WCQ vs Fiji | Tues 22nd Mar | 6:00am | SS7

McCowatt, Just, Stamenic, Pijnaker, Payne, Searle & Wood - are the most likely of the new arrivals to come into reckoning for this one. Marinovic and Greive also a good chance to arrive 1-2 days before the game.

Personally I hope Hay leaves most of them on the bench, giving Waine, Lewis, Old, Kosta, Wilkins, Sail another opportunity before they leave after this game. But he may want to play the strongest possible lineup against Fiji, trying to nail the win, and lock in progress to the semi finals. Then rest some of the big guns against New Caledonia - if nothing is really riding on that game. 

coochiee

McCowatt, Just, Stamenic, Pijnaker, Payne, Searle & Wood - are the most likely of the new arrivals to come into reckoning for this one. Marinovic and Greive also a good chance to arrive 1-2 days before the game.

Personally I hope Hay leaves most of them on the bench, giving Waine, Lewis, Old, Kosta, Wilkins, Sail another opportunity before they leave after this game. But he may want to play the strongest possible lineup against Fiji, trying to nail the win, and lock in progress to the semi finals. Then rest some of the big guns against New Caledonia - if nothing is really riding on that game. 

I’d expect Wood to start, but game situation will determine his minutes, same as Reid. The fullbacks could be rotated to Kirwan/De Vries given they are high intensity positions, but Hay might let Wilkins/Ingham start again, in hope of resting Payne/Cacace vs New Caledonia if possible. Nikko Boxall was solid so I’d be happy to see him start again if Pijnaker can’t do 90.

I don’t know how taxing travelling from Central Europe to Qatar after playing a game is, so not sure on the Danish trio, but they’ll be substituted on at least I’d expect. If they can start, I’d have Stamenic replace Howieson and possibly play as the 6 with Lewis and allow Garbett to step higher, though Barbarouses would keep his spot and possibly Rogerson could be given the keys from the start too, but Just/McCowatt would be perfectly acceptable.

C103CB43-DB11-414D-A476-18D681B2B7A4.jpeg 271 KB

coochiee

McCowatt, Just, Stamenic, Pijnaker, Payne, Searle & Wood - are the most likely of the new arrivals to come into reckoning for this one. Marinovic and Greive also a good chance to arrive 1-2 days before the game.

Personally I hope Hay leaves most of them on the bench, giving Waine, Lewis, Old, Kosta, Wilkins, Sail another opportunity before they leave after this game. But he may want to play the strongest possible lineup against Fiji, trying to nail the win, and lock in progress to the semi finals. Then rest some of the big guns against New Caledonia - if nothing is really riding on that game. 

everything is riding on this game. Pretty much need to win every game, despite teams in the other draw withdrawing. Put your strongest team on the field. Drop De Jong, Howieson, Lewis, Wilkins, Ingham, and get the win the game convincingly.

I'd have thought Waine starting ahead of de Jong would be justified by what we saw against PNG.  And Sail deserves another start also.

Khalil Media

I'd have thought Waine starting ahead of de Jong would be justified by what we saw against PNG.  And Sail deserves another start also.

I'd go with Wood personally, given he's available.

I thought Sail was only there for 1 game, same with the rest of the Nix (except Payne).

Nelfoos

Khalil Media

I'd have thought Waine starting ahead of de Jong would be justified by what we saw against PNG.  And Sail deserves another start also.

I'd go with Wood personally, given he's available.

I thought Sail was only there for 1 game, same with the rest of the Nix (except Payne).

 A league boys (ex Payne) are available for the first two ofc games, but only miss one nix game

I'd be stoked with Carlind's line up. That front four particularly. I think Kosta will be able to give Wood the consistent delivery he's sometimes lacked from others in previous games. I'm also not opposed to giving Rogerson some starting minutes as a reward for the energy he injected into the last game when coming off the bench. Might as well get some more time on the field to make his case even if he is more of a long shot come the pointy end of the qualifiers. Same goes to Wilkins.

I think a 2 goal margin of victory is crucial here to safeguard us from any covid related OFC chicanery that could be afoot down the line. So far we've Been lucky that for now covid dramas has been restricted to the other group but it doesn't sit well with me what OFC could pull on us with Fiji currently sitting above us on the table.

Yes you do raise a good point re any potential Covid issues, and tourney being cancelled/curtailed. So yipe GD could brutally come into it in that scenario.

