It's time to write my final post on the All Whites performance in the 2010 world cup. I like all New Zealanders am very proud of our boys they exceeded all expectations and truly established New Zealand on the footballing map. We left undefeated but we didn't qualify for the round of 16 which is a mild disappointment considering how close we came. 

It's important for us to realise the magnitude of this achievement. If we'd made the round of 16 it would without doubt have been New Zealand's greatest sporting achievement by a long margin.

I think it’s still on a par with our best of Peter Snell, Rugby World Cup 87 and a few others but we can’t call it the best without progressing.  That said for a team most people thought would be lucky to score a goal to draw with Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay is absolutely amazing. We certainly made fools out of many sports writers and broadcasters.

We're now in a strong position when it comes to FIFA reorganising the qualifying route to the 2014 tournament. I would love to see the Oceania confederation disbanded and the teams integrated into the Asian confederation (which proved itself to be a lot stronger than everyone thought). Unfortunately I don't think this will happen so I believe the best option is for the winner of the Oceania qualifying to be entered directly into the final round of Asian qualifying this will at least give us a lot more competitive matches between world cups even if it makes our qualifying route more difficult. I'm also sure Asia will support this as it will gain half a qualifying place by only adding 1 competitive team. 

Our fans also proved ourselves to be as good as if not better than any others in the world. By the time the Italy game came around everyone knew the songs and we certainly weren’t shy about singing them. We showed how loud a New Zealand crowd can be with only 2000 people imagine what we could do at the rugby world cup with 50 000+ singing instead of just politely clapping and occasionally saying All Blacks. Come on guys we’ve proved we can do it for football let’s do it for rugby as well.

We also had very little fan trouble (outside of an ugly incident when a few of our largered up fans refused to leave the Polokwane stadium and got hit a couple of times with batons – trust me they deserved it.) Otherwise we were great and many South Africans and fans of other countries commented to me on how impressed they were with both our passion and behaviour. Again great work guys.

Right onto our player review, when I give a player a rating out of 10 it is in terms of their performance for New Zealand not compared to the superstars of the world cup although Paston and Nelsen’s ratings would probably remain the same if it was.

Strikers:

Chris Killen: 6/10 didn’t score or even look like scoring at the tournament which is disappointing for a guy of his ability. However he tracked back and work tirelessly in defence as an auxiliary winger so is still worthy of our praise for a good tournament.

Rory Fallon: 6/10 unfortunately he was hampered by the referee’s rulings when contesting long balls, he was called for more fouls than any other player in the entire world cup in the group stages. Cannavaro’s diving when we played Italy cost him the chance to have a great game, he looked stronger than the Italian defence but didn’t get to show it. He does have a great song and was probably the All White most grateful for the fan support.

Shane Smeltz: 7.5/10 He’s a classic goal thief and when his chance came against Italy he took if perfectly, otherwise he worked tirelessly in defence and making runs behind the opposition back line. Unfortunately we didn’t have the possession or creative midfielder to give him more chances. He’s been linked to Fulham recently and I’d like to see him go just to find out if he does have the ability to score regularly at a high level.

Chris Wood: 6/10 Showed he has serious talent but failed to capitalise on his chance against Italy when he could have won the match and sent us through to the round of 16. Only used as a sub but will certainly be a starter in the next few years and could be the striker we need to push this team to the next level.

Midfield

Tony Lochhead: 5/10 he only brings one thing to the table – a left foot. He tried hard in every match but just about every winger he marked made mince meat of him. He gets a passing grade due to his pin point cross for Winston Reid’s equaliser against Slovakia.

Simon Elliott: 8/10 defended well and played some very good balls forward as well as taking some good dead balls including the free kick which led to Smeltz’s goal against Italy. I didn’t rate him before the tournament I certainly do now.

Ivan Vicelich: 7/10 Defended well in midfield but he gave the ball away far too much. That said he did much better than either McGlinchey or Christie would have. He’s a tough tackler and provided the steel our midfield was missing without Tim Brown. He was unlucky to see his first time shot sail over the bar against Italy.

Leo Bertos: 6/10 I almost forgot to include him which may be a sign of the way he played. Defended reasonably well but didn’t offer anything in attack which was disappointing as we all know he can cross a ball. Still this was probably because he was pinned back into a right fullback role for the majority of the tournament.

