Waitakere in the World club champs

More chances to Waitakere in injury time as well, but the final whistle makes it 2-1 to Adddelida.

They lost but full credit to them. They played quite well in the 2nd half I thought.

Bloody shame - Ytak played well, defended stoutly all night.

What was the goal like?

Agreed too bad Emblen isn't abit younger. Players who played well for me was the keeper Gillespe and Adriano when he came on looked good anyone know why he didn't start commentators said he was looking at playing in Japan.

Glancing header.  Was always cuming.  Must have been something like 25-3 in the corner stakes.  Nevertheless, Why-tak were always a chance on the counter.

nah sorry I meant the whitaar kerry goal...watched the second half.

IMO Totori and that Vincente guy should've come on earlier. Even if they held out for the 1-1 draw Adelaide would've got them because of the whole fitness issue.

Guess it's easy to say in hindsight.

Thought Emblen was immense. Was one of the Knights few good players so I guess it isn't suprising.
valeo2008-12-12 01:54:59

Well done Waitak....did NZ and the NZFC proud santy2008-12-12 10:00:36

only 2 - 1, Ytak must have played out of their skins, or Adelaide player poorly.......

Watch the game before you make rash comments..

Didn't see the game so I won't comment on how well either side played. Good effort though Waitakere, a respectable loss should save Oceania's bacon for next year's comp.

In light of our 6-1 whumping it reignites the "Champion of New Zealand" debate too.

Amusing.

Great effort from Waitak.

Was a solid game-plan that only just came unstuck because of the heading power of the Reds.

The zone-defence with the four at the back and two sweepers worked well for the most part.

In the end though, so close yet so far. Does give us some hope for the future.

Waitak didn't play 'bloody well'. They parked the bus and Adelaide didn't have a player good enough to break it down. Not saying that they shouldn't have defended like that - just saying that I would never call that 'playing well'.
valeo2008-12-12 12:16:17

Loving the Melbourne news reporters having to say "Waitakere". Best I've heard so far is "Whiter Kiri", although "Wait A Care" was pretty good too.

how can you not say they played well, they played to their game plan, played to defend in their defensive 3rd, rather than shut down further up the park and maybe get exposed. for me vincent was a waste of time, would much rather seen either ellensohn or totori over him, didnt hold the ball up, actually he was hardly involved. the only thing for me was to introduce a midfielder sooner, when it was 1-1 they needed to change something as adelaide were on top, either adriano or campbell into the middle, would have kept seaman on and taken butler off, needed a bit more direction for runs from krishna and totori when he came on.

Didn't see the game either.
Did WhytaKerry give Ricki a clue as to how he should approach playing Adelaide next time?
Or did Adelaide just struggle without Cassio, Diego and Ognenovski?
Well done to the westies.

Didn't watch it but, from what I can gather, Ricki should play 8 at the back next time we play them. Won't beat them but it'll keep the score down.

Waitak didn't play 'bloody well'. They parked the bus and Adelaide didn't have a player good enough to break it down. Not saying that they shouldn't have defended like that - just saying that I would never call that 'playing well'.
[/QUOTE] Dino102008-12-12 14:29:58

Hes right they didn't play "bloody well" playing bloody well is winning, not playing negative football. They played well compared to what we all thought they would do but it was quite embarrassing seeing them play for a low scoring loss, do they really think FIFA will just look at the score. The goal they scored was easily a foul everyone could of seen that and Adelaide played no where near aswell as they did against us.

Why was Waitak's goal a foul? Because Seaman dared to come within a metre of their keeper? Crap. Keepers are so mollycoddled it's unbelievable. Good refereeing; keepers need to toughen up. TheJam2008-12-12 17:20:11

I agree with you but almost every other referee would of given it a foul and so for consistency, that was a foul, a good finish but one referee can't decide to do what he thinks should be allowed.

i aint seen the game (only the goals) but well done Waitakere. Good effort

Fair play, they performed above and beyond my expectations. Well done.

Mental note for Waitakere next time, practise counterattacking in a build game against a similar strength team before starting CWC. Have better preparation build up next time. Don't bother building up games with lesser team, next team.

I really hate ugly games like that, it's not a good demonstration for Oceania. Camping in our half is going for a draw and expecting to go through by penalties after extra time is an very low percentage strategy to use if your haven't had counterattacking practice against teams of higher ability. It was still doom and gloom from the very beginning I'm afraid.

Having a 1/3rd of the possession is bad for any team on this type of showpiece.

I don't think that FIFA is going to be convinced especially after the football analysis committee has finished with their tactical report.

If anything, I think that FIFA may give another year for OFC and then review afterwards. I still think that they haven't prepared that well enough entering into the CWC. They have improved, but still missed a number of fundamental preparation to bridge the gap. And any other OFC team that follows on, will have to intensified their preparation sustained over a longer period.

Maybe I am a bit too hard on them, but they need to find better teams to build upon and for longer. They need to foot it with them and be a greater threat.

Please no pitter-patter defence hoping for a lucky break unless you trained yourself adequately with that formation.