Though before this tourney was announced and whole OFC WC qualification was up in the air, was talk of OFC just sending the highest FIFA ranked team to IC playoff(s). Fingers crossed that is the first/only option, if event is Covid cancelled. 

Would be an absolute joke if we had to withdraw because of COVID. The tournament is already a shambles with Vanuatu having to withdraw... could happen to any team now. A bit like Russian roulette at the moment.

Ninja

Would be an absolute joke if we had to withdraw because of COVID. The tournament is already a shambles with Vanuatu having to withdraw... could happen to any team now. A bit like Russian roulette at the moment.

Absolutely farcical. Unfortunately, you could almost see this being written in the stars, well before a ball was even kicked.

When are we going to move to the AFC?

The answer to @ByPhillipRollo’s question in today’s press conference about who the fastest player in the All Whites squad is. https://t.co/PKqI0hz7tS pic.twitter.com/74NQHBJebj

— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) March 20, 2022

https://fb.watch/bT6K3QbasW/

https://twitter.com/mikeburgess99/status/1504851170330054658

YoungHeart

Ninja

Would be an absolute joke if we had to withdraw because of COVID. The tournament is already a shambles with Vanuatu having to withdraw... could happen to any team now. A bit like Russian roulette at the moment.

Absolutely farcical. Unfortunately, you could almost see this being written in the stars, well before a ball was even kicked.

When are we going to move to the AFC?

yes, definitely no Covid issues in Asia 

Putting in the work ahead of Fiji 🇳🇿🇫🇯 #OceaniaQualifiers #WCQ pic.twitter.com/9u8jqsrpeG

— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) March 20, 2022

…Chris Wood, Nando Pijnaker and Callum McCowatt 💪🇳🇿 #OceaniaQualifiers #WCQ pic.twitter.com/YIru4lAl9R

— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) March 20, 2022

Khalil Media

YoungHeart

Ninja

Would be an absolute joke if we had to withdraw because of COVID. The tournament is already a shambles with Vanuatu having to withdraw... could happen to any team now. A bit like Russian roulette at the moment.

Absolutely farcical. Unfortunately, you could almost see this being written in the stars, well before a ball was even kicked.

When are we going to move to the AFC?

yes, definitely no Covid issues in Asia 

How many teams in Asia got knocked out in this WCQ because they had COVID? Zero. Because they're actually organised enough to play in multiple international windows and allow themselves the ability to reschedule games. As for OFC, not so much, it appears Vanuatu and the Cook Islands are both gone due to that and who the heck knows who is next? 

You can say those teams wouldn't have had a chance anyway but they never even had a chance on sporting merit, eliminated by mere misfortune out of their control.

What if one of our recently arrived players brings covid to the squad from wherever they've come from? It's a genuine reality, and happened to us in January. The fact that OFC appear to have absolutely no legitimate plans to remedy this is terrifying. FIFA genuinely need to review the whole damn thing and ideally abolish it. Either countries can be absorbed into AFC or in a dream scenario, AFC splits into east and west. 

The shambolic nature of every single OFC competition never fails to amaze me and is a blight on sport in the region and on international football. 

OFC is and always has been a shambles full of corrupt leaders lining their pockets, player safety or decent games has never been a priority. It may be better in AFC but NZF is never going to give up the golden egg we have as been the monstrous fish in the OFC pond.

Who is the quickest with the ball?

theprof

OFC is and always has been a shambles full of corrupt leaders lining their pockets, player safety or decent games has never been a priority. It may be better in AFC but NZF is never going to give up the golden egg we have as been the monstrous fish in the OFC pond.

Getting off-track from the thread, but I think it's sad that that's our approach. Yes we will qualify for more World Cups from OFC with the automatic spot coming from 2026, as well as more age group World Cups, Olympics, etc. 

But to really progress as a national team and at youth level as well, we need to be playing in the AFC. The benefits of playing in regular qualifiers, the Asian Cup, Asian club competitions, etc. will outweight the downsides of making less worldwide tournaments. Additionally, it will make for better viewership for our fans at home and increase our fanbase to play in competition against hefty rivals such as Australia, Japan, etc. 

lthomas20

Khalil Media

YoungHeart

Ninja

Would be an absolute joke if we had to withdraw because of COVID. The tournament is already a shambles with Vanuatu having to withdraw... could happen to any team now. A bit like Russian roulette at the moment.

Absolutely farcical. Unfortunately, you could almost see this being written in the stars, well before a ball was even kicked.