Defenders

Tommy Smith: 9/10 A superb performance from a young man with an awful lot of talent. He may be English but I’m sure there isn’t a kiwi on the planet who wouldn’t welcome him into our country. Never did I see him caught out of position and he dealt with the threats of Hamsik and Weiss exceptionally well against Slovakia. Against Italy he was busy with crosses coming in from the left and knocked them away with ease. Hopefully a premier league club will pick him up and his football education will continue and he can be at the heart of our defence for the next 15 years.

Sir Ryan Nelsen: 10/10 Well what can I say that hasn’t already been said? Strong, a very tough tackler, brilliant at organising our defence, great in the air and an incredibly nice and humble man on top of it all. He was absolutely exceptional at the world cup now the whole country realises he’s out best sportsman. He deservedly won player of the week for the second week of the tournament and has cemented his place in New Zealand sporting folk law. There have been rumours circulating that he will now retire from international football. No one could blame him for doing so but I’m hoping New Zealand football will speak to him and ask him to play at least the play off for the next world cup and the tournament itself should we qualify. In my opinion he has overtaken Winton Rufer as our greatest footballer ever. My player of the tournament for the All Whites.

Winston Reid: 9/10 A great performance from a young man who only decided to play for us less than three months before the world cup. He has all the tools to become a world class centre half and scored a great goal to level things with Slovakia. I just hope he makes the right decision about which club to go to now. There have been rumours from a few Seria A clubs as well as both Arsenal and Blackburn. I’m hoping he chooses Arsenal (for obvious reasons) but I wouldn’t mind him going to Seria A either option would allow him to develop into a ball playing world class defender where as at Blackburn he probably won’t get this opportunity.

Goal Keeper:

Mark Paston: 10/10 He made me nervous against Slovakia by hesitating when collecting crosses but turned it around completely against both Italy and Paraguay with some spectacular saves. He also commanded his box well and dealt with crosses easily in the final two games. He’s been Linked with a move to England but I question whether he could keep up this form for a 38 game league campaign hopefully I’m wrong and he’ll become a top class keeper 28 is certainly very young for a keeper and he probably has another 10 years of football left if he looks after himself.

Manager

Sir Ricky Herbert: 9/10 Got our tactics, formation and team selection dead right for the most part and showed himself to be an inspirational manager. He misses out on a perfect 10 as I feel he should have gone for the winner sooner against Paragauy we probably would have lost but it was worth a try as he knew we had to win when Slovakia went up 2-0 against Italy.

Best Moment: Winston Reid’s equaliser against Slovakia, the crowd absolutely exploded with joy as we knew we had to get something out of that game. Great feeling and it set up the rest of the tournament for us.

Best Performance: The Italian game, in an absolutely electric stadium in Nelspruit our team stepped up and produced the greatest result in the history of New Zealand football. We could have even won the match despite Italy completely dominating possession and making all the chances.

Best Song: Several candidates but my favourite in the end was:

He’s Big

He’s Bad

He’s Better than his Dad

Rory Fallon

Rory Fallon

Biggest Annoyance: The vuvuzela’s, initially I supported the use of these as part of South Africa’s culture but in the end I realised by allowing these the other 31 countries culture and songs gets blocked out. Besides it’s not like it’s a traditional African instrument it’s a bloody plastic trumpet!

South Africa Verdict: A fantastic country and great place to visit even without the football. There is so much to see and do. Safety concerns are non-existent and Johannesburg is no more dangerous than any other big city. It’s a real shame a lot of people were put off travelling because of media hype about security and the danger of the place.

Biggest Concern: With football on an all time high in New Zealand we won’t have another competitive match that we could be troubled in for three and a half years. Hopefully New Zealand football will organise some good  friendlies and soon as there isn’t a stadium big enough in New Zealand to hold the fans at the moment.

So that’s it from me on this world cup, I had a great time writing the blog and will be starting both A-League and premier league blogs in the upcoming months. I’ll also rename this one All Whites blog before our next international and continue to write about our heroes. I’ll post some photos and videos in the next few days so keep an eye out.

 

See you in Rio.

Well our brave heroes exited the world cup on Thursday after a valiant performance against Paraguay. We can still all be incredibly proud of an amazing performance against the odds. We showed what we're capable of and that we won't be pushed around by anyone. Be proud New Zealand, be very proud.

