AW v Slovakia Tue 15th 11:30p (SS2, TV1)

Nervously excited for tomorrow night.

The line-up will be revealed soon and we all wait with bated breath.

Important that we start off well...settle...and we'll be alright.

I'd imagine the Slovaks will be cautious early too.

Yeah i'm also abit worried. Aussies got slaughtered. AW can do much better. GO AW's

Very nervously,excited here in Malaysia. The new LCD TV looks great, a draw is favoured (dare to dream of a win??? ) .... 27 hours and 5 mins...

Starting to get nervous, not expecting or hoping for a win or even a draw, I just dont want us to get thrased, keep it down to a two goal margin, and maybe score one ourselves.

I'm very nervous yet very excited, and the match is still 26 hours away.

COME ON YOU WHITES!!!

I am pumped up! Cannot wait!

I'm not nervous yet, but I am very excited.

Interesting article in Malaysian newspaper "Straits Times" . They think the race for 2nd in Group F will be very close, spoke quite highly of NZ..... 

McG had a weak game against Aussie, and Christie did ok against Serbia and Slovenia? Slightly different kinds of players?

After watching 5 World Cup games I am now really really nervous about the AW'S. The games so far have been just what you would expect from an elite tournament. All the teams have been tactically good, they are crammed with players who are technically good and play the game at a high pace(I exclude Australia from the last few sentances)

no one that i regard as a sane human has gone on record talking about the second round

i might have missed something but it isn't a view that people who know the game - and can be termed sane, by most neutral judges - seem to be promoting

Nervous excitement is my mood. Curious to see how we do, excited because getting a result is a real possibility, nervous because if we don't play at our best, it might be a long 90 minutes.

For what it's worth I also like the 3-4-1-2 idea with McGlinchey behind Fallon and Smeltz or Killen but I think that's more an idea for the future. For this game I think we have to go with what we do best and the 3-4-3 has been when we've been at our best in the warm-ups. Think Vicelich will do well as defensive midfielder though, Christie still gives the ball away too often, and a stronger midfield will help give us more chances on the counter-attack.

 

Zinidane, even though i pretty much agree with everything you said in that post, i really wish you didn't post that the night before the game 

It's nice to be optimistic and dream, believe me i've dreamed of us winning a game and even qualifying for the 2nd Round too. But let's be honest, all three teams we come up against will be quality opposition and it will take us playing out of our skins and then some to give us the chance of taking one point or even all three from any one of them.

But hey, i'll keep dreaming for another 25 hours at least.

Team likely to be announced tonight?

No doubting the quality of the opposition. This is the best All Whites team of my life time. It deserves to be there. It is not apologising for being from NZ and playing round ball. They are planning how they are going to beat these teams. No dreaming there. There should be some belief.

The wait is almost over..

Ahhh.. time to play some fifa. Football fix.Azevo2010-06-14 23:40:02

Matchday!!!

This takes me back to the huge excitement in my Worcester St flat in Christchurch in 1982, watching the games in Spain. shovelheaddave2010-06-15 01:22:22

Big Pete 652010-06-15 01:36:31

good post. thanks....

Big Pete 652010-06-15 02:44:16

I'm too damned excited. It's here everyone! Today is finally here! I've waited my life (I might not have always known it) for this day, and it is here! Do us proud, All Whites! 

A certain formation does not have to be introduced until days before a game. As long as you plan and show the players certain basic aspects in weeks in the leading up. In the days before, you reintroduce those drills and games with an certain emphasis on new formation, hence building on players' knowledge they have already. In a tournament, you always have a few different options for each of the three games and formation change is part of it.

Of course Slovakia is our best chance of getting a result and the 3-4-3 is our main stick formation, but you have to change and adapt at short notice if things are not going well late in the second half. The only difference is to dropping two player in a different position block (and we have two capable players to pull that off - only need two position to be altered) and open up space elsewhere as long as other players understand what is happening and it should change much if you planned it well.

Like I said, it is unlikely to pull this up so soon when it would be better to stick with the 3-4-3 that they have worked hard with and trusted/believe in 100% for this particular Slovakia team. However we have used 5-2-3/5-3-2 in the distant past when we are in being under constant attack. But having 5 in the back line for too long is inviting the opposition midfield in have a crack and that is not good.

Anyway, each game as you have said it focused for that game. Leave the short, medium and long term planning for the coaching management. The players will just follow their noses in the process, only a few players need to change in roles that they have done previously, a bit of change and alteration is not going to be difficult if certain training exercises are done as before but with a different emphasis during the tournaments and between the matches.

You can't be too short sighted in a tournament, you don't have that much time between the matches to do that.

this time tomorrow night we are hopefully going to be celebrating
go the All Whites

game day

excitement is building 

Team named, Vicelich is indeed starting in midfield.

http://nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=584&tx_ttnews[backPid]=10&cHash=8344a77409
imaginality2010-06-15 08:15:26

I don't know about anyone else, but have got mega butterflies in my tummy.  Wishing best of luck to our boys! 

so excited!!!!

Oska sums up my feelings on the matter:

11.30pm is going to take forever to come around, it's gonna be a long day, but whats a few hours after waiting 28 years for this.

"The 1.90m centreback (Skrtl) said he had seen the matches of the supposed outsiders from New Zealand and had noted that they played an attacking game."

wait wat

I'm a bit gutted about the Italy/Paraguay result.

It certainly "throws the group open" as the media have been saying, but not really in our favour.

Would have much preferred Italy to spank them 8-0 so that a draw against Paraguay would put us through in second on goal difference.

Means a win and two draws probably needed now to even go through on goal difference.