Tyler Boyd - USA (Los Angeles FC | USA)

Apparently he's one of the best players in the team (he's been a winger for the past 3 seasons, not a striker), except the manager wants the two wingers ahead of him to start and Boyd to make an impact late on. He's also apparently the only consistent winger Tondela have.

Think I posted what a Tondela fan said about him above, have a read if you want, he loves him. It's encouraging and I'd definitely have him on the squad as a sub or even starting winger :)

Well, Boyd has been accruing experience at a decent enough level over the last two seasons in the Portuguese Segunda Division, even if he hasn't cracked the first team at his two clubs.

He's played 73 games the last two seasons for Vitoria Guimiraes' second team in the Segunda Division, most of them starts (all except three were starts last season). Not a glamorous league but it's a better league than what Patterson, Smeltz, Fallon, Moses Dyer, Myer Bevan etc. were playing in.

And a demanding league where they play a lot of games (Boyd played 39 league games in 2015-16).

There's a lot of young players around the world who may sit on the bench for a team in a decent European league but are still considered good enough to play for their country, especially a smaller country like us.

Brockie is in a transition situation at new club and only made his first start last weekend where he failed to impress and was subbed after an hour. He got a player rating of 4/10 in the media. 

He's playing for the table-topping Mamelodi Sundowns who are probably looking at him as a back-up striker since they re sitting comfortably at the top of the table. He's unlikely to see as much game time or score as many goals as he did at the more modest Supersport. 

Fair enough. I think Boyd is doing enough to be in the squad right now. It is just hard when you aren't watching games to get a guage on how someone is playing.

Has started in match today and scored, with Tondela leading 2-0 at HT

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GZa6IPjz4Ug

Great headed finish

Finished 2-0 and played full ninety

Boom! Great CF play with getting ahead of the defender, staying strong and bullet header.

So Tondela beat Pacos Ferreira 2-0.

With all the debate elsewhere, about strength of Portuguese top flight - interesting that Awer Mabil was a sub for Pacos (subbed on at 67 mins).

Like Nick Ansell, Mabil is another ex-A League guy yet to be a first team regular starter in Portugal (16 games & 9 starts). Got a squad callup for Socceroos last year.

Anyway real issue is, is Boyd currently worthy of a spot in an AWs squad. I say yes. Probaly ahead of Patterson at the moment. Boyd has been off the national team radar now for 2 years - so lets see what standard he is at, by bringing him into the Murcia camp & Canada game for a look.

Hopefully he is available and wants to play, and hopefully new AWs coach has a chat to him. He might not be a superstar, but with such a shallow talent pool, NZ can't afford to ignore looking at a guy, who may add some real value. Of course moot if he is unavailable, or a disruptive team influence.

Hot take: he's our third best attacker behind Rojas and Wood (ahead of Kosta, Brockie, etc). People here seem to severely underestimate him because he's never called up to the NT, we underestimate the league he's in, and he was a pretty average player when he left us. Thing is, he's a completely new player in Portugal and he's playing brilliantly when he gets the chances. On form alone, you might drop Rojas for Boyd in the first XI if you're the AWs manager. Would add some much needed spark to the squad!

He has been called to the NT, he said no.

And now it's time to give him another call up to see if he's changed his mind. If so, get him into the first available NT training squad and see how well he's playing and how well he fits in with the rest of the team. Tommy Smith got cut a lot of slack. Let's do the same with Boyd. 

You're assuming these calls haven't happened

don't really think there is any debate that he should be in the squad.

The story is that after he turned Hudson down once Hudson didn't ask him again. Without a post-Hudson squad or any leaks about NZF getting in touch with players the best knowledge we have is that those calls haven't happened.

Given our limited resources I would hope the new coach contacts him to see what's up. I would expect any new coach to start from scratch and if Boyd turns out to be not interested then fair enough but based on current form he's easily in an AWs squad. And I hope whatever happens is communicated to the fans. Imagine some possible scenarios

1. So Boyd is back in "yes, he's been doing well in Portugal, we talked and we thought it was a good opportunity to see how we fits into the squad"

2. No Boyd - "Anfony told me he's a git"

3. No Boyd - "Gave him a call, NZF sponsors don't fit his current branding profile"

4. No Boyd - "Gave him a call, he was pretty ambivalent and we only want players who really want to play for their country"

What a rocket. Can't wait to see him in a white shirt!

Starts against Sporting Lisbon and gets 74 mins in a 1-2 loss.

Sporting score winner in 99th min!

Encouraging for Boyd getting a few starts recently.

Portuguese league really tight at the top. The 3 big sides all within 2 pts

Full game for Tyler in a 0-1 loss away at Braga.

