Vs Mexico 1st Leg Thurs 14th 9:30am SS2

Ricky Herbert playing those "tactics" in the first half was an insult to our creative players. He just didn't believe in his own players.

Last goal wins?!

Maybe Ricki Herbert can get a job coaching Jeremy Christie's club... oh wait...

Jordan played better then us and got done 5-0 by Uruguay. Fk Ricki and his dumb-ass tactics for the first half.

Who does your goalie play for?

He's a beast. Too bad the defense couldn't help him.

Seriously ... could be pretty hostile/negative atmosphere toward Herbert at Westpac after that. As much as I want to support the AWs here in Wellington I also want to make my displeasure known to RH - and I will not be alone in feeling that way.

For that reason I wonder if he should stand down now hand the reins to Brian Turner or Neil Emblen for the second leg so we can make trhe second leg a positive rather than negative ocassion.

Wellington Phoenix..our only professional club

Todays headlines are going to be nice - Cant wait to read them.

Is it really defensive to let them have 99% of possession for the 1st half?

God Vicelich was terrible. AND HOW WERE MEXICO WINNING ALL THE HEADERS?

Players that should never play for the All Whites again:

Vicelich

Durante

Bertos

Lochhead

Christie

At least we are trending in the usa on twitter.

At least we are trending in the usa on twitter.

I know this is has already been said, but Ricki should have gone after the Confed Cup non-qualification. He was cut some slack after that due to previous achievements, but it was clear then that he'd lost his way. Loyalty to players is one thing, and OK when they are Ryan Giggs or Paul Scholes, but when they are Tony Lochhead, Leo Bertos or Jeremy Christie then you have to take a serious look at yourself in the mirror.

That was atrocious. Utterly atrocious and so, so predictable.

"hey Leo, it's Ricki here. I know you retired from football 12 years ago but do you wanna play for the All Whites? it'll be fun! you can start even"

Funny that Herbert said he wanted to play CONCACAF team because they are weaker than Asia.

And as for Christie… I'm sure he's a nice bloke, a humanitarian, loved by small children and puppies… but he can just fuck right off!

Think you guys have been drinking Steve Sumner's Kool-Aid. 

Not sure where people get the idea that all we need to do is "get the ball down and play" and we'll be competitive. If we'd tried to knock the ball around against Mexico it would have been worse.

They're just light years ahead of us, and we were poor defensively. This year's back three (Smith, Dura, Ivan) is light years away from 2009's (Smith, Nelsen, Winston) and the wide defenders (Leo and Lochhead) are four years older and neither of them are playing regularly.

We just aren't good enough. 

But the tactics were the right ones: park the bus, look to counter, don't leave space in behind.

Oh dear...

Four years on from the glory of our World Cup exploits in South Africa and where is the progress ?

Embarrassing.

Not sure how you can argue tactics were the right ones when the personnel clearly weren't the right ones for those tactics.

Not just that Mexico are 'light years ahead of us' - some of our players on the pitch today were really poor.

He said that a couple of years ago.

Defense cost us there. No cohesion in set peices (at both ends) and not tactically good enough in the first half. We were also so slow. But even so, both Brockie and Wood almost got away on through balls in the first half and if they'd got a bit of luck with the bounce we could have had something on. But it didn't go our way. Second half we started to play and looked better - given the way the second half went James and Rojas should have been on way earlier.

We clearly missed Winston Reid.

The defensive gaps just show what happens when you have a team that gets no game time together. That was the first time that team, has ever played together.

Can't figure out why we had a number of yellow cards and the mexicans had none - especially on Fallon. In a way though its good as it will force some changes - is Smith out for the next leg though?

See you all at Westpac next week. It is just going to make the miracle even better!!!!

Well we all right about Christie etc. Im glad some players are suspended for next leg. Need to play kids and attack and put on a show!!!

But yes far too deep, far too negative and far too many experts (me included)

So Herbert got us to Bahrain in 2010, apart from the Bahrain game, part of his legacy has to be "He never WON us

a game that was important. Im so pissed off at Ricki right now, if we had of gone forward and lost like this, fair enough

but steve summer got it right, the game was lost because of Herberts tactics in the first half, Possession was 81-19.

How the hell did Herbert expect to hold them. Fire Herbert and Frank Van Hattum, those were shocking tactics, its not

so much the results, that was probably always going to happen, but to let mexico dictate the game, because of your own

ego, well that freakin sucks herbert.  Worst coaching in the history of sport, you cant park the bus against mexico, you

shouldnt have  picked christie, you tell the players theyre allowed to dribble and  you dont kick away the ball as soon as 

they get possession. This is on you Herbert, clear and simple. He should've done the decent thing and quit after new caldeonia.

Re Turner ... well it would have to be SOMEONE from the current coachingset-up and maybe Emblen wouldn't want to do the home leg if he has aspirations for the top job. If Herbert did step down now (and yes, I know it won't happen) and Emblen didn't want it it would leave BT to nurse the team through one game before a new coach gets appointed.

You have heard of the concept of a caretaker manager right?

Trying to "knock the ball round" would have served us better than "win the ball and kick it back to them". We got what we deserved for playing with the attitude we had.

Lost track of how many times:

- Bertos was caught out of position.

- Christie played the ball to no one, or directly to an opposition player.

- The Mexicans had a free header in the box.

- A heavy first touch by an AW cost possession.

However…

- Moss was excellent.

Play a team for 2018 in Welly - show punters the future.

Have to say i think the tactics were wrong, i agree we needed to be defensive, but i think we needed to be defending higher up the pitch, pack the midfield rather than the defence, Mexico just had all the time they wanted on the ball, they should of been harassed and harried more all over the pitch before they got to the final third.

Can't say I remember any successful teams playing 3 centre backs, for me it just invites the pressure into the danger zone.