Result vs Wales.
Result vs Wales.
This deserves its own thread. In short, a fantastic performance.
Grit, guts and no small measure of skill, and it's been a while
since I could say that.
Hopefully what is has done is ended a few international
careers of players that should be put out to pasture anyhow. I'm
talking about Danny Hay, maybe Simon Elliott, Ivan Vicelich, what
have we really ever done with these guys in the side anyhow? Age is
against them all, and now the incumbents surely can't be
discarded.
Shane Smeltz proved me (and others, I think it's fair to say)
with an outstanding performance. Surely he'll get himself a league
contract after that. Andy Boyens was phenomenal and Tim Brown
sublime. In fact, this is what I thought of the
performances.
MARK PASTON - Outstanding. Only one rush of blood keeps him
from scoring a ten. 8.
JAMES PRITCHETT - Probably played his was out of a starting
place at least. Poor distribution and decision making. 4.
TONY LOCHHEAD - Solid up against a couple of Europe's
outstanding players. 7.
ANDY BOYENS - Amazing performaance. Won nearly everything in
the air, good distribution and looks a natural leader. 10.
BEN SIGMUND - Stepped up bigtime. Looked very comfortable
alongside Boyens. Occasionally caught out by pace. 7.
DUNCAN OUGHTON - Solid, did most that was asked of him
efficiently. went forward well on occasion. 8.
JEREMY CHRISTIE - Who? Was he on the pitch? Played out of
position on the right and with our poorest player in behind him, so
don't write him off but was anonymous last night. 5.
TIM BROWN - Should stay as captain. Good distribution, dropped
deep to help out, the heart of the team 10.
LEO BERTOS - Outstanding performances. Creative, willing to
get on the ball. Surprised to see him go off when he did. 8.
CHRIS JAMES - Great on the ball, would like to see him do a
bit motre in the final third, taking players on. Barry Horne's
comment on him lacking a bit of pace over distance is astute.
7.
SHANE SMELTZ - Where did that performance come from? Could
have won it and deserves the accolades and a contract. Great
finishing and is making Halifax look stupid for letting him go.
9.
In short, imagine Killen in for (or up front with) Smeltz,
Nelsen in for Sigmund (unlucky) and Mulligan in at right half with
Christie moving to right-back. All of a sudden things are looking a
whole lot brighter.
Also, did anyone also think that the whole side looked a lot more
"together" than in recent times? Perhaps a few of the disprutive
influences were missing this time?
I agree re Christie, i was surprised when i saw he was being
substitued as i didn't know he was on the pitch (i tuned in about
90 secs after kick off, and missed the lineups).
I think 10 from Brown is way off, a decent game. My players of
the match were Boyens, Smeltz, Sigmund, Bertos (esp 1st half), and
was quite impressed with Oughton, i thought he was gutsy and played
with passion in the midfield.
Agree or dis these...
Paston 7 A couple of brilliant saves, and only one stuff up -
coming 30 metres out and missing it. I wsih someojne would tell him
not to screw up his face every time he watches his goal kicks
though
Pritchett 6 Did really well going forward or chasing back, but
a few passes astray and gave too much room to Bellamy a couple of
times
Boyens 9 Bloody strong
Sigmund 8 Gave it everything, defended well
Lochead 7 Pretty sound, didn't get forward as effectively as I
thought he could
Christie 5 Didn't seem very involved, prob not his own
fault
Oughten 8 Very impressive, awesome run into the box for the
first goal. I thought... who the hell is that?
Brown 7 Solid, competed and passed well
Bertos 8 Classy
James 8 Confident on the ball
Smeltz 9 Two great goals and dead unlucky with the
poster
Barron 5 Did he touch the ball?
Campbell 5 Likewise
Team effort 10 Bloody amazing.
Compare well to my analysis in the "result vs Wales" thread, only
I've been a little more generous with most (and a little less so
with Pritchett). I really did think that Tim Brown was superb, up
there with Boyens in my eyes.
7 paston
4 pritchett
8 sigmund
9 boyens
6 lochhead
4 christie
8 brown
8 oughton
8 bertos
7 james
8 smeltz
Also, did anyone also think that the whole side looked a lot more
"together" than in recent times? Perhaps a few of the disprutive
influences were missing this time?
They did look much more together and they played like a team. It was great to see.
The All Whites had a great game and I am proud to be one of their fans. Boyens and Ziggy had real corkers at the back, especially Boyens when he stopped a certain goal from Bellamy after a through ball from Giggs and after Paston blundered out of the box he managed to clear the ball out for a corner. Paston had quite a good game as did Bertos and Brown. I hope Smeltz can pick up a good contract, I couldn't believe it when he scored in the second minute and I thought I was dreaming when he scored his second.
So close with Bertos's cross/shot and Smeltz hitting the woodwork.
[QUOTE=Oi Oi Edgecumbe] I wsih someojne would tell him not to screw up his face every time he�watches his goal kicks though
I was thinking about that, why does he always screw up his face after he takes a goalkick? Does he have some injury or something?
