What a game!! Some great finesse against some really quality opposition. Defense a little sus but very, very happy with our punching in midfield and attack. Could have had a few
Draw a fair result. They put us under pressure and probably played smarter football in the final third. But we controlled the edges and the middle of the park. Bring on the Socceroos.
Pretty good result that. Game drifted for a long time after their goal up until about the 75th minute, but then we actually had some impact and quality off the bench to get us a result. Could have even nicked it at the end there too
Best players on our end across the 90 - Just, Singh, Wood, Boxall & Champness (providing that late spark).
Champness honestly could have come on early. It's kinda problematic when he comes on and is full of life and everyone around him is ready for the full time whistle.
Not that great of a game for me. Quick thinking drew the penalty but felt we were a bit lucky, don't think Woody would have scored going by his performance. We just can't seem to score from open play as usual. Hopefully it's rust as many of our top guys are bench warming currently. They'd better fix it before Aus, hate losing to them!
I dunno what you lads think but McCowatt shouldn’t be starting. Bloke has one speed and when he plays we always seem to lack any creativity. Seems to be coach favourite.
The Subs impact off the bench really excited me. Was very effective and injected some much needed life into our performance as we were drifting. Being able to come back from 1 nil down will be great for the boys self belief. Loved twinkle-toes Champness' flair and Dalton Wilkins made a great case to not be omitted from future squads. Hope we get more minutes from Bindon against the Socceroos.
So good to see Sarpreet hasn't lost a step through his injury troubles. Looks better than ever.
Tyler Bindon looks so small, a lot of work ahead in the gym. But great to see him debut.
Had said before the game that I wanted Champness to start, I wish he had. Provides something different to the likes of Waine, McCowatt, Grieve etc who are just not very effective wide attacking players. Just is a slightly more traditional wide player but probably isn't quite up to the level he should be if he wants to start for the All Whites. I hope Champness knuckles down and fulfills his potential at a better level than the Turkish 2nd division. For me currently I'd have Rojas and Champness either side of Wood, as we don't have Rojas in this squad I'd be tempted to push Singh a little wider and have Garbett join McCowatt & Stamenic in the midfield 3 to start the Socceroos game, even if that isn't Singh's best position.
Overall an OK game against a decent opponent, but wouldn't it be nice to have our very best xi playing just once, to really be able to gauge how good we are/could be under Bazeley?
i think this is revisionism. Before the all whites played Australia they'd been in poor form in Asian qualifying and only squeezed past Peru on penalties to make the world cup. Graham Arnold was not a popular man. Their world cup campaign caused a huge perception shift. I don't think many people were expecting us to be smashed, I remember a lot of people being extremely disappointed at how poor we were at home in that 2-0 loss against their second string side.
Does anyone who has experience with fifa+ know whether we can watch replays, or is it only available live? Just with kids and work I tend to have to go for the "keep my phone off all day, and squeeze in a viewing at odd hours whenever I can," strategy, when it comes to sports events I want to watch.
The drawback with watching replays on demand on FIFA+ is the regular ads every seven minutes or so. To solve this, I recommend the free ad blocker software called "ublock origin" which blocks all ads on FIFA+ for a much better viewing experience (as it does on You Tube)
I use it on my laptop's Chrome browser but it has versions for most browsers.
A tip if you are having problems with lagging when watching videos on FIFA+ - click on the cog symbol at top right every time when playing a video and select "HD" rather than the default "HD+" which I found causes the video to lag. HD works fine for me on my laptop.
i think this is revisionism. Before the all whites played Australia they'd been in poor form in Asian qualifying and only squeezed past Peru on penalties to make the world cup. Graham Arnold was not a popular man. Their world cup campaign caused a huge perception shift. I don't think many people were expecting us to be smashed, I remember a lot of people being extremely disappointed at how poor we were at home in that 2-0 loss against their second string side. YoungHeartHM
bennie99
We are gonna get tonked by Australia lmao.
People said that last time out, pre World Cup.
The only difference being (1st match more so) was that we couldn't finish a sandwich, let alone a chance in front of goal.
Will be a lot closer than you think.
Yet a few days prior there were a lot of people who were disappointed we didn't get something out of the game against their first team...
We're not the million miles away that people think we are, and if anything, we've got far more quality this time around to give it a decent shake.
I'm in total agreement with you that Australia shouldn't be considered huge favourites and we shouldn't be going into it feeling like massive underdogs. I'm just saying that Australia were not considered big favourites before the 2022 games. They're probably more favoured now given their results since the world cup began
My unpopular opinion is that Champness isn't really that good, like I'd rank him closer to not being picked than starting. He wows because he does a few stepovers or skill-moves which distract from the fact he will then lose the ball almost every time. Surely the idea of them is to be effective in aiding a pass/shot rather than being a freestyler? What is the advantage if you will then either: pass directly to an opponent, dribble it out or get tackled?
Back at the OFC qualifiers (when the three were all there) I thought Rogerson/De Jong were far more effective. Much lower quality opposition, but even then Champness' game was still the same really.
Can very much understand DR Congo's complaints about the penalty, would not be one you'd want given against you. Bit fortunate to get a draw there, but that's the game.
Think a lot here underrating DR Congo - ranked about 40 places above us, have a better squad and reached the WCQ playoffs in Africa last time (and could well make it this time).
Singh roving centrally provided those passes we never see usually. Hope to see even more of it against Aussie. I thought Stamenic covered that defensive midfield really well, albeit by himself a lot of the time. Great to see our attacking intent when in possession. Bring on Wednesday morning.
Yep, thanks, we just hoping to record it through my Sky box so I could archive it. No dramas, too late now - that'll teach me for not checking the forum the night before the match :)
I don't know if it is just my computer but I was a little disappointed by the quality/framerate of the stream of the game and of the 3 minute highlights package (also disappointing that there isn't a longer package prepared). Shouldn't really be complaining when it is free but I wish the games were still on Sky. I'm guessing it must be a better deal financially for NZF, must be getting paid more (or perhaps paying less themselves).