HoG - TIme for NZ World Cup Bid

so what is the chance of NZ games being in three different cities?  Was that part of the HOG correct?

     moley moley moley

I wondered what El G looked like. Now I know

I'd say it's more of a mix between that pic and his avatar. Without the mole of course.

we're going to try again shortly - im pretty sure we want G4!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/blogs/hand-of-god/3126682/What-the-Cup-draw-could-mean-for-NZ Hopefully, right this time!

Minor correction: NZ can't be B1. The A1, B1, C1 etc are all for the seeded teams. Only 2, 3, 4 is available to NZ.

Thanks Sinz - I can live with that. At least not a fundamental structural misrepresentation of the draw!

I forgot to respond to this bit - LF1 asked the same question elsewhere. The answer is:

Sinz - i shall never write anything technical without first consulting Mr Omniscient

SiNz is God.  He makes me look like a person with only a passing interest in football.

Will your passing interest be clearly evident in the morning LF1? Am hoping for a full report/coverage while I drive over the hill to Death Valley

OCD has its upside

I'm there! (well, figuratively at least )

I thought I'd mentioned this in our conversation, but maybe I didn't. My apologies if that's the case.

Today's post - Some irritating Aussies ...

More good work from the king of Bloggery.

haha dvidde corran has clearly been hnging round with les murray and craig foster too long, two of the most charmless pundits you're ever likely to see.

Did anyne read foster's suggestion as to how to put aussie football ahead? send 20 coaches to barcelona for 6mths (at a cost of 2m) and, um that's it. The guy is the worst kind of snob, completely uninformed and with no imagination. Makes himself feel more important by criticisng those around him. I usually defend the right of pundits to commentate, but he is one guy who I really think needs to go and achieve something somewhere rather than spend all of his time sniping from the sidelines

Especially when it is all due to making it through to the 2nd round of a WC through complete jammy luck.

Latest - http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/blogs/hand-of-god/3167607/AFL-and-NRL-should-stymie-World-Cup-bid

So true.

The future of our national league?

I wonder if the lack of advertising had anything to do with the small crowd.

Nah... everyone always knows when TW are playing, right?

Thought provoking Sam.

If my kiddies stick with the bootiful game into yoof-hood I will follow NZ football with interest.

As one of many who have been harping on about the opportunity that the 2010 WC gives football in this country, one glaring hole (noted by much more qualified pundits them myself) is that from secondary school onwards the numbers drop off considerably and this must then feed into the senior club scene.

At the end of last season's nix game I did think about dragging the kids off to see Team Wellington but we never quite made it. I suppose what it does suffer from as Stripes has pointed out is that it doesn't have the profile of the nix so we wouldn't have know any of the players by name or sight.

Not saying that throwing lots of money at retaining the teen years is the answer but it would help in keeping numbers up and by association, spectator attendance.

Are there parallels in the egg ball game re numbers participating and spectator numbers at club level?

Might ruminate on this a bit more...

I think that a larger crowd for TW et al will be a bit of a pipe dream at this point in time, but who knows what will happen in the next 5-10 years?

Can anyone inform me of what white lies was trying to say?  I think some of it was in response to me, but I don't have a clue on his point?

It's quite hard to follow and somewhat contradictory: We don't need the Nix because NZ football success has come from NZF stuff (....except the AWs)

But then rants at not having a Nix youth side.

Not at all simple as the first sentence would have us believe.

Something/someone deleted,I take it?

One of the comments (#7) left on the stuff website.

Hand of God not impressed with Fallon's Halberg Nomination- http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/blogs/hand-of-god/3187976/Fallons-nomination-is-just-silly

everything in that blog is absolutely correct. Smeltz deserves it more than Rory

Good work again Sam (play it again!)

Paston in well before Fallon.

Would like to see Ricki get the coach gong and hopefully AWs the team award.

But can't see how there has been any individual football player who has stood out so much to deserve nomination (but if I could nominate it would be two: Paston and Ifill - not sure if Paul is eligible).