Anthony Hudson (FAT Technical Director | Thailand)

You actually cannot make this stuff up any more. On par with the inept McKavanagh.

It says they need a match in every window. No idea why NZF would agree to that because they haven't managed to do that thus far.

Hello,

In reply to some of the above comments.... I was seeking to apply a historic reference with regard to ethnic support in Auckland with touring teams (which is something of a New Zealand phenomenon).

This was in response to Dale's sceptcism about Tony Smith's suggestion of how to make home matches financially feasible.

When South Korea toured in 1998 the crowd was 15,000, of which I estimated at the time (I was a football journalist back then) over 50 per cent were supporting Korea.

Just three days earlier we had played Chile in Auckland, and the crowd was 8000 (again with impressive support for the visitors).

The population of mainland Chinese is, I believe, many times that of the Koreans in Auckland. And the thing with these games is they do also attract hinterland support beyond just Auckland.

In summary, I think Tony's suggestion was worthy of more consideration. 

Maybe we should look a little smaller, and try to play teams like Tahiti, Fiji, New Caledonia more regularly...even some smaller close Asian teams like Guam, Timor-Leste and Philipines...at least it's a regular get together and game and shouldn't cost too much. 

The games here against island or SE Asian teams can be NZ/Aussie/Asian based squads, and the games in London or the ME can be Euro based squads

I was at that game and I would guess 3/4 of the attedance were wearing green and gold. So we'd need to be careful who we lined up against if we wanted bums on seats.

As long as someone turns up. 

It's a shame UEFA teams won't be available for friendlies

This may be crazy talk, but Vancouver, a comfortable direct ANZ flight from Auckland with a strong Kiwi base may be a venue for an occasional tie with Canada. Canada suffers similar issues to NZ seeking games and sometimes plays North American friendlies often with young North American based players. There is also a growing contingent of young Kiwis plying their trade in North America - Wynne, Gleeson etc . With established connections with Herdman, Gordon Forrest, Stuart Neeley etc. perhaps there is an opportunity to be explored.  

I don't know if the Kiwi population in vancouver is that big. I know a couple of people there and they very rarely see other New Zealanders. But still direct flight from NZ and direct flight from Europe means that its a good middle ground.

Probably 10,000 or so Kiwi's resident  in Canada with a significant proportion in Vancouver area. About twice as many in US.  

Mean while. Closer to home. Australia u23 team are looking for games after failing to qualify for Rio and wanting player development, according to fox sport. Once again decent team on the doorstep. Nzf may have some credit in the bank after inviting Australia u20 team to Auckland for friendly matches before the Nz hosted u20 wc. Worth a fax.

Not having a dig here Bruce as I've known Sam since we were both quite young but I have actually run in to a number for your NZers around London working full time in the academies of Chelsea, Tottenham, Charlton and Brentford.  It seems that we make good youth coaches but do not seem to be able to carry that through to higher levels.

There were loads of Canuk Kiwis at the Women's World Cup games in Canada last year so I would hazard a guess that a fair few would turn up to a game in Vancouver, Toronto etc.  Me included.

Sounds like we are making a strong case for Vancouver! Mid way between Europe and NZ and loads of resident New Zealanders, plus the young OE kiwis working in the ski industry. The Canada team is loving BC place in Vancouver, getting good attendance (more than 20,000 forHonduras) and even more for upcoming Mexico Tie. I hope NZF is listening!  

“We are glad to play in Vancouver, especially since each time I see a match from inside this modern stadium or by television, I realize how people support the home team,” said Canadian Head Coach Benito Floro. 

IMO National Team Boss Anthony Hudson would be far better value for money if he took himself on a roadshow around the country and got his hands dirty by affecting our next generation of potential All White - Coaching them.

If I were National Coach and couldn't work with my National Team players on a regular bases. I would want to scout, work with, get to know, COACH, COACH, COACH!!

Bearing in mind, Anthony was very forthright with his opinion in the media that our young players are not disciplined, driven enough. I kind of agree. But what I have observed is that reference is more aligned to the players who attend FTC for a slap and giggle.

So let's see Anthony..get amongst our younger Football community and impart your knowledge.

As per usual, Hudson was actually just talking bollocks.

NZ had "qualified out of their group" at both the 2009 and 2011 u-17 World Cups when Hudson said that.

(Since that mistaken claim by Hudson, our u-17's beat Paraguay to make the Round of 16 at last October's u-17 World Cup)

So qualifying out of their group and making the round of 16 has now become the norm for NZ at u-17 World Cups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_national...

In 2009 our u-17's drew their three group games against Turkey, Costa Rica and Burkino Faso to make the Round of 16 where they lost 5-0 to Nigeria.

Then in 2011 we thrashed Uzbekistan, drew with the USA and lost 1-0 to the Czecch Republic to make the round of 16 where we lost 6-0 to Japan.

Further evidence of Hudson talking bollocks came a few weeks ago in Hudson's voting as national team coach for FIFA's Ballon d'Or where he voted for: 1. Ronaldo 2. Alexis Sanchez and 3. Paul Pogba.

Anyone who omits Lionel Messi can't tell a decent player from a sack of spuds....