Tondela are currently 12th on 25 points (17th and 18th get relegated).  The bottom half of the table is very crammed with 10 teams within 10 points of each other, so I guess they're not safe yet.

Not a chance of European games next season, with Braga on 52 points currently claiming 4th place.

Hopefully Boyd continues to get minutes and experience (680 minutes spread over 18 caps so far this season).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/football-soccer/news/art...

Thankfully we can finally let this go and move on.

You been to forums before, haven't you?

We need to take this with a handful of salt as it's all hearsay - but if it's true it's mightily disappointing.

For all we know he might have said he doesn't want to be involved at the start, and only come in later on for the OFC Nations Cup/Confeds etc - it's that's the case, fudge him. 

If you read my comments, I've always supported a recall as I rate the lad - but you also have to show willingness to fight for the shirt and support the team.  On a similar note, I still haven't forgiven Smith and my opinion of him has taken a huge dip over the last couple of years.

Anyway, until I hear it from the horse's (or coach's) mouth that Boyd doesn't want to play, I will reserve my judgement.

Aren't they sensible places where rational people have meaningful and dignified conversations? No? OK, carry on!

We've heard it before from Hudson though.

Seems pretty clear he's not interested. Travelling from Portugal to Spain for a training camp is hardly a chore but obviously not enough branded product in it for him so time to move on. He's doing well with his pro career but he's not going to be the difference between us making a WC or not, so if he's not fussed to see what the new coach has to offer then no point in wasting any more time on him

I did find it amusing this morning to see an Ole employee tweeting about how much they do for Wellington and NZ Football in a clear barb at the Phoenix as one of their hyped graduates turned down a chance of playing for NZ yet again.

Looks like we lost another - Different situation to Fitzgerald, but turned his back on NZF. 

Amusing that Edge was saying that easy to train kids to put to string some passes together but build up characters, intelligent players is much harder. No I'm not sure if Boyd is a "the Ole way' failure or not.

I enjoy watching Wests. I like what Ole do for NZ Football and development. There are some good people involved. I find Declan on social media hugely amusing because he doesn't quite get how it works.

I didn't push out that tweet from one of the senior staff this morning that frankly was embarrassing to the organisation.  Some people there think they are in a pissing competition with the Phoenix that as far as I can tell the Phoenix know (or care) nothing about.

I assume your are involved in some way, if so you they need to find someone with Social Media skills to coach the two main people there to think before they press send.

I'm afraid I told you so repeatedly, guys.

In the famous words of The Exponents:

"Once Bitten, Twice Shy"

Herbert and Hudson have each disenfranchised a potential quality AW, I wonder who will be the one under the new coach?

American playing in a Portuguese club. Why the thread? 

Well the first answer to your question is the fans! but as much as I don't like Hudson don't think you can blame him for this one. 

Who knows what Boyd is thinking, but Murcia where NZ play Canada is only a 7 hour drive from where he is in Portugal so hardly an arduous journey and Portugal recognise the international break so there won't be any games on there

I don't rate him as highly as some do (I have trouble believing that the Portuguese league is the 6th best in the world as was claimed in the NZ Hearld) and don't think we'll miss him too much, but wouldn't be surprised if he all of a sudden became available if we qualified for the world cup

With Smith being unavailable for a period I see that, as mostly a product of him being pissed off with Herbert and poor NZF admin following the Horror in Honiara and then Mexico playoff shambles. He’d just had enough. Though he also bypassed OFC PNG when Hudson needed him, and so was rightly called out by the gaffer afterwards.

Boyd is different. A relaxed game a few hrs away, with a new coach post Hudson, in a recognised FIFA window. Disappointing attitude. Only weak excuse is that he just appears to have cracked starting eleven at Tondel last few weeks.

Hopefully likes of Patterson, Bevan, Collier, Houltesen (spp) etc all kick on. We qualify for WC2022 and Boyd never advances further than a mid table Portuguese team. 

I’d been hoping for Boyd to come back in, but Hudson and Doloras were right to disregard this guy.

The Herald understands that a member of the new All Whites coaching panel contacted Boyd, as they look to liaise with Kiwi players across the globe.

But Boyd is believed to have told NZF that he wants to focus on his club career in Europe, and at this stage, won't be available for the All Whites across the next cycle.

An entire article crafted around the only 2 sentences that actually point to the headline. Fudge me, journalism is easy these days  if this is accepted by editors. Disgraceful and too common in the NZ media that often steals quotes from forums like this and then makes up a story under the guise of investigative journalism.

Pretty sure the phrase "understands" is code for being told something off the record.