All Whites v New Caledonia | Sat 12 Nov | 3:00pm | NHS / The Merchant

so he didn't watch?

Not a bad guess though, seeing he pretty quickly switched to a flat back 4

Was Boxall injured pre-match?

Think I read he was suspended.

I feel that NZ Football missed an opportunity to have the game as part of "Show Weekend" in Christchurch.

Thousands of out-of-towners from all over the South Island come here for the races, A&P Show and surrounding events.

In the mid-1990's the AW's played the Socceroos in a friendly in Christchurch on Show Weekend and got a crowd of 10,000.

That at a time when football was really struggling in this country and publicity and crowds were paltry.

10,000 is standard when the AW's play in Christchurch these days - that's what they got for a mid-week night game in the last World Cup qualifiers vs. Tahiti. 

Crowds were up to 13,000 for the u-20 world Cup games in Chch last year.

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Match program for yesterday's match - good initiative that NZ Football are making them available online on matchday just before the game:

https://issuu.com/newzealandfootball/docs/sc1432a5...

Watch for the link on the AW's Facebook page before the next home qualifier vs. Fiji in March.

Was it actually shown in the UK?  Can't really blame him if he didn't in any case. Something like 3am in the morning, I'm sure he could get tape of the game to study if need be.

Shabby

(of you Ryan)

Very tough to find a stream.

It was just a question, no need to get upset.

It was at 3pm our time, which is 2am in the UK. They were showing it nowhere on TV either.

I thought the crowd was smaller than the 8k listed. I looked around and felt it was closer to 6k but that was just me. For one I even has no problems with parking at NHS

I think I am slightly disappointed with the performance but more so based on what we saw against Mexico and USA, and the fact we were on home soil and appeared to be doing it with ease but not really taking the game to New Cal. The conditions are in our favour as opposed to what we will find overseas so should be absolutely taking the game to the opponents. When its a little more arduous in the islands and a result is not so much guaranteed, I felt we should have attacked more than really pushed it. I think we tended to settle more for a deliberate possession based build. I respect I am nit picking but if we go up there and lose 1 nil because of the heat/conditions, we then open the door to the other teams to be ahead of us in the group.

Against better teams, Rojas and Thomas wont function against midfields and Hudson should be thankful that island football has dropped off in the last 2 years that other teams wont really pressure us in this part of the field with 2 players that have class, but no familiarity with the position.

People are so precious on here.

Sorry Vader a few things I will disagree on...

Island football has dropped off. I don't think so, in recent years they have had more exposure than ever before, playing in the u20 World Cup, Olympics etc. They are playing with greater regularity than before and have brought in some decent coaching.

2 - 0 does not look great, but we hit the post twice and had a few other good chances... with a little more luck on another day we would have won 4 - 0. I thought we generally played well and dominated.

I will agree with you that we need to look at who and how we play through the middle of the park though.

Island football is definitely better funded than ever before, whether all that money makes it onto the pitch is another story though.

Iran smashed png 8-1 and they are our biggest threat

I thought we were pretty average mainly because there was so little combination play, although credit to Hudson the change fro the back 5 to the back 4 definitely improved things.  The Rojas/Thomas/Lewis midfield really didn't work - much better once Tuiloma went in there and we stopped trying to ping everything.  Passing out of defence was pretty non-existent and that was the main issue for me.  Also taking off Kosta (unless there was an injury) seemed an odd choice.

I thought 8K felt right, I was in the top tier which was pretty full.

I really enjoyed watching the All Whites play though. 

I imagine playing in Tehran against 30,000 Iranians would have been one hell of a culture shock to them. Especially as the city is heading into winter where it's a dry cold (snows a lot). Tehran is quite high as well.  

I think the AW side that played on Saturday would lose there by a good 3/4 goals, the Aussies too (by less).

Actually the game was played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

I'll flag in advance that I'm going to sound like a broken record on this, but... I feel that we were short-changed with the quality of the broadcast on Saturday.

I understand that football is for all intents and purposes a minority sport in New Zealand, and that this game probably didn't rate especially highly on SKY.  I get that more focus and resources would be put into the broadcasts of rugby, cricket, league and netball.  And I'm actually OK with that - after all, they're a business and the numbers matter.