For a couple of reasons I'm not going to go too deeply into match analysis for this one. The first is I spent the entire 90 minutes screaming at the top of my lungs helping an incredibly pumped New Zealand section of the crowd make as much noise as possible. The second being not a lot exciting happened in the match.

As I expected before the game it was a dour 0-0 draw. Paraguay simply couldn't risk the All Whites scoring a goal as with 4 points they'd have been in trouble had Italy won. So they set out accordingly and unfortunately we simply don't have a creative player good enough to unlock a determined defence at this level.

Paraguay had also learned the lessons from our previous two games where both Italy and Slovakia made the mistakes of giving us set piece opportunities where we are as dangerous as almost anyone in the tournament due to our height in the box. 

Unfortunately they also realised that our back three will laugh at an aerial bombardment and as they are so good technically they could try and move us around and score that way. 

While Paraguay dominated possession (always going to happen until we get some midfielders who are better technically) and out shot the All Whites 17 to 3 I was never really worried about them scoring. Mark Paston was in sparkling form between the sticks again and our rock solid back three performed superbly as they have all tournament.

We had one good chance in the match it fell to Simon Elliott who has played well all tournament but unfortunately he sent his shot just wide of the post. It was the chance we had to take to top our group. We didn't and so went out proudly.

The match then crawled to a stale mate and when the final whistle went I was left devastated but also the proudest I've ever been to be a kiwi. The players again stayed around to thank the fans and we could all see they were genuinely upset not to have achieved the unthinkable and got us out of our group.

There were a few other things that got my attention on an amazing day. The first was when I was walking into the stadium with an army of New Zealand fans around me a group of South African school children started singing the Maori version of our national anthem and nailed both that and the English version with no accompaniment other than the voices of Sir Ricky Herbert's All White army. Incredible moment and it was great to see all the neutrals behind us.

At the game our fans were absolutely fantastic. I appear to have been given the unofficial cheer leader role (which I've revealed in) but when ever I started a song or chant I had 2000 people singing along with me. Truly amazing atmosphere and we all showed what we are capable of as fans. There's no need to be quiet and reserved at a sporting event none of us felt stupid for supporting our team to the end. Our rugby crowds could certainly learn a lot from our football ones.

I must also make mention of the excellent Paraguay fans they were friendly approachable and came and spoke to us offering their condolences at the end of the game. I even managed to swap shirts with one which is a souvenir I'll cherish for the rest of my life.

It was such a pleasant change from the terrible Italian fans who were rude, arrogant and bordering on violent after the last game. I couldn't be happier that they were so embarrassingly knocked out finishing last in the group below our heroes. It is also just desserts after all of their diving antics in the last game. May I just say from every New Zealander, Slovakian and Paraguayan HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Man Of the Match (excluding Sir Ryan Nelsen): Winston Reid, what a talent this boy is, he did everything right again and may one day be a world class defender. I questioned whether he should go to the world cup in my second blog. Thank heavens Sir Ricky Herbert convinced him to play for us let's hope the Arsenal rumors are true. Honourable mentions to Mark Paston, Simon Elliott and Tommy Smith.

I'll write a final world cup review next week. Please join my facebook group the link is on the right.

Apologies that this blog is so late I was hoping to write one every two days while over here but I've just been incredibly busy with Safari/Cape Town/World's Highest bungee/ traveling to games/ severe hangovers. It's not like much has happened in the last week anyway is it?

I'll quickly brush over the Slovakia game first. My analysis of the games won't be as complete as when I'm watching them on TV as you don't get to see replays at FIFA grounds because they can cause riots apparently. Also I spend the majority of my time screaming at the top of my lungs and drinking beer!

We certainly held our own against the Slovaks and controlled a lot more of the ball than I expected we would our midfield looked good although they didn't create a lot. At the back they weren't worrying us at all until they scored a goal I am reliably told was offside. Absolutely devastating moment as I just couldn't see them scoring until that point.

The All Whites fans took a few minutes to get going after that but we were soon back fully behind our team. All looked lost up until the 93rd minute then a man who is fast becoming my personal hero, Winston Reid got on the end of a good corner and tied the scores. Cue scenes of pandemonium in the stadium. I along with every kiwi in the ground threw my beer into the air creating a beer shower for all around us. I then cut open my knee diving over a seat to hug a stranger. We stayed an hour after the game singing - I imagine it was a great feeling for the All Whites to see fans so passionately behind their team. We had the point I so desperately wanted to give us hope for the whole tournament.

