U17's World Cup - Nigeria

The NZ team need to replace Jamie Doris who had an absolute shocker with Tim Pilkington.
Drop Cameron Lindsay to centre back and move Adam Thomas out to replace Josh Morrison who kicks the ball up the field to nobody and also had a shocker. He was also the reason the goal was scored against us as Adam Thomas was about to clear the ball out but would of kicked Morrison in the head by doing so.
Put Jack Hobson in mid-field in replace of Cameron Lindsay moved to the back.
Bring Andrew Bevan into the game as he scored two goals in the last game in Australia which were set up by Michael Built.
Not saying Cameron is not playing well in mid-field but it gets all the best players on the field and leaves no holes at the back.

Why was McVeigh banned for the first match?  And when are we playing our next match?

thurs 3.45 am from memory (best check though!)

Where is Bukina Faso?

3.45 a.m tomorrow morning on Sky Spot one .

Will be up for it.  Missed the first game due to the most shocking night (sickness) I've had in about a decade, so really looking forward to this one.

I've never heard of Burkina Faso before. Goodluck to the Nayland College boys Coey Turipa and Jamie Doris.

Well we arent looking good so far, havent put 3 passes together yet. We lose the ball as soon as we win it back. Could be a long long game.

From the FIFA gamecast it sounds like we are under the pump.

1 minute later 1-0 down....

It was coming.

Sadly we are chasing shadows here BF are very good at putting passes into spaces that players are moving on to. We really must find a way to keep possession for longer.

72% possession to BF

yeah sounds like they are all over us. 11 shots to BF, zero shots to NZ.

Yeah its not good to be honest, they are absolutely all over us. If we get to half time at 1-0 down we will have done well.

halftime 1-0 down, could have been 6 or 7. it will be interesting to see how we go in the second half

Lets hope for one of those games were the NZ team come out second half looking like a completely different team.

There is not a single positive to take out of this so far.  This is absolutely shocking.  It is so bad it's unbelievable.  Really summed up by the NZ player who had a ball roll (slowly) less than 1m away from him, ten seconds before the half-time whistle went - he didn't move at all and let it run to a BF player.  Surely NZ has better u-17's than this?  I understand it's hot, but I've played football in searing heat (probably as hot) and I managed to string passes together.

Added to the shambles on the pitch is Steve Cain wearing a dress?

I'm going to be honest, these guys (undoubtedly) are fitter than me by far and way, but even I could do better than your average kiwi player right about now - that is no lie.  Don't think I'm boasting because I'm not.  Better than one of our players isn't good at all.

Lucky the BF team is also a disorganized rabble (although less so) - it should be 6-0 at least.

As an aside, is the pitch painted sand?

Geez, thanks for the update LoyalGunner, I only had stats to look at, being in the UK, no coverage.

We are playing a team that are technically far better than us and despite what loyal gunner says they are organized and are not a rabble. They are playing with higher ball speed and playing to spaces with players running on to the balls. They are also far more urgent when pressing us and our technique falls apart under that pressure. We cant apply the same pressure because if we try and get too close they can skip past us with the ball.
We are reasonably well organized and our shape is generally good but we simply cant handle the pressure and cant cope with their technical ability. Its that simple.

This is a classic example of how we dont produce nor do we seem to value the importance of highly technically gifted players.

Its now raining very heavily

The rain is unbelievable and as soon as it stops and the sun comes out again the heat of the artificial pitch will be unbearable. I saw blue sky in the background and I bet we see sunshine again.

We are getting forward more though.

So we havn't even had a shot on or off target?

1-1 Zane Sole goal

Free kick off to the right of the penalty box, probably a cross that the keeper should have had.

So we have had a shot. I spoke too soon.

say it again!!!

The same thing happened with their goal. I have to go.

Holy moly. NZ weather conditions bring a NZ goal!!

The rain has really had an impact and we are banging the ball long which isnt a bad idea with the way the ball is holding up on the surface. BF are struggling to get their passes to stick

It goes to show just as in the first half NZ didn't handle the heat and humidity, BF this half aren't comfortable in the rain.Best NZ makes the most of it while they can.
Pitch is waterlogged.. should be interesting!!

I think they were saying on the replay the ball took a slight deflection into goal.
RedGed2009-10-29 05:20:25

So far we in the 2nd half we probably have more possession, if we had loyalgunner out there would probably be 4-1 up....
The conditions are hurting BF more than us so far
The game may be abandoned

I wonder if the score counts if the game is abandoned after 65 minutes?

What happens regarding the result if the game is abandoned? What would the result be if one team was leading at that stage?

They are going to take a break and come back out shortly I think