When are we going to move to the AFC?

yes, definitely no Covid issues in Asia 

How many teams in Asia got knocked out in this WCQ because they had COVID? Zero. Because they're actually organised enough to play in multiple international windows and allow themselves the ability to reschedule games. As for OFC, not so much, it appears Vanuatu and the Cook Islands are both gone due to that and who the heck knows who is next? 

You can say those teams wouldn't have had a chance anyway but they never even had a chance on sporting merit, eliminated by mere misfortune out of their control.

What if one of our recently arrived players brings covid to the squad from wherever they've come from? It's a genuine reality, and happened to us in January. The fact that OFC appear to have absolutely no legitimate plans to remedy this is terrifying. FIFA genuinely need to review the whole damn thing and ideally abolish it. Either countries can be absorbed into AFC or in a dream scenario, AFC splits into east and west. 

The shambolic nature of every single OFC competition never fails to amaze me and is a blight on sport in the region and on international football. 

Not WCQ but at the AFC Womens Asian Cup about a month ago. Hosted by India. The India team were forced to withdraw mid tournament due to covid out break. So it does happen in AFC.

Yipe well off topic, but OFC somehow joining an AFC-OFC Nations League, played in the early years of a WC Cycle would be a good outcome.

I see Asian Cup will actually be played June-July next year (2023). That's quite early in the 2026 WC cycle. So maybe just maybe, AFC are finally planning to start a Nations League type event (like UEFA, CONCACAF & CAF now have) 2nd half of 2023 & into 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_AFC_Asian_Cup

Then their 2026 WC qualifying to begin later half 2024 & into 2025.

Certainly Infantino wants all the Confederations to have their own Nations League, and world football minnows (like NZ) to be playing more often.

More on topic re this Qatar tourney. In OFC's defence, I don't think they really had too many options, with Covid re sorting out a WC qualifying event or window. NZ's border basically being closed for 2 years has been their biggest problem. Because holding a qualifying event in NZ in late 2021/early 2022 was probably their preferred option, once a full qualifying round of H&A ties became impossible. 

But all the Island Nations have had closed borders for long periods, as they have battled Covid. That's been the main problem, not any real incompetence from OFC.

Socceroos had to play a 4 game mini tourney in Kuwait mid last year to complete 2nd round AFC WC qualifying. If Omicron had been around then, there would highly likely have been issues with players being Covid positive.

lthomas20

theprof

OFC is and always has been a shambles full of corrupt leaders lining their pockets, player safety or decent games has never been a priority. It may be better in AFC but NZF is never going to give up the golden egg we have as been the monstrous fish in the OFC pond.

Getting off-track from the thread, but I think it's sad that that's our approach. Yes we will qualify for more World Cups from OFC with the automatic spot coming from 2026, as well as more age group World Cups, Olympics, etc. 

But to really progress as a national team and at youth level as well, we need to be playing in the AFC. The benefits of playing in regular qualifiers, the Asian Cup, Asian club competitions, etc. will outweight the downsides of making less worldwide tournaments. Additionally, it will make for better viewership for our fans at home and increase our fanbase to play in competition against hefty rivals such as Australia, Japan, etc. 

I think the financial reality of winning OFC is waaaay more appealing than being part of AFC and risking WC quals and the $$ for the benefit of getting better.

This format for the qualifiers is obviously creates issues with Covid, but the reality is there was no other option. The next window has the playoff, so it was literally now or never, and if the format negatively affects us more than the others, then the onus is on NZF to propose a better solution.

If OFC works as a democracy, then the members will vote for what they consider best, and majority wins. That in reality means do whatever it takes to detriment New Zealand, so long as you don’t shoot yourself too badly in the foot at the same time. This format is essentially that, weaken New Zealand and ensure one-off semi/final, whilst guaranteeing you don’t go all the way for only one game.

As for AFC, it’s an argument done to death, but it’s fun. New Zealand won’t go to AFC because it’ll kill OFC, which is barely alive as is, as you can’t have a 10 team confederation with the biggest players being PNG, Solomons or New Caledonia. In that case they’d get dragged with us, and why would AFC want 11 new members that offer nothing competitively or financially (except maybe New Zealand, though even then) and considerable extra costs and inconvenience. As it is Sydney to Papeete is a 13 hour flight, let alone anywhere further west.

Those reasons are why we also won’t be in any AFC Nations League, plus they already have 47 members, so have plenty of variety as is. 