Love your last line there BigPete

I don't think three draws and a 5-0 lost can be considered a good performance. Is just an average one and we should be trying to get better results. I'm not a Hudson fan but is kind of stupid to judge his coaching capabilities just because he didn't vote for Messi. We should judge him for what we see on the pitch (which isn't that good either).

While we need to strive for improvement at youth level, I think we can still recognize the improvement that has been made over the last twenty years (more so from our 2009 u-17 finals appearance on).

Relatively speaking, considering the minnows we are in world football terms, drawing our three group games in the 2009 FIFA u-17's against Turkey, Costa Rica and Burkino Faso to make the Round of 16 was still some kind of achievement considering the much greater financial, player and technical resources available to countries like Turkey and Costa Rica. Drawing with NZ was an embarrassing result for them, just as it was for the USA in the 2011 edition. What to speak of Paraguay actually losing to our u-17's on South American soil last year (not taking us seriously and starting reserve players in a game they still had to win to be sure of making the second round was their undoing).

So last year we made the Round of 16 ahead of Paraguay and only lost to Brazil in the fifth minute of injury time in the Round of 16.

While last year's side didn't have a great deal of attacking flair, they were technically, tactically and physically competent enough to get out of their group and make it tough for Brazil right to the last minute. The Brazilian coaching staff and bench celebrated their last-gasp goal as if their senior team had just won the World Cup. 

Contrast those NZ performances to our first u-17 World Cup appearance in 1997 when we were thrashed 13-0 by Spain, 5-0 by Mexico and 4-0 by Mali and failed to score a goal. Nearly 19% of all the goals scored at that tournament were scored against NZ (22 of the 117 goals scored). I saw that team in the Oceania qualifying held in Christchurch, and boy, was it limited.

By the 2007 finals we conceded 13 goals and scored none (we did have Brazil and England in our group - Welbeck, Moses and Chambers scored against us). By then we did have players as technically competent as Barbarouses, Wood and Gleeson.

In the 2009, 20011 and 2015 finals our results have been much better. In 2013 we lost 7-0 to Uruguay but only 1-0 to Italy in a game that was actually quite close. NZ missed a penalty in the 1-0 loss. Stuart Holthusen was very good and unlucky not to score from open play. Alex Rufer, Ridenton and Monty Patterson were in that side:

Ben Sigmund was in that 1997 squad. Best not remind him though.

I wasn't saying there hasn't been any improvment, just that we could aim for better results. 16 of 24 teams make it through the gruop stage, maybe one time we could see NZ in the quarter finals.

Patterson hit that free kick well. I've almost had enough of Hudson. He needs a core of strong respected players to build the public support- Brown, Nelsen, Siggie, Smeltz, Leo- and then some results. 

He can't complain about the conditions- it was always like this. He's beginning to remind me a little of John Mitchell with the jargon, but not the results. 

Didn't I read that they are going to have another camp? Yay! 

Even games against U.S. clubs would be better.

 ah who cares anymore its all kind of embarrassing now

reality bites. Tui advt for NZF anyone?

Judging by the photos on this article Hudson has been using the alias Tom Logan recently:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/accurat...

Newly appointed All Whites coach Anthony Hudson is aiming to take New Zealand further in the World Cup than ever before.

Hudson made the comment today after New Zealand Football confirmed his appointment as coach on a contract through until the end of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The 33-year-old Englishman - the son of former Chelsea star Alan Hudson - today outlined his vision for the All Whites.

"They [the fans] can expect to see a team that goes out to try and win games,'' he said.

''They can expect to see a team that is organised, but with a real positive attitude, a team that plays football and tries to win the ball high up the pitch.

''Our team will have a real emphasis on being positive going forward and makes the most of the qualities of the players available for selection."

Hudson was unashamedly ambitious.

"A big pull of why I've come here is to go to the World Cup. And not just go to the World Cup, but go further than we've ever gone.

''Along the way to reaching that target, I'm very passionate about playing the game a certain way.

''One of my main attributes is that I'm very, very ambitious and my life is all about football.

''I'm very passionate about coaching and I'm very passionate about helping players. I want try and help players improve so they can have big careers and do well from the game and be able to give back.

''I want to come here and make history and I want the players to make history. There's no point in doing it if we're not going to have those ambitions of doing things we've never done before."

I think he probably overestimated the resources available. I'm sure nzf promised more games than he got.

Sack Hudson. Just fudgeing sack him.

Hudson Out

Sack everybody. 

Sack Hudson, rehire Ricki, sack Ricki, rehire Hudson and sack him again.

Alternatively, make Hudson do a Cersei Lannister-style walk .org shame.

No way do we want Rikki back.

I'd like Ramon to be given a shot.

Sack Hudson.  That has to be the call.

Still it was fairly entertaining- it's just that we didn't contribute a heck of a lot to that.

Come on guys, Hudson played a brilliant tactical game against a far superior opponent, got it to penalties where he knew we had the edge...that's class coaching...he didn't want to mess up the grass too much so he ordered the team to keep the ball in the air at all times, so he's an environmentalist at the same time...what a guy ??

"this was fully deserved" - Anthony Hudson 11/6/16 ?

realistically, what are the chances of him losing his job.  No one will be held accountable for that miserable fortnight, because we won, which will be enough to keep NZF happy

BRING BACK RICKI.