That said, SKY is still a professional outfit, and I imagine the crew involved take a degree of pride in their production values.  I'm not sure if NZF contribute to the cost of the live broadcast (although history suggests they probably do to some degree), or whether it's wholly a SKY production - either way it doesn't matter.  The fact is that either a paying customer (NZF) or a professional media firm (SKY NZ) should expect more.

The opening credits featured text: "New Zealand Football Federation".  I've never heard or read NZF holding this title, and it seems a fairly  big error - can you imagine an All Blacks broadcast showing "New Zealand Rugby Federation", or something else inaccurate?  I'm being pedantic perhaps, but it's still shabby.

While the half time sprinklers hitting the live interview was funny, there were at least 3 cutaway opportunities for them to clean the main camera lens, and yet each time they crossed back the screen was still covered in water drops.  Again, would that happen in the broadcast of a "major" sport?

But the real irritant came with the commentary.  Remember that the two men speaking were paid money for this task, and would have known for a while in advance they would be doing so.  Nonetheless, the mistakes made within the first 10 minutes showed a criminal lack of research, and were basically ridiculous:

- apparently Bill Tuiloma is playing on loan at Strasbourg (even though that was last season and he's been back at Marseilles for the last few months)

- Ryan Thomas is apparently 19 (even though the bio fact sheet provided to them says 21...)

- Ryan scored two goals in the Dutch Cup Final against Feyenoord (which is almost the same as Ajax, the actual opponents)

Now sure, to many I'm a nit-picking gimp - but again, I stress that these men are PAID to do that job.  And these 3 gaffes are just a quick sample - all of which can be sorted by a 2 minute google search or checking this forum!

If you consider the likes of Jason Pine or Gordon Glen Watson, then you have consummate professionals who take their craft seriously, including RESEARCH on the game they are commentating.  Likewise, the callers in other sports are generally known for getting such basic details right, and acting professionally by getting clued up prior to the call.

I get that football is minor, I get that it doesn't rate, I get that it doesn't have the resource directed at it that it could - but it won't cost a single cent more to fix these issues.  It just needs a commentator (like Gordon or Jason) who will actually make some effort and do the job properly.

This is our national team, and they need to be taken seriously.  And as fans, customer, consumers or whatever, we shouldn't settle for this shoddy effort.

Grumpy old man rant over. 

i like fred, but i was stunned by that comment

The funny thing was they said Thomas was 21 first and that he started playing for Zwolle at 19, and suddenly they started talking about how he was 19 even when they started off with him being 21. It's like they completely forgot what they said just a few seconds before. I also heard them saying he scored two goals againts  "Feyenoord Ajax"

This is Ngata and De Jong right?  

As ex AWs I have respect for them both and loved Ngata at the Kingz and thought he was a better commentator then De Jong and Dewhurst; but if what you say is true, that's piss poor from them and Sky TV who produced the coverage.

Dewhurst and Fred.

stunned by Fred's comment or by people on here who thought it was a two legged game?

at fred advocating we shut up shop at 1-nil when we were finally getting some traction in the game and had the potential to put it away

but yes, i get what you're saying. sort of hilarious when people go in with none of the facts and pass judgement

Why not give Aaron Clapham a go in the team?

Because he wasn't good enough 6 years ago and nothing has changed

Was good enough in mid-2012 that he should have been playing CM ahead of Chris Killen at least, and he's a better CM than TAHW or MD right now

I wonder if the Clapham for AW/Phoenix call will continue after he hangs up his boots, kind of like the footballing version of bring back buck but ironicaller (sic)

He has scored 5 goals already this season which includes a hatrick.

6 years ago we were drawing with Italy and now we are drawing with New Caledonia. 

A lot has changed.

In the corresponding round of OFC Qualifying for that World Cup we lost 2-0 to Fiji.

4 of them have been penalities

Sack Ri...

...oh, wait....

This is odd.

Someone advocates that he is better than TAWH whom is a DEFENSIVE MIDFEILDER and one of the stats touted as why he would be better is goals scored?!?! That's like saying we should start Moss as a DM and he is better than TAWH because he kept a clean sheet in his last game.

Clapham is a play maker and we have better play makers him. 

IIRC 2nd stringers at the time playing that game as we had already qualified. I also think that game was meant to be at home but due to Fiji travel restrictions to NZ it was rescheduled and played in Fiji. Also saw Moss sent off and suspended for 4 games by Fifa with NZ Football missing the appeal deadline.