Not sure if it's a good or a bad thing, but the last three televised games, so excluding Oman which no one saw, the All Whites have conceded 3 goals from only 5/6 shots on target conceded. So they have been restricting the opposition, but maybe it's a question of just bad luck with the shots faced or questions about the goalkeeping.
Also now at 476 minutes without an open play goal against non-OFC opposition.
HI well thats what i say, Marinovic is the better player, Sail /wood are still young. i would go with the experienced keeper all the time. the team is taking risks at the back, because of the forward passing but it is just playing and playing and playing, SAIL was horrendous vs Peru, better with CR but the goal was his bad positioning in my opinion, and yesterday a bit better but again, if they score from outside the box, it is the gk, sorry but thats what I believe, unless from a set piece, but on open play we need him to save the day
Was at the game last night. Not the best seats, row 1 in the Away section, looking through the keeper's net!. Garbett free kick flew over our heads.
But some quick takeaways (admittedly had a few beers) -
1. Thought ref did a good job 2. Our buildup play is great. Composure and decision making of Cacace, Bell, Garbett, Just & Stamenic (in his cameo) quality stuff. 3. Thought De Jong, miss aside was okay. Threw himself about, and freed up Wood a bit. 4. Seems awhile (one League Cup goal aside) since Woodsman scored in open play. 5. Garbett is feisty. Love it. Plenty of lip to the older Socceroos. 6. Our team looked young. The Socceroos starting 11 (Mabil aside) all seemed older, harder edged. I'll have to find time to go through ages of their starting 11 - but looked a little like, men verus kids (even with Libby's facial hair!). Which gives great hope for the future. 7. Pijnaker still making 1-2 big errors per game, which I guess is why he is still in Ireland. If he can cut those out - he'll be a real asset to AWs with that left foot. And yeah lets hope Surman can develop into a top drawer defender. He's off to a promising start. 8. Payne really had his hands full with Mabil that first half running towards our end. No surprise he scored the goal. But he won't get that same space in Qatar. 9. But what this AWs team is really missing is Singh (and to a lesser extent Thomas & Lewis). What Singh brings is unique in NZ Football's history. That killer pass, great cross of a left foot, seeing the space that no one else does. He played last night, and AWs would have had a far greater goal scoring threat. Without him it's just going to continue to be quality build up play without the killer ball. Relying on Wood to lay it off to someone for an opening, or yes a defensive error by the opposition (as happened with Wood's ruled out goal verus CR).
Singh starts regularly and this team, could really do something. Good news is I think his injury will come right soon. Not so optimistic on Thomas.
Oh & yes FFS lets hope we get a Gold Cup (2023) or Copa America (2024) invite. Fudgeen anything please.
Even better a combined East AFC/OFC Nations League (that maybe incorporated some AFC & OFC WC qualifyng somehow - as happens in the UEFA Nations League) that had, actual home games.
But any hopes of biennial series against Socceroos, Japan or whoever is just dreamland stuff. They have very busy AFC schedules, and are always aiming to play big South American teams (Aussie tried to bring Argentina & Brazil to Australia last year) or European teams in their few free windows. They are not interested in playing the lowly AWs regularly - unless that was in some Nations League setup. All the talk about NZ playing Australia more this week, has come out of NZ - nothing at all out of Oz (players, FA or media)
Honestly the FA would have wanted a bigger drawcard team than the AWs as their World Cup farewell game in Aussie. But at least they stuck to the centenary celebrations.
PS. Crowd of only 25,000 a poor effort from QLD. Admittedly it had been raining heavily earlier in the day and was a midweek game, with a late 10pm finish for the school kids. But yeah if they had played in Melbs or Sidney would have been double that.
well for me RYAN THOMAS is very important, the team needs a leadership Thomas is very important to start playing again, lovely player and can provide that killer pass up front plus do the dirty works to help the center midfielders
I'm picking a 19k crowd that will actually make a lot of noise and rattle Aussie with it.
