Big credit to Hudson, the staff and players who have done the business so far. Two games, two wins and two clean sheets.
There is no right way to play football, but I have to be completely honest when I say I switched off the game at halftime not because it was already game over, but there was no evidence of anything inspiring exciting out on the pitch.
From the sounds of the second half report Vanuatu were unfortunate to not bag a couple goals, and already showed some glimpses of a "brand" of football they're trying to playing which deserves a lot of credit.
This All Whites team could of won 5-0 (and more) with the ball on the ground, controlling the game with possession, moving Vanuatu around the pitch with 5-6 passes (which on rare glimpses happened and opened them up easily), create more clear cut opportunities and just as importantly conserve energy with the ball in possession.
I am sorry but I firmly believe that while this crash bang approach may work against Fiji, Vanuatu and at OFC Nations Cup, it is awful to watch, doesn't inspire me and isn't sustainable at the next level.
I agree with this - I'm no fan of Anfony, but two wins out of two (both comfortable by the sounds off it - I don't have Sky) and qualification for both the 3rd round of WCQ and the semis of the ONC in the bag. Jobs a good'un.
Just a question about the "crash bang approach" - is playing that way really so bad? I'd prefer the AWs coach to say "we're going to lump it up and get stuck in" rather than "we're going to play out from the back and knock triangles about" as we are never going to play attractive football. It's not in our DNA to play tiki-taka, so why be ashamed of playing hoofball? NZ is, by nature/design, a fairly aggressive country - our main two male sports are rugby and league, and that physicality spreads into other sports. Even netball is all elbows and collisions. So why not the AWs?
For as long as I have a clear memory (going back to the mid-80s) our version of playing out from the back is just to knock it around the central defenders, then whack it up for some big cod to get hold off, with any scraps picked up by our midfielders. (the only real clear match I have of this not being the case was vs Italy in the WC, though no doubt someone will correct me......) So as long as we have a coach who is honest about it, and we learn to use that game play as a strength, is it such a big deal?
I mean, all we do now is play that way but we try and fool people by saying that we are trying to play the proper way
(don't get me wrong, I'd love to see us play "ole!" football......I just don't believe we will ever change our basic predisposition to kick the fudge out of it)
There are a number of problems with the crash bang approach.
Firstly it simply doesnt work when you come up with more skillful opponents. Higher quality defenders find it relatively easy to defend against. Even with who we are playing right now 90% of all our long balls are wasted, we basically lose possession. Im not exagerating here, simply count them. Every long aerial ball played forward is needing to be controlled first and then a decision made as to what to do next with the ball. With the improvements in fitness and technique from the last 30 years there is less time to do this when we hit the better quality opposition.
There is a significant difference between playing out from the back and passing the ball with purpose and intent. Its not about playing Ole football, its about moving the ball and in doing so moving opposition players around to create spaces and time to get shots on goal.
Our kids are all learning to play with the ball on the deck, they are all learning how to keep possession, how to move the ball around to create spaces and to look to play forward where possible.
However once they start to hit the senior ranks they are then being asked to do something that they havent been learning to do. Simply madness. Our lives are ruled by habits and long ball football is going against the good habits we are trying to instill in our young players.
I completely disagree with the idea that we cant change from our old methods (the kids are already doing that at junior and youth level). I absolutely disagree with the idea that because we have a strong rugby culture we should follow a more physical approach. Its interesting because one of the great things the AB's do relates to player development and player centered coaching. At the higher levels they employ mental skills coaches such as Gilbert Enoka and have a far more cerebral approach to rugby than we in the football community are either aware of or willing to admit to.
Football has changed significantly since the days of physical power and long ball football were doing well.
I think that our players are actually capable of a better passing game if only they are trusted and given time to practice it. I believe we could have beaten Fiji by a bigger score if we had played more with the ball on the deck.
Unfortunately the results will end up masking future problems against higher quality teams. The long ball approach wont work against them so why practice it now against lesser teams.
The kids are not learning to play with the kick the fudge out of it approach so its simply idiotic to then make them change to that at senior level.
At every FIFA WC tournament we go to at age group and senior level, both men and women the FIFA technical committee produce technical and tactical analysis of every team competing. Not once in the 20 years FIFA have been doing this have FIFA ever made a mention of our technical capability or of individual players. They mention every time that we work hard and are organised. We never progress to later stages of these tournaments however every single side that does progress has a mention in these technical reports of players technique, skill and individual star performances.
Long ball crash and bang hasnt worked internationally for a very long time. Its a shame we are too stupid to work this out and change at senior level. The kids show we can do it if you ever have a look at how they play when young sides go to Europe to take play. There are WYNRs and other clubs u15's, U13's, U12's teams which are getting results against English club academy sides. We can change at senior level, we could play a passing game if the players were allowed to.
Its simply moronic.
