All Whites vs Solomon Islands | Fri 1 Sept | 7:30pm | QBE Stadium

The first 15 were rusty but thought the shape was good with and without the ball. 

The speed of pass was good in transition but to be fair thy were under no pressure so don't expect to see that again. 

Agree with the comments on Patterson his movement off the ball was improved. It man he puts his head down and ignores the ins of others. How many times did Roux go for the overlap and not get it back. Ball is faster than the man Monty.

Roux started averagely but I though really came good. His runs are good and he is good in the tackle. Offers so much more than the other wing backs. But yes early crossing was poor.

That game demonstrated why Wee Mac needs to play higher up the pitch- we need him closer to thomas  and wood with the ball. He doesn't have the range of passing playing as a def midfield. So seeing musa do well was good. I like his athleticism and think that could really help against the more skilful teams.

anyway - I am really looking forward to October and November. 

Musa looked very good and played some telling balls as players made forward runs. Is clearly and athlete and seems to get to the ball first quite comfortably...

If he proves to be the DM we have been missing, then we will be a lot stronger moving forward as a team. With a fully fit squad there are going to be some really interesting calls to be made.

I think our top back 3 is easy enough to pick, Reid / Smith and Boxall but outside of that there is really healthy comp for the other roles...

RB: Roux / Ingham / Colvey

LB: Wynn / Doyle / Colvey

DM /DLP: Themi / Musa / Tuiloma / McG / Thomas / Hudson Wihongi

AM: Lewis / McG / Thomas / Rojas

WP: Boyd / Rojas / Thomas / Barbs 

ST: Wood / Myer / Brockie / Boyd

And if any of the younger NZ boys start to shine... it can only get better.

I think its fair to say that this is the deepest AWs team in quite a while. Light on proper CMs and the quality of some of the wing backs is questionable but the future is definitely bright in terms of the talent available.

How was there apparently 10,000 pre sold tickets to this game and only 230 people purchased tickets at the gate?

FIFA World Cup 2018 Qualifiers – OFC (Final, Second Leg) 5 September 2017 Solomon Islands – New Zealand Referee: Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (QAT, photo) Assistant Referee 1: Taleb Al-Marri (QAT) Assistant Referee 2: Saoud Al-Maqaleh (QAT) Fourth Official: Khamis Al-Kuwari (QAT) He is gonna love the Solomons. At least he will be used to the heat.

Hopefully better than the standard Oceania refs. Father seems to think they've got a campaign going against us

So with no Wood and Thomas who are we starting on Tuesday???

Wouldn't expect to see Boxall or McGlinchey either, so maybe this:

                Marinovic

       Brotherton Dura Themi

Colvey                          Doyle

               Musa    Dyer

                    Rufer 

         Bevan        Patterson

Before game: "WHY can't we rack up a decent score against a fifth rate Islands side?"

After: "WHY were the Solomons so poor?"

The lengths some people will go to to avoid being pleased about an AWs result...

I imagine NZF were bigging up 9,001 into 'nearly 10,000'

Hi Jerzy,


Quite possible nothing produced on a timely basis because of the game finishing at 9.30pm, and needing to be at the airport for a 4am check-in on Saturday to get the first of two flights to Honiara.


However, it's now Sunday night, and there's still no mention of the game on that site. Read into that what you will.



Cheers,

JR

Didn't Musa say he did his own application with no help from NZ football?

Hope he applied for the right thing and ticked the right box 

That isn't the actual OFC website?

That is a fan site, OFC's webby is https://www.oceaniafootball.com/

Marinovic - colvey brotherton durante tzimipoulos doyle rufer musa dyer bevan patterson. Leaves just moss sail roux wynne barbarouses who could come on. Stupid not to replace wood and thomas and even consider playing boxall and mcglinchey even off the bench. Yes we wont lose but send these guys back to their clubs and bring in others

Not much of a campaign given McGlinchey himself admitted that he should have been sent.

Not many goals in that line up I would think...

Any team without Wood is struggling for goals tbh

Based on training today, Doyle a chance to play in a back three, with Themi at DM. Picks itself otherwise really - Patterson battling a cold https://t.co/5jvnfhzoyW

— Andrew Voerman (@andrewvoerman) September 3, 2017

So Dyer is now back ahead of the fatties, oh well, he must be fit I guess.

One advantage of living in Auckland I guess, he was on the bench on Friday.

How far away does Ridenton live??

With Thomas & Wood going home, I think we should be calling up Ridenton and Rogerson even if only to make up the numbers. If we don't want to risk Boxall & McGlinchey getting a yellow, we are gonna struggle to find 3 subs if needed atm.

Agreed.
When NZ lost to Portugal 4-nil we were around 120 places apart in the FIFA rankings. NZ and Solomons are only about 30 places apart but we beat them by 5. I think thats a bloody good result.

Fifa rankings tho....bit murky.

Wood and Thomas sent home as well....how the hell did they get fat in less than a week???? LOL

There's a good all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Albany

You've got to admit they were pathetically bad.  

Enzo kindly solicited my thoughts about the near-debacle in the WN zone.

Excellent article

No wonder there isn't a pro team in Auckland, but yes the real fault is with the promoters NZF not telling the security people and customers what an active zone means after they advertised it.

So amateur from NZF.  What about putting the "active fans" (hate that term) behind the goals?

We had always tried to be in the main stand because a roof amplifies the noise you are making.

I *think* most the problems occurred because there was only one stand for sale and it was pretty much at capacity. So when late sales and gate sales rolled in, they were getting allocated in WNZ without any thought.

Anyway, I've been in email contact with NZF, QBE and the company running the event as part of their debriefing. NZF sound very keen to find out how it happened so we can hopefully work out how to prevent it next time. That's positive. 

And NZF have always wanted us to be in the TV arc. There was a time where they had up near halfway. 

I think the big losers on Friday night were the rest of us who didn't get to hear your chants because the noise wasn't carrying from the far side at all.

Hey, one of the dudes who threatened us in the Zone is justifying himself in the blog comments, and gloating that he stole our WE'VE GOT WOOD banner.

But more seriously: what needs to happen is a clear explanation of what active support means and what you're letting yourself in for when you buy a ticket in The Zone. Possibly putting the information on fliers on chairs, on signs, on a video on the big screen, whatever it takes to get the message through to every single person (because it only takes one boofhead to start a fight).

in all seriousness can you feedback to them the following also (if you agree of course):

When scheduling a game on a Friday night at North Harbour Stadium you have to accept that people may turn up between 7pm and 7:30pm to get entry into the ground - when you only have two gates open that creates massive lines it's really frustrating.

I get that if it was a Saturday 3pm game for example people could just turn earlier to mitigate the issue but not possible on a Friday.

To rub salt into the wounds there were these guys at each gate with these stupid tinny PA systems trying to give helpful information that you couldn't even understand - at gate H the guy started getting in an argument with someone as well, I guess NZF kind of created some entertainment for us who were waiting in the queue.

I also feel for you guys getting shifted - we were at the top of bay 2 so saw you guys moving out which sucks, good on ya for trying to mitigate it for next time.