The East/West split could work done about India or so, but you’d still have massive travel times to deal with. But for FIFA to dissolve two confederations and form two new ones would be a massive change to undertake, and would all the effort really be worth it just for New Zealand and a dozen island nations, so also unforeseeable.

 I worry the AWs dystopian future plays out similar to this cycle, playing equally relevant teams to Bahrain, Curacao, Gambia etc in friendlies away from home at 4am. Games against OFC teams will be seen as ‘obligatory’ formalities, and you’d likelier see A League and National League guys play them than any ‘conveniently injured’ valuable European star. It seems hyperbolic, but the AWs weren’t even planning to play in the OFC Nations Cup in 2020, despite it being in New Zealand, so I doubt they’d entertain one held in Fiji/New Caledonia etc. It’s been said before, but Peru was probably the last ever big game to be held in New Zealand.

theprof

lthomas20

theprof

OFC is and always has been a shambles full of corrupt leaders lining their pockets, player safety or decent games has never been a priority. It may be better in AFC but NZF is never going to give up the golden egg we have as been the monstrous fish in the OFC pond.

Getting off-track from the thread, but I think it's sad that that's our approach. Yes we will qualify for more World Cups from OFC with the automatic spot coming from 2026, as well as more age group World Cups, Olympics, etc. 

But to really progress as a national team and at youth level as well, we need to be playing in the AFC. The benefits of playing in regular qualifiers, the Asian Cup, Asian club competitions, etc. will outweight the downsides of making less worldwide tournaments. Additionally, it will make for better viewership for our fans at home and increase our fanbase to play in competition against hefty rivals such as Australia, Japan, etc. 

I think the financial reality of winning OFC is waaaay more appealing than being part of AFC and risking WC quals and the $$ for the benefit of getting better.

That's the issue, we're obsessed with the financial realities and the prospect of going to these tournaments. But the trade off is that we destroy our national team by giving them no regular competitive matches against even okay opponents. 

Also - 8 teams from AFC will qualify for 2026. That's about the level of Iraq or China. That is not a high level, and if we couldn't hit that level, we wouldn't deserve to make the World Cup anyway. 

carlind

This format for the qualifiers is obviously creates issues with Covid, but the reality is there was no other option. The next window has the playoff, so it was literally now or never, and if the format negatively affects us more than the others, then the onus is on NZF to propose a better solution.

If OFC works as a democracy, then the members will vote for what they consider best, and majority wins. That in reality means do whatever it takes to detriment New Zealand, so long as you don’t shoot yourself too badly in the foot at the same time. This format is essentially that, weaken New Zealand and ensure one-off semi/final, whilst guaranteeing you don’t go all the way for only one game.

As for AFC, it’s an argument done to death, but it’s fun. New Zealand won’t go to AFC because it’ll kill OFC, which is barely alive as is, as you can’t have a 10 team confederation with the biggest players being PNG, Solomons or New Caledonia. In that case they’d get dragged with us, and why would AFC want 11 new members that offer nothing competitively or financially (except maybe New Zealand, though even then) and considerable extra costs and inconvenience. As it is Sydney to Papeete is a 13 hour flight, let alone anywhere further west.

Those reasons are why we also won’t be in any AFC Nations League, plus they already have 47 members, so have plenty of variety as is. 

The East/West split could work done about India or so, but you’d still have massive travel times to deal with. But for FIFA to dissolve two confederations and form two new ones would be a massive change to undertake, and would all the effort really be worth it just for New Zealand and a dozen island nations, so also unforeseeable.

 I worry the AWs dystopian future plays out similar to this cycle, playing equally relevant teams to Bahrain, Curacao, Gambia etc in friendlies away from home at 4am. Games against OFC teams will be seen as ‘obligatory’ formalities, and you’d likelier see A League and National League guys play them than any ‘conveniently injured’ valuable European star. It seems hyperbolic, but the AWs weren’t even planning to play in the OFC Nations Cup in 2020, despite it being in New Zealand, so I doubt they’d entertain one held in Fiji/New Caledonia etc. It’s been said before, but Peru was probably the last ever big game to be held in New Zealand.

OFC could have been and should have been organised to do qualifiers earlier. All other confederations were. It's not unrealistic to say they could have done qualifiers in November and January windows, then you have room for cancellations/postponements in March and early June (AFC has their final playoff in the June window for example). 

