How to waste a great counter attack by Kosta Barbarouses
All Whites vs Portugal, Confederations Cup | Sun 25 June | 3am | St Petersburg | SS4
Thomas certainly looks like he belongs at this level.
Thomas certainly looks like he belongs at this level.
definantly looks our best player by a mile
Thomas certainly looks like he belongs at this level.
definantly looks our best player by a mile
Has all tournament. The only thing he lacks is that yard of pace off the mark, though, which is important at this level.
dura off smeltz on. lets see how shane goes in the heart of defence...
Durante off for Smeltz. Two at the back and a proper goalscorer up front. Here comes the comeback!
why do we play out best football when we are moving the ball from the front to the back?!? I think Hudson might of had his tactic sheet upside down...
okay what the fudge was that defending
Bad give away from Doyle there.
that goal was well setup by doyle
thats a real shame
Doyle was having a pretty good game up to that point
Doyle was having a pretty good game up to that point
I believe in miracles
gotta be pissed if you are Jai!
stretched by a back 4
I'll let Doyledinho off for that (more than) minor indiscretion
our first corner is it, in the 85th minute
thats a real shame
no
that's a real shane
shane smeltz
4 goal comeback from him
Alves not exactly watching the ball there. Someone said something about the standard on pens?
it was nice to see us on the big stage. fingers crossed for novemebr
Barbs is an embarrassment, done nothing but ruin us all game
A little harsh on Barbs, he played some good touches and his movement off the ball was fine.
I think we should play for the draw now..
Gee that takes us back- Smeltz, Greenacre, Kosta! but terrible effort in the end
Kosta has had some donkey touches. But he always does, until he gets it right. That's why he's playing A-league not Europe. He's good, not great.
Did I just see Rufer walking off with a Portugal shirt? I bet it was Ronaldo's.
Overall I was pretty happy with the tournament - i think the 4 - 0 scoreline was a little harsh to be fair.
I think both Marinovich and Thomas did themselves no harm in terms of getting noticed, but outside of that I don't think anyone else will have their door smashed down.
Hopefully something comes for Lewis as well.
We played some pretty good football at times over the last two games, and if we can learn to compete for a little bit longer and keep our levels up we have a chance for the qualifiers. We created meaningful chances against the European Champions, a few years ago that would have been dream material.
So I think Hudson deserves our support.
Deklan had a Portuguese shirt as well
I reckon we did well - today a couple of moves were pretty close to something coming from them and overall we defended well given the level the games were at - Mexico and especially Portugal could be at World Cup quarter- or even semi-final level really. Its a level were surprises aren't unheard of and we competed well. A great development tournament for us at the end of the day. I'm happy (OK -not ecstatic).
I'm disappointed with the last few goals. The only thing that can cheer me up now is if Chile hammer Australia tomorrow.
Respect to Tommy Smith. Came back and ran as hard as he could as long as he could and almost pinched a goal. Wish he'd held off Silva at the end, but not to be.
Seemed like a bit of trying different tactics for the potential play off at the end? Hope it's not the same result...
Wow Marinovic on German TV, speaks German fluently !!!
Well, Ronaldo couldn't score in open play against us. Guess that makes us better than Juventus.
So, the tournament is over for us and I think is fair to say we only have 3 players who belong to this level: Wood, Rojas and Thomas. I know Wood missed lot of chances but he's the only one who can score for us and a great CF. and Thomas is by far out best player. The rest are just mediocre players (by international football standards) who may play well some matches but depend on how good the team around them is. So we should be playing a formation that allows this three players to perform as much as they can, and 5-3-2 fails to do that. We are wasting our best players by playing them out of their preferred positions.
Lewis will be a great player some day, but he's not there yet. Marinovic is a great shot-stopper but still think Gleeson should be playing over him. Ingham, Colvey, Boxall, Patterson and Wynne all looked out of depth to me. WeeMac gave the ball away too easily and Tuiloma wasn't that great defending, and both of them are supposed to be some of our best players, just like Barba who didn't show too much on attack.
The perfomance overall was ok, neither good nor bad. We didn't get thrashed in all three games but we played really bad against Russia and kind of ok against Mexico and Portugal but just because they weren't trying that hard. If we want to win the playoff and qualify for the WC we need to do better than this, we need to be solid on defence and take our chances. Why do we waste most of our corners and centres? Or why do our defenders stand in front of the opposition but give them enough room to shot anyway? I know the chances of beating South American opposition are very slim but would love to see us being competitive enough and I think we have the potential to do so, just need better coaching.
Respect to Tommy Smith. Came back and ran as hard as he could as long as he could and almost pinched a goal. Wish he'd held off Silva at the end, but not to be.
Seemed like a bit of trying different tactics for the potential play off at the end? Hope it's not the same result...
How so? Was just the same switch to a 4-4-2 diamond they've done in every match as they chase a goal (or two, or three, or four).
I thought Dura and Smith were excellent at the back, Doyle good, Thomas excellent, from chasing runners right to our own line to creating chances for the strikers, Rojas best game for AWs for a long time, Wood did well, but seems to need that extra second of time/space.
Score line was a bit flattering to them, think Doyle played a lot better than Wynne, he really looks like a park player.
Dont know why Roux didnt play, Ingham isnt ready, dont know how Mac started over Bill, he really offers little.
Marinovic was impressive (probably cemented the number 1 now), Smith was great (some impressive blocks), Boxall was decent, Thomas by far our best footballer, the only player that could truly compete with them. Wood is one of our only quality players, but was big ask for him against world class defence.
Durante is past it now and never want to see him in a international shirt again. Rojas was disappointing for me, a lot of potential but nevers seems to show up, same to Kosta.
Lewis was impressive and expect him to play higher soon.
World cup will be a massive ask against a south american team, the only hope we have is Reid being back (we really miss his quality).
Overall I was pretty happy with the tournament - i think the 4 - 0 scoreline was a little harsh to be fair.
I think both Marinovich and Thomas did themselves no harm in terms of getting noticed, but outside of that I don't think anyone else will have their door smashed down.
Hopefully something comes for Lewis as well.
We played some pretty good football at times over the last two games, and if we can learn to compete for a little bit longer and keep our levels up we have a chance for the qualifiers. We created meaningful chances against the European Champions, a few WEEKS ago that would have been dream material.
So I think Hudson deserves our support.
Fixed
A heartening display I think. Some positional sorting out to occur from now to the qualifiers (left back, another midfielder, another striker).
Lets go All Whites!
Watched the game in a North London pub. 'Portugal playing Russia innit' No mate, New Zealand. 'You're joking. They're playing alright.'
Yeah.
Not bad for 8th in the world v 95th. Not bad at all. So where have we been these last few years?