Just goes to show Ricki learns fast - remember the 3 man defence
just recently including Hay & Bunce? You'll never see
that again under his direction. The game is all about pace which is
why Hay, Bunce & the ilk would never have been signed by the
Nix.
As for the team unity on the park, it makes a huge difference
if the defenders can at least stay in touch with the opposition
strikers to put them under pressure without the midfield having to
bail them out all the time. The whole game flow stems from
that.
Go you good (fast) things!
OI OI! You in a generous mood giving plodder a 5. I'd have given
him 1 for walking on the pitch and a couple because...ah, well for
no reason really. Mr Anonymous of the game he was. I'm not sure
what, if anything he added to the game. It did seem to me like we
were actually playing with 10 men against 11 at times, so in that
respect we really did achieve a decent result:-p
And yeah what is with Patsie Paston screwing his face up. He
did it not only with goalkicks but with his punts up the field.
Maybe we should nickname him THE GURNER.
Well Plodder apparently had a good hand in the first goal, so I
read on a report somewhere, although I think Oughten made the most
of that opportunity., so I gave Plodder a 5. At least he cleared
the space for Pritchett to run forward quite often, even if he
(Pritch) didn't always know what to do with it when he got there!
We scored twice!!! How the f**k did we manage that!!!
Wales would describe it as "complacency", we'd describe it as good
ol Kiwi "attitude"....
Oh, and what did i say about Christie. Anonymous as per usual.
Youre right again - like the previous comment, did not know he was
on there until he was subbed...
For the moment I'll take a sigh of genuine satisfaction and bask in
the warmth of the afterglow. Yep, it feels good.
When Jeff Campbell is better than Christie... we have a problem
liek always with plodder. Definately NZ most over rated
player, what does Riki see in him. I wish he had got caught
drink driving, not Johnson.
It was great being at the game, sitting with Chris James's
sister and girlfriend
disco_mart2007-05-28 06:36:58
And what did I say about Boyens before the game? Getting better all the time, and glad to see he won nearly everything in the air.
Consequently, Toronto gave up two goals in his absence against
Columbus Crew on saturday, almost as if there was a hole at centre
back...
Bugger missed it! & missed the replay this morning because I
was on here. DOH!
Interesting see sigmund ahead of old in line up.
if ricki rates sig ahead of old in the national lineup why is
it that old has a contract and sigmund doesn't?
Christie was no where, but not really his fault, he's not a
right mids a hole, but he worked hard in stopping attacks down his
flank, so defensively he was ok.
Pritchett is coping a bit, unfairly i think. He worked hard on
Giggs all day and both goals came from pases in from Locheads side
not his. Giggs had to go to the right to get some more time and
space.
Agreed though he doesn't always know what to do with the ball
at feet, made good forward runs then gave it way for some reason...
brain explosion.
Great result, a nelsen boyens cb combo is great news... no
room for Hay... Yay.
Do Wales normally play in white? I thought red was their home
colour. I think conditions also helped us to perform better than on
the Amercias tour. Maybe playing games in europe and Asia is a
better way forward. Seatter said this morning he would only
organise games in september in europe and only if the best players
were available.
Red with white trim, white shorts, red socks is their current first
kit, yellow with green trim and shorts their normal change kit. So
against us they wore their third kit, which I thought was a bit of
a design mess.
anyone know if the goals have been uploaded to youtube or anything
yet
I think conditions also helped us to perform better than on the
Amercias tour. Maybe playing games in europe and Asia is a better
way forward.
I think the difference is. We play better against European
style teams. Good on the All whites for getting all these games
against SA teams, in the heat, in the SAmericas home ground on a
fast moving surface. But we struggle against the americas, because
they play that attacking style where they like to take players on
with ball at feet. This is something NZ struggle to defend against.
Look at Bellamy in our goal box. No-one could tackle him, I was
just hoping we would at least get a foot in when he shot. Because
we just couldn't get the ball off him.
Yeah i agree we seem better suited to european football maybe we
should join europe instead of asia
I think conditions also helped us to perform better than on the
Amercias tour. Maybe playing games in europe and Asia is a better
way forward.
I think the difference is. We play better against European
style teams. Good on the All whites for getting all these games
against SA teams, in the heat, in the SAmericas home ground on a
fast moving surface. But we struggle against the americas, because
they play that attacking style where they like to take players on
with ball at feet. This is something NZ struggle to defend against.
Look at Bellamy in our goal box. No-one could tackle him, I was
just hoping we would at least get a foot in when he shot. Because
we just couldn't get the ball off him.
I have a couple of small clips on You Tube for anyones interest of
NZ v Wales.
Bit shakey camera work though. Enjoy!
LondonChris2007-05-29 23:22:32
These srories are a bit conflicting.
Giggs saying they will do better against the Czechs
and likely to retire from internationals
lets hope Wales do ok against Czech Republic to make our result
look good