Apart from that, completely agree with everything else you've said, we're between a rock and a hard place because any resolution to our confederation woes involves creating problems for everyone else. Australia should be very glad they got out while they could. 

I'm holding out hope that a AFC-OFC Nations League happens, along an East-West Asia split. 

AWs in Group A, East Asia with Japan, Aus, Sth Korea, China & maybe Vietnam. Other OFC teams sprinkled down through lower tier Groups, with Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos etc. Flights should all be less than 15 hours. 10 games H&A over 12 months (5 FIFA windows), so Kiwi fans get to see the AWs Euro stars actually play meaningful games in NZ. Games between AFC teams to double up as Asian Cup qualifiers or something, as UEFA does.

Sorry well off topic now.

Edit - and how could OFC organise qualifiers earlier? Europe & Asia's borders opened well before those in Oceania. 

Back in late 2021/early 2022 any players or coaching staff returning to NZ & many Island countries would have had to do 1-2 weeks quarantine upon return. Some Island nations may not have allowed people to even leave their countries, at that stage. Plus some were in complete lockdown, so players completely unable to train, even gather together. 

AWs (with a mostly overseas based squad playing in various competitions) would likely have been the only country ready to play by Nov-Jan. Other countries woefully underprepared, so yes they decided on March to give themselves the best chance to be competitive. Sucks for us, but you can't really blame them.

The east/west AFC split is probably the dream but there aren't enough top dogs at fifa with a vested interest in whatever happens in the OFC world to make headway at it. We'd only be able to have a sniff at AFC if we did an Australia and started knocking over opponents 10 nil week in week out. That's just not going to happen in a modern footballing context. In addressing the All whites lack of meaningful preparation and contest at the big stage. Maybe NZ just have to bite the bullet and put their hand up for any invitationals that come around. Put out an SOS to all the confederations. Even if it's at the expense of home games. That little four team tournament in India a few years back was out of the blue but awesome. More of those could be what the doctor ordered. I know Japan, Aus and qatar have been invited to the Copa America before. Maybe we need to advertise that we want those kind of invites next?

all those things sound great, but require NZF to be onto it and not navel gazing, plus having the $$ to be involved.
This conversation is always hanging around, it's gotten more relevant as we've gotten more competitive over the last decade or so. Unfortunately NZF dont want to move, even if they agree it would mean more competitive and meaningful games. Money talks when you're always broke. Add to that, AFC dont want us or the other OFC nations in their group - no interest, no benefits to them, just adds travel and cost. 
Getting FIFA to make any changes to OFC is tough, I doubt the exec even think about us, their focus is on the bigger unions and making money from them. OFC as far as FIFA is concerned is a cost centre, we make no money for them, our potential viewership is less than Australia alone. Probably no more than 7-8 million (10mil max).

Hey all, can we turn this back to a match thread and leave the imagined OFC/NZF move to AFC for another thread now. Think best for that discussion is https://yellowfever.co.nz/categories/all-whites-and-other-nz-international-teams/topics/the-move-to-asia-thing?highlight=post_1359848

‘Should NZF move to Asia’ is the Godwin’s Law of the Yellow Fever.

NZ should NOT move to the AFC. It makes zero sense financially and from an exposure perspective. The opportunity for the AW's and AW youth teams to go to the World Cup pretty much every cycle in the future by far in a way beats joining Asia. For example, how many young kiwis have picked up pro contracts from going to youth WCs in recent years that wouldn't have otherwise? 

Ranix

lthomas20

Khalil Media

YoungHeart

Ninja

Would be an absolute joke if we had to withdraw because of COVID. The tournament is already a shambles with Vanuatu having to withdraw... could happen to any team now. A bit like Russian roulette at the moment.

Absolutely farcical. Unfortunately, you could almost see this being written in the stars, well before a ball was even kicked.

When are we going to move to the AFC?

yes, definitely no Covid issues in Asia 

How many teams in Asia got knocked out in this WCQ because they had COVID? Zero. Because they're actually organised enough to play in multiple international windows and allow themselves the ability to reschedule games. As for OFC, not so much, it appears Vanuatu and the Cook Islands are both gone due to that and who the heck knows who is next? 

You can say those teams wouldn't have had a chance anyway but they never even had a chance on sporting merit, eliminated by mere misfortune out of their control.

What if one of our recently arrived players brings covid to the squad from wherever they've come from? It's a genuine reality, and happened to us in January. The fact that OFC appear to have absolutely no legitimate plans to remedy this is terrifying. FIFA genuinely need to review the whole damn thing and ideally abolish it. Either countries can be absorbed into AFC or in a dream scenario, AFC splits into east and west. 

