Ryan Nelsen (Unattached FC Coach)

 

At the Australia game???

 

Yipeeeeeee!

 

The production standards ain't great either.

 

I'm probably being picky though.

 

 

 

Love Ryan's quoting of Tim Brown's perspective on the highs and lows of All Whites games Ryan wasn't available for:

" Tim also thought the low point was a two-game trip to Costa Rica and Venezuela in March 2007...An under-strength All Whites squad was outclassed by their speedy, skilful Latino opposition. The boys missed a charter flight out of Venezuela so they had to bunk down in a rat-infested airport. Then they had to split up and fly four different routes back to New Zealand.It took them ages to get home. Some guys retired after that trip but, for the rest, it must have been character building."

Yeah, right!

One of the All Whites' staunchest fans is a Kiwi serving in the British army in Afghanistan. James McKie from Wellington attracted international attention earlier this year after he was cited for bravery for hurling a live grenade away from his position, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.

But before this act of heroism, he'd written to Ryan to congratulate the AWs for World Cup qualification after the Bahrain win. James has been mightily impressed by the fact Ryan took the trouble to reply to him in Afghanistan, which also boosted the morale of the entire platoon. Ryan's postcard arrived just after two of James' unit had been killed.

James watches all All Whites matches when he can (people record them for him), wears an All Whites shirt when possible, and when he can't on active service, has a NZ flag patch on both his machinegun and his rifle to show his support...

He's currently back at HQ in Edinburgh and looking  forward to watching games when he can.

Newpaper report- click here:

 

Great to see four of the Guardian newpaper's ten "Best Performances" from the World Cup group stage involve All Whites: two each for Ryan and Pastie. Five of the worst ten performances involve Englishmen, four French and one Aussie (Kewell)-  LOVE IT!!!!!! Love the accompanying photos too:

 

Guardian.co.uk has been polling readers since the World Cup began last month and as of this morning the performance of Nelsen - the All Whites' skipper - against Italy has been rated the third-best.

Nelsen, who also captains Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League, also fills fifth place on the list for his efforts against Paraguay while Paston, the All Whites goalie, fills the seventh and 10th positions for performances against Paraguay and Italy respectively.

The best performance, as rated by the website, are by Japan's Keisuke Honda against Denmark while Diego Forlan's efforts for Uruguay against South Africa are second.

There is little surprise in the list of the 10 worst player performances with England players holding down five spots with Wayne Rooney at one and fourth, Emile Heskey third, John Terry sixth and Frank Lampard 10th.

Australia's Harry Kewell gets second spot on the worst list for his effort against Ghana while the remainder of the list are Frenchmen Sidney Govou (twice), Andre-Pierre Gignac and Nicolas Anelka.