I think there are vacant spots to take
Moss
Spooney
Gleeson
Sigmund
Durante
Reid
Smith
Lochhead
Bertos
Vicelich
Clapham
Payne
Howieson
James
Keat
Wee Mac
Rojas
Smeltz
Kosta
Brockie
Wood
(injured Killen???)
And he can toss up between Bright, Fallon, Henderson, Fitzgerald and Butler (and I base that on those seen recently and also hype on some players on these forums)
You can remove Payne and Smeltz from that list because they're still injured. Also Rojas is unlikely to travel as he's not match fit. While Chris James is in doubt due to an injury picked up a couple of weeks ago which forced him out of the Finnish Cup final last weekend. Craig Henderson though is fit and started the last few weeks for Mjallby in Sweden including playing the full 90 last weekend v Malmo. Apart from Reid in the EPL or Wood in the Championship, Henderson is playing in the best league of all the All Whites on your list. I'd have him in the midfield ahead of Clapham say. I believe Henderson is likely to be picked for these games, especially with James and Payne struggling with injury.
Dan Keat, who is on your list, is another midfield option but he only returned to playing in the Swedish Second Div. mid-September for Falkenbergs and recently has only been used sparingly as a late sub as he builds to full fitness. His club lead their league and seem certain for promotion to the Swedish First Div. with four games left.
Latest on Rojas from the Guardian, UK today: " "I just take it day by day. At the moment with my foot, it's difficult to say. Once I think I can get through a whole week, or a whole two weeks of training without pain or without having to take any precautions during training, then I think I'll have the base of training to be able to push on." Won't be in the squad yet, for sure.