Tickets sold was already a 25K a few days ago. Good weather Sunday might get 40K?
Edit - and Arnold is using these games to finalise his World Cup squad. He's already got a few guys injured at the moment I think like Harry Suottar (spp). He's well within his rights to pick whoever he wants for Eden Park, and help finalise his squad for the big picture - Qatar.
But for sure opens the door for a NZ win by picking 'kids'. AWs likely even favourites now with that plan. Though guys like Devlin & Cummings if they play will be desperate to impress Arnie. Who doesn't want to go to a World Cup. Could be spicey.
sorry , argentinian from BS AS here, I THINK for my football knowledge and that so, Bell is by far your better player and in a way he is irreplaceable, mate. Once he got subbed off things were pedestrian, he keeps the flow of things and the team moving, like a little caudillo. For me he is got to be the first name in the papersheet of the starting eleven, they you elaborate the other 10 guys. It is a must to recover Ryan Thomas asap, he is gonna be inmense if returns, he is a class above the rest even Singh
Was at the game last night. Not the best seats, row 1 in the Away section, looking through the keeper's net!. Garbett free kick flew over our heads.
But some quick takeaways (admittedly had a few beers) -
1. Thought ref did a good job 2. Our buildup play is great. Composure and decision making of Cacace, Bell, Garbett, Just & Stamenic (in his cameo) quality stuff. 3. Thought De Jong, miss aside was okay. Threw himself about, and freed up Wood a bit. 4. Seems awhile (one League Cup goal aside) since Woodsman scored in open play. 5. Garbett is feisty. Love it. Plenty of lip to the older Socceroos. 6. Our team looked young. The Socceroos starting 11 (Mabil aside) all seemed older, harder edged. I'll have to find time to go through ages of their starting 11 - but looked a little like, men verus kids (even with Libby's facial hair!). Which gives great hope for the future. 7. Pijnaker still making 1-2 big errors per game, which I guess is why he is still in Ireland. If he can cut those out - he'll be a real asset to AWs with that left foot. And yeah lets hope Surman can develop into a top drawer defender. He's off to a promising start. 8. Payne really had his hands full with Mabil that first half running towards our end. No surprise he scored the goal. But he won't get that same space in Qatar. 9. But what this AWs team is really missing is Singh (and to a lesser extent Thomas & Lewis). What Singh brings is unique in NZ Football's history. That killer pass, great cross of a left foot, seeing the space that no one else does. He played last night, and AWs would have had a far greater goal scoring threat. Without him it's just going to continue to be quality build up play without the killer ball. Relying on Wood to lay it off to someone for an opening, or yes a defensive error by the opposition (as happened with Wood's ruled out goal verus CR).
Singh starts regularly and this team, could really do something. Good news is I think his injury will come right soon. Not so optimistic on Thomas.
Oh & yes FFS lets hope we get a Gold Cup (2023) or Copa America (2024) invite. Fudgeen anything please.
Even better a combined East AFC/OFC Nations League (that maybe incorporated some AFC & OFC WC qualifyng somehow - as happens in the UEFA Nations League) that had, actual home games.
But any hopes of biennial series against Socceroos, Japan or whoever is just dreamland stuff. They have very busy AFC schedules, and are always aiming to play big South American teams (Aussie tried to bring Argentina & Brazil to Australia last year) or European teams in their few free windows. They are not interested in playing the lowly AWs regularly - unless that was in some Nations League setup. All the talk about NZ playing Australia more this week, has come out of NZ - nothing at all out of Oz (players, FA or media)
Honestly the FA would have wanted a bigger drawcard team than the AWs as their World Cup farewell game in Aussie. But at least they stuck to the centenary celebrations.