The shambolic nature of every single OFC competition never fails to amaze me and is a blight on sport in the region and on international football. 

Not WCQ but at the AFC Womens Asian Cup about a month ago. Hosted by India. The India team were forced to withdraw mid tournament due to covid out break. So it does happen in AFC.

 that tournament doubled as the Womens World Cup Qualifier so it did mean India  could not qualify for the Womens World Cup

Roy to score and AWs to get three of their own. Can’t wait to see this one. 

New Zealand Football @NZ_Football 10h

Today’s winning team
#OceaniaQualifiers #WCQ

https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/113621?newsfeedId=1275622&fbclid=IwAR3cjhUK-JRAqi2zuViMIiskv9foaMTtZzGTHbShAn3C2gL5B4Ez3fK7ufg

Likely All Whites Team:
With 24 hours to go until the game, the squad in camp has increased to 25 players after Stefan Marinovic, Tim Payne, Nando Pijnaker, Marko Stamenic, Elijah Just, Callum McCowatt and Chris Wood arrived. Ahead of the match Alex Greive and Jamie Searle are also set to arrive.

A large contingent of A-League Men’s players are set to leave following Game 2 so expect to see them given minutes before they fly home.

Nalaubu will provide a big threat as well as Krishna.  Nalaubu scored a hatrick in a warmup match vs Vanuatu and then 2 in Fijis game vs NCL, so is in good form. Highlights I saw of him he looks fast and strong.

If he looks the goods against the All Whites too could be a Nix option one day. A shame OFC players count as imports. 

Stronger side that PNG game. 7 changes and now 5 at the back. Fiji have a pretty pacy frontline apparently.

Ins - Pijnaker, Smith, De Vries, Kirwan, Stamenic, Waine, Wood
Outs - Wilkins, N Boxall, Ingham, Howieson, Garbett, Champness, De Jong

Of the 7 players to return to their clubs after this game (Sail, Ingham, Wilkins, Lewis, Old, Barbarouses & Waine) - 4 are starting, and you would expect Ingham & Wilkins to get good minutes in the 2nd half.

Only youngster Old misses out, so Hay has hopefully got the mix right, re not overloading his other players, for remaining (hopefully) 3 games in a week.
 

Here’s how we start for Game 2 at the @FIFAWorldCup #OceaniaQualifiers vs Fiji 🇳🇿🇫🇯#NZLvFIJ #WCQ pic.twitter.com/R12uaWVHlM

— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) March 21, 2022

https://us.soccerway.com/matches/2022/03/21/oceania/wc-qualifying-oceania/new-zealand/fiji/3710353/

Looks like of the 25 players available, Ben Old & Jamie Searle miss out on the 23 man match day squad.

siac

Nalaubu will provide a big threat as well as Krishna.  Nalaubu scored a hatrick in a warmup match vs Vanuatu and then 2 in Fijis game vs NCL, so is in good form. Highlights I saw of him he looks fast and strong.

If he looks the goods against the All Whites too could be a Nix option one day. A shame OFC players count as imports. 

I think Nalaubu scored 3 against a local Qatar 2nd tier club side in a warmup? But yeah him & Krishna the threats and interesting Hay has changed formation to a back 3. But that maybe as about giving De Vries & Kirwan licence to bomb forward as much as anything.

And yes hopefully APL/A League clubs in future will allow 1 OFC player per club as a non visa spot. 

coochiee

siac

Nalaubu will provide a big threat as well as Krishna.  Nalaubu scored a hatrick in a warmup match vs Vanuatu and then 2 in Fijis game vs NCL, so is in good form. Highlights I saw of him he looks fast and strong.

If he looks the goods against the All Whites too could be a Nix option one day. A shame OFC players count as imports. 

I think Nalaubu scored 3 against a local Qatar 2nd tier club side in a warmup? But yeah him & Krishna the threats and interesting Hay has changed formation to a back 3. But that maybe as about giving De Vries & Kirwan licence to bomb forward as much as anything.

And yes hopefully APL/A League clubs in future will allow 1 OFC player per club as a non visa spot. 

 
It was PNG who played Qatar local sides in friendlies, Fiji played Vanuatu and won 3-0 through the Nalaubu hattrick.

That being said, five at the back against Fiji seems excessive.

Any streams?