Sorry, but it's virtually the same advice I gave like last years CWC.

The only real difference from last year's game was one goal. 3-1 or 2-1, still the "same performance" and "same tactics." This year was only a repeat of last years preformance, just without the early goal shocker against but a early goal shocker for instead but for less than 5 minutes.AllWhitebelievr2008-12-12 23:29:25

Ah yes but the perception of the two games is TOTALLY different. From being completely out of it from 4min and getting a late consolation, to being right in it for 80 odd minutes, and even having a late chance for an equaliser - people who watched it as neutrals had a stake in it for the entire game. It was a classic cup tie, and they have a certain magic when the big underdog gives the bigger club a run for their money. And it is one of the major reasons why football is so universally popular.

Yes well, but it was the same strategy that was planned last year. That strategy has a huge range from low to high in surviving against a superior team. But the preparation is still not utilising the strategy correctly.

Yes, it is a classic cup tie that you expect in a knockout tournament. But if you noticed how very loose they were in marking up during the game when they faced 22 corners? In that type of game, you have to expect to defend against numerous set pieces and you need really stronger preparation against higher leveled team to create agility in defence. That leads to the two goals against. With better preparation, both of those player would have been heavily marked and have less of a free shot.

However having said that, on both goal occasions, Adelaide just push/shove and misdirected the defenders away from the goal scorer very well. Both very practiced set pieces and classic one to place in the coaches top drawer. On both occasions, the reply is to really have a tight man to man marking and again it can really come about by games against higher oppositions and not on the training ground.

I was however impressed with Waitakere set pieces, they obviously had decent practices with them as you expect for a knockout tournament. But if you notice, on the occasion when it was pulled off in a shot at shot, Waitakere attacking players had a bit of difficult on making a clean shot and could'nt get it on target, expect for the fortunes of the shock goal by Seaman. Again, this is due to playing against poorer build up teams. They play against poorer teams, does not give them practice in attacking set pieces with harder markers and in fact, if they play too well, they would hardly get any set pieces to practice much.

It was 1 in 3 chance of a keeping on an even keel until the very end, but lapses in concentration and not being tight enough shows their lack of stronger games in their preparation rather than their amateur status tbh. They can train as much as they could, but without high level enough games to practice their strategy, they had very little hope and was delusion in their approach. Their counterattacking was a bit hopeful and really, if there was no fouling by AU, then Waitakere didn't have much of an attack.

BTW the goalkeeper did very well. it was the defenders that didn't do enough against the set pieces, but then it was planned very well by Adelaide.AllWhitebelievr2008-12-13 00:43:09

Hey I said they performed much better than I expected. And I congratulated them on that.

AWB, your penchant for over-analysis is supplemented nicely by your ability to talk drivel.

Credit where credit is due. 
I watched the game and thought it was a fantastic effort from Waitakere, the defence holding out superbly against the Adelaide barrage of corners and freekicks until Dodd's glancing header in the last 5 mins, and the attack showing up the Adelaide defending at times. And even in the death Waitakere were still in it. Not the whitewash Adelaide were expecting from the "underdogs,"
I'm sure.
Well done Waitakere!

Of course it is a different performance, don't get me wrong. But I do want them to win, but their preparation games that they set up this year was only half done. It was the same planned strategy as last year with different outcomes howbeit closer this time round. And no doubt that, it would be the same strategy next time round.

However such strategy still needs a better preparation lead up into the games. Outside the few set piece, there was very little attacking opportunties. The counterattacking is the right course, but relying on a few counterattacking moves need careful and accurate preparation against top oppositions which they haven't had enough practice this year. They need more such games to refine it. At the end of the day, it was the difference between the teams and it reflected on how goals were done.

Had they had the preparations as I suggested, they would have scored at least one of those three counterattacks and stop one of those goal from the set pieces and end up being 2-1 winners themselves. And I stand by my word that training can only give you so much refining, the need for more competitive games at a higher level is what they need in their preparation to be a dangerous threat. They can improve their build up and make accurate refining of their counterattacking skills. They may only end up with about three to five shots on target which will greatly trouble them. But 1/6 shots being on target is woeful counterattacking not threatening counterattacking which I really wanted.

As they have discovered, they still also need a couple of more players with a specific ability in counterattacking as well as a player that can direct general play in the midfield. Roy needs support up front. It is simple as that. . . . . then they will have a team that upset not only the first stage of the tournament but performance will be just as effective at the second stage and if luck goes their way, even to the finals.

If you look at Greece team who won the Euros and Croatia team who got third at the World Cup Finals they pulled off the counterattacking strategy very well, but it has to be very accurate and relied on key aspects as well as certain skills to develop. That is what they should look at. It wouldn't harm the coach to give some of those coaches a ring and discuss.

However, if each year they improve on preparation leading into the CWC, it would be a nice learning curve and a good test case for other coaches to learn from, if they haven't already.AllWhitebelievr2008-12-13 14:27:26

I rest my case on the "over analysis" thingee.

Great Wall of Text hits you 3 times for 4000 damage
You push the back button on the browser