PS. Crowd of only 25,000 a poor effort from QLD. Admittedly it had been raining heavily earlier in the day and was a midweek game, with a late 10pm finish for the school kids. But yeah if they had played in Melbs or Sidney would have been double that.
well for me RYAN THOMAS is very important, the team needs a leadership Thomas is very important to start playing again, lovely player and can provide that killer pass up front plus do the dirty works to help the center midfielders
you could be right about Thomas, but he has been injured for so long and hasnt really played any decent football that I doubt we'll see him in a white shirt anytime soon. Singh, for me, is the better player and prospect for the future. our CM pairing will be Bell and Singh, with Lewis for the forseable future
Was at the game last night. Not the best seats, row 1 in the Away section, looking through the keeper's net!. Garbett free kick flew over our heads.
But some quick takeaways (admittedly had a few beers) -
1. Thought ref did a good job 2. Our buildup play is great. Composure and decision making of Cacace, Bell, Garbett, Just & Stamenic (in his cameo) quality stuff. 3. Thought De Jong, miss aside was okay. Threw himself about, and freed up Wood a bit. 4. Seems awhile (one League Cup goal aside) since Woodsman scored in open play. 5. Garbett is feisty. Love it. Plenty of lip to the older Socceroos. 6. Our team looked young. The Socceroos starting 11 (Mabil aside) all seemed older, harder edged. I'll have to find time to go through ages of their starting 11 - but looked a little like, men verus kids (even with Libby's facial hair!). Which gives great hope for the future. 7. Pijnaker still making 1-2 big errors per game, which I guess is why he is still in Ireland. If he can cut those out - he'll be a real asset to AWs with that left foot. And yeah lets hope Surman can develop into a top drawer defender. He's off to a promising start. 8. Payne really had his hands full with Mabil that first half running towards our end. No surprise he scored the goal. But he won't get that same space in Qatar. 9. But what this AWs team is really missing is Singh (and to a lesser extent Thomas & Lewis). What Singh brings is unique in NZ Football's history. That killer pass, great cross of a left foot, seeing the space that no one else does. He played last night, and AWs would have had a far greater goal scoring threat. Without him it's just going to continue to be quality build up play without the killer ball. Relying on Wood to lay it off to someone for an opening, or yes a defensive error by the opposition (as happened with Wood's ruled out goal verus CR).
Singh starts regularly and this team, could really do something. Good news is I think his injury will come right soon. Not so optimistic on Thomas.
Oh & yes FFS lets hope we get a Gold Cup (2023) or Copa America (2024) invite. Fudgeen anything please.
Even better a combined East AFC/OFC Nations League (that maybe incorporated some AFC & OFC WC qualifyng somehow - as happens in the UEFA Nations League) that had, actual home games.
But any hopes of biennial series against Socceroos, Japan or whoever is just dreamland stuff. They have very busy AFC schedules, and are always aiming to play big South American teams (Aussie tried to bring Argentina & Brazil to Australia last year) or European teams in their few free windows. They are not interested in playing the lowly AWs regularly - unless that was in some Nations League setup. All the talk about NZ playing Australia more this week, has come out of NZ - nothing at all out of Oz (players, FA or media)
Honestly the FA would have wanted a bigger drawcard team than the AWs as their World Cup farewell game in Aussie. But at least they stuck to the centenary celebrations.
PS. Crowd of only 25,000 a poor effort from QLD. Admittedly it had been raining heavily earlier in the day and was a midweek game, with a late 10pm finish for the school kids. But yeah if they had played in Melbs or Sidney would have been double that.
well for me RYAN THOMAS is very important, the team needs a leadership Thomas is very important to start playing again, lovely player and can provide that killer pass up front plus do the dirty works to help the center midfielders
you could be right about Thomas, but he has been injured for so long and hasnt really played any decent football that I doubt we'll see him in a white shirt anytime soon. Singh, for me, is the better player and prospect for the future. our CM pairing will be Bell and Singh, with Lewis for the forseable future
Singh at CM?? Surely you either play Bell + Stamenic CM with Singh AM or a midfield 3 of Bell, Stamenic and Garbett with Sarpreet either AM or a roaming LW role, similar to what he does at Jahn.