My man of the match (excluding Ryan Nelsen) was Tommy Smith, Slovakia got nothing down that side of the park and he dealt superbly with any ball played near him. Just a thought opposition if you want to score against the All Whites don't cross the ball our  back line is enormous. The player I said had to do better was Mark Paston he flapped at a number of crosses and was almost caught out a few times. Would he be our weak link against Italy?

I then went on safari for 3 days which was great, I had 4 Italians in my tour who stated they felt sorry for New Zealand to have to play the Italians. Arriving in Nelspruit I was immediately impressed the stadium looked awesome and the city has un unbelievable setting in the mountains just outside the border of Kruger Park.

In my first blog i wrote 'Not in a million years can I see New Zealand getting anything against Italy.'  On the way to the stadium I was dreaming of the impossible while still not giving us any chance at all. We arrived to see the locals were going for Italy which made a change from the first game but I soon found the All Whites fans and man did we make ourselves heard outside the stadium. With a few new songs invented on the spot and our old classics drowning out the Italians it was great to see. This continued through-out the entire game something I never thought a kiwi crowd would be capable of but we all proved me wrong. A huge thank you to the boys 4 rows in front of me who sung every song I started with me.

The game started as I expected with New Zealand being pushed back into a 5-4-1 with Italy controlling the tempo. In the 7th minute things went wild. When a cross fell invitingly for a probably offside Shane Smeltz he buried it. I lost it completely along with all the other kiwis in the stadium. The Argentinian bloke next to me complained about getting drenched in beer so I told him to go watch it in the pub. Let people be passionate, in a moment like that you can hardly blame the kiwi's for getting a bit too excited.

Italy then really started to dominate the match without causing us a lot of problems. Strangely they decided the best way to break us down was with crosses, Smith, Reid and Nelsen must have looked to each other and said 'This is good keep it up boys' as they headed each cross away comfortably.

In the 29th minute disaster struck with a very suspect penalty being given. That said if you touch an Italian in the box (or anywhere else on the field for that matter) he's going to fall over. So maybe Tommy Smith's inexperience got the better of him and unfortunately the ref pointed to the spot. Iaquinta calmly slotted home, and for the rest of the half Italy continued to dominate without scoring the go ahead goal.

It was so frustrating to watch the Italians throw themselves to the ground at every opportunity, you're supposed to be one of the best teams in the world playing New Zealand surely you don't need to cheat. Fabio Cannavaro was the worst offender, he's one of the 5 best defenders of all time but as soon as he got Rory Fallon a yellow card he threw himself to the ground to try get Fallon the second yellow. The referee and the Italians sitting around me had to deal with me screaming abuse about this for the rest of the game. They deserved it, if their own fans complained about their team diving we wouldn't have a problem any longer.

I was struggling to believe what I was seeing at half time I spoke to a lot of other kiwis who were all as stunned as I was. We were all starting to believe we could do it.

The second half produced more of the same although Italy were starting to play around our defenders. They had a few great shots but our new national hero Mark Paston made a succession of stunning saves. Chris Wood had a chance to nick all three points late on but flashed his shot across goal. That would have been daylight robbery and I don't think my body could have handled it I simply don't know how I would have reacted.

Then the full time whistle went - I've never seen anything like it all the kiwis in the ground headed over to the eastern side and sung together for what seemed like hours. As the All Whites players who didn't get on held an impromptu training session. Ryan Nelsen, Winston Reid, Sir Ricky Herbert (I'm giving him his deserved title now) and a few others came over to the fans and genuinely looked stunned at the level of support. It was great to see the players are clearly so down to earth and really appreciate the time and money we've all spent to come over and support this team. I didn't even mind John Key jumping on the bandwagon and coming out onto the ground.

Also a huge thank you must go to the large number of Australian fans that are coming to our games and supporting our team. Thanks boys hope you guys can pull off a miracle and get out of your group.

Later that night I almost got into a sticky situation with a group of Italian 'fans' who didn't appreciate me walking into a pub holding a New Zealand flag and singing All Whites songs. Thankfully Gareth realised what was on the cards and got us out of there quickly.

The stats for the game are unbelievable. Italy 71% possession New Zealand 29%, Italy 23 shots 5 on target New Zealand 3 with only 1 on target. Italy 15 corners New Zealand 0. Yet we still thoroughly deserved our draw much in the same way as Inter Milan deserved to beat Barcelona in the champions league semi final.

As to where this result ranks in the history of New Zealand sport I'm not totally sure but I can't think of anything bigger or better can you?

The formula to progress to the next round is  now simple. Win and we're in. And who is brave enough to predict the darlings of the entire world cup won't pull it off?

Man of the Match (Excluding Ryan Nelsen): Mark Paston, made a string of unbelievable saves to keep us in it. Honorable mention to Winston Reid, he was awesome at the back and is a superbly talented youngster let's hope a club somewhere is bright enough to sign him and Tommy Smith.

Judging by the negative press South Africa has received before the world cup many of you may well believe the title is accurate. I assure you it isn't, South Africa is probably the most welcoming country I've ever been too.

After 24 hours travel to get here I was expecting quite a stern reception from immigration. Instead I got a huge smile and a joke that we'll not be taking the world cup home it's staying in South Africa. Customs were no trouble either. I then got my first experience of the roads in South Africa, let's just say all of the road rules appear to be optional and I'm not looking forward to my first drive over here.

It was also at this point I saw world cup fever in full effect almost every car has a South African flag on it every building is covered in world cup advertising. When I stopped in central Johannesburg I saw football shirts from every country at the world cup (and some that aren't even here.) There are vuvuzela's being blown on every street corner you can feel the country is ready to explode into an enormous party on Friday with the opening ceremony and Bafana Bafana's (The South African team) first game.

All this said there certainly are areas not to be ventured into at any time day or night - I'll certainly not be walking around Hillbrow any time soon. In terms of the security on houses it reminds me a lot of Los Angeles every house has bars on the doors and windows, most have a huge fence with either spikes or razor wire at the top and no one walks down the street. You simply have to have a car over here as public transport is nonexistent and Taxi's as we know them are very hard to find and expensive.

There is a huge police presence around Johannesburg and after speaking to a Lieutenant in the South African police force they're not expecting too many problems, although I'm sure there will be a few fans getting into sticky situations. He also said Security will be highest for America, Australia, New Zealand and England due to the terrorism concerns, again he thinks it will be a non-issue but it's good to know they're keeping an eye on it.

I also learned the hard way to have my camera on me at all times. When we were heading into Johannesburg to pick up our tickets for the games I saw 4 police cars fly past us and block off an intersection only to watch the Portugal bus drive past with Chritiano Ronaldo standing up front. Still annoyed at myself.

I was delighted to read that Tim Brown is set to rejoin the All Whites squad and resume training. I still believe the Slovakia game will be too soon for him but he should be ready for Italy. This is a huge boost for our squad as he is vital to any success we might hope to have in the tournament.

No one in the media is giving us a chance but we knew this would be the case. We're starting on 0 points just like everyone else.

I'm off to Capetown tonight to celebrate the opening ceremony in style. It's a 14 hour drive so it's going to be a long night although we do have three people to share the driving duties. Hopefully I'll have time to write a preview of our first game early next week. 

Goodbye for now from South Africa.

As I leave for South Africa in 4 days it's time to get my world cup preview published. I'll have a really good look at what we can expect from this All Whites squad, and write some realistic expectations. I'll pick my winner and try to pick a knock out tree (stupid idea I know, it's impossible to predict but still great fun). As this is probably my last post before I leave I'll also write a preview of the All Whites vs Slovenia match. In other words it's going to be a long one!

 

With a great performance out of the way on Sunday football is on an all time high in New Zealand. Expectations for this team are starting to grow - and I'm as guilty as anyone else of this. I'm going to play devil's advocate here and show up some of the negative's in this squad and ironically the damage that performance against Serbia on Sunday morning may have caused.

First of all you can forget about the All Whites sneaking up and taking our group rivals by surprise now. Slovakia, Paraguay will certainly be spending plenty of time pouring over video footage of our previous two games. This scares me because I believe we have one big weakness in this team.

While our 3-4-3 formation has been proven to work (relax I'm not going to write yet another post on our formation) it has one glaring weakness which is a lack of bodies on the flanks. While our front 3 have shown a willingness to track back and help out defending on the wings if we lose possession in attack and the opposition counter quickly it could leave two poor defenders in Lochhead and Bertos having to mark the opposition wingers one on one. Our previous two good performances will have alerted Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay to this flaