All Whites vs Portugal, Confederations Cup | Sun 25 June | 3am | St Petersburg | SS4

I can see why Hudson stuck with Dane Ingham, he obviously sees him as our right back for years to come. But to not give an minutes to Themi or Roux just seems odd. Also, Wee Mac should never have started ahead of Tuiloma, other than this I think we acquitted ourselves pretty damned well. We seem to have a couple of near-world-class players (Reid when fit, Thomas) and a few more that are solid international players (Wood, Marinovic, Smith, Rojas, and increasingly Lewis, who was the surprise of the tournament for me. Big Ups to him.

What's next? Well I'm thinking Durante, Smeltz, Moss and maybe Themi (who must be a bit peeved) will retire from the AWs once our WC2018 campaign comes to an end. So we'll have gaps to fill. But not too many. Things are looking pretty promising.

I'm so hacked off Roux didn't not feature at all, he is our best right back. How did Hudson not learn that Ingham can not cope at this level yet.

"All game", as in the 25 minutes he played after being subbed on...

Hope that one or two of the keeper, Thomas and Lewis can get a deal at a bigger club from that tournament.

Lewis will probably end up at Gillingham

Are they League 1 or Championship?

It will be interesting to see how he develops in a pro environment. Although ACFC is pretty close, it will be a step up in intensity and quality of training.

league 1 which I think may be a good standard for him 

I know I will get endless hate for this post but whatever... Dane Ingham was the biggest find of this tournament for me. Potential to be one of our best players alongside Thomas. I am super excited by this kid.

Not hate but disappointment. The boy might have potential but he needs to step up and be counted.

He did a perfectly fine job at what he did, given his experience (or lack of).

He'll be good (if not great) for us in future, but he clearly wasn't ready for the big time at this tournament. That's not his fault at all, that's all on Hudson.

Alternative reading is we only played 1 good half of football

Have you ever poured a drink over halfway James?

Yet another Hudson weird decision. Throw 'em in at the deep end and watch them drown.

It especially doesn't make sense when you look at him subbing Smeltzy on late in the game at the other end. Veterans fine as strikers, but lets put a youngster on in defence.

I'm very worried about our defence, although I guess we have Reid to come back.  I'm also not convinced by the 3-5-2 either because the wing backs all had some good moments and some very bad moments.  I dunno, the Russia game was bad, first half Mexico was brilliant but we were completely overwhelmed in the second half even though we could have snatched a draw and the Portugal game was as you'd expect.  I didn't see anything that made me think a marked improvement had taken place.  Lots of spirit and more chances created than in recent games against the Island team but isn't that reasonable to expect with Wood, Marco, Thomas etc in the team?  I think this side is probably 2 -3 years away but could be very strong by then IF we can find a central midfielder.

I still think that there's significant questions to be asked about Hudson's decisions. Roux and Themi never getting a shot, playing a formation which has no natural role for some of our best players, leaving Gleeson out. We improved and played better after the 2 friendlies and the Russia game, but why didn't we try to play more proactive football earlier? 

I think this tournament was a pass mark for mine but no more. I still have questions about our performances in pretty much every friendly under Hudson bar USA, Mexico, and maybe South Korea IIRC, and our performances in the OFCNC. 

I suspect at this point that Hudson will try to stick around after the WCQs because he wouldn't get an equivalent job anywhere else. I worry about that.

Roux definitely should have had a shot. Colvey was woeful in the first game. Ingham showed promise against Mexico and at times against Portugal but in those two games there were 4 times he was beaten that directly led to goals. Will be good I think, but to much out of his depth at the moment.

Hudson has put a lot of faith in youngsters who quite frankly aren't up to it and i don't think he's up to it either.He discarded or just didn't want to no about players who would be in there prime now.He's picked Defenders that at this level that are just far to slow wing backs that can't defend they actually encourage the opposition to cross the ball, but the one on one defending is at best average. The midfield apart from Lewis give the ball away cheaply.Reid will make a big difference but will he even come back to play the Solomons who we should  still beat but against Argentina god help us. 

I think we got about as much as we can expect from Thomas (and Rojas). He contributed defensively by tracking back and was pretty effective. I don't think all formations would enable this to happen so I give credit to Hudson for that. He is still emerging as a player so exactly what he is capable of is still conjecture.  

Ran out of time writing my last comment.

Thomas was very exciting and I think you could see through the course of the three games what Antony was trying to achieve, with the personal and choosen formation, in midfield.

Completely agree; but I still think he was thrown to the sharks by Hudson and he was lucky his confidence wasn't completely ruined by Portugal.

In saying that, it shows he has a good head on his shoulders to come back pretty decently after that Mexico performance.

I think he was one of the reasons we played better. 

The space in behind him could be covered by McG and the 3 central defenders, but the fact that we could attack down both flanks with him on made it much more possible for our game to succeed than it did with Colvey. 

Roux- well who knows? His CCM team were average this season. 

I personally didn't think Ingham was the worst considering.

Themi not playing was...interesting considering he was playing DM in a much better competition than ours and has scored some long range rockets this seaon. I can see that Hudson wants ball players, but I would have thought Themi should have been in the mix. Is he still affected by injury? Hudson has hardly played him.

Sorry but he defended very poorly. Currently he is just not up to it.

Is it the defender or the set up or the quality of opposition.

Marco is a star in the A League, but just an average international footballer... none of our wing backs are use to playing that standard of player and I don't think anyone of them would have shone to be fair.

That may be true, but surely the guy who has been a regular starter in senior football for 2 or 3 years is better than the kid who has had 5 games full stop.

Marco has been played out of position a lot though, and I think always looks much better when put out wide and given a license to run at defenders

Agreed, but still an average international player. What top side would he make in Europe?

That's an unfair benchmark. There's only been a handful of kiwis ever who might have made a decent European side - Rufer, Nelsen, Reid...? He's better than average for a kiwi, for OFC, and for most Asian, North American or African sides. He's obviously one of our best players but he hasn't been being used properly.

Surley Hudson can give Botherton a go against the soloman Islands to see where he is at. 

Rojas is one of the best technical players NZ have produced: the best " touch " player since Mike McGarry IMO. However, at international level he's been extremely disappointing, and I don't believe it's because of being handled incorrectly. NZ have just played three big games and what has he contributed? A  couple of jinks and dribbles, usually ending in lost possession; never any sort of end product i.e. a goal attempt or something close to it. He's got 34 caps but still plays like a kid: he reminds me of Shane Warne's comment about Monty Panesar; "Monty Panesar hasn't played 33 tests, he's played 1 test 33 times".

Rojas still plays like a greenhorn with great skill but no game knowledge: people always trot out the defence of skilled players being out of position, misused & misunderstood by their coach. Sometimes it's true. With Rojas I don't buy it...
 

But of course he looks lost when he's playing a role he has zero experience of at professional level. Especially as he is not really physically suited to the role our mids have to do as well. He has had moments of class when we have played him as a winger and played a style of football where he can utilise his strengths, it just hardly ever happens. 

What???? Why???? This reads like a 'lets give him a go' for the sake of giving him a go. Why not give Appiah a go as well since he holds a Kiwi passport.

Why would you when you have Reid, Smith, Boxall, Themi and Durante ahead of him. Not on the radar, not even close.
 

Yeah that's not what World Cup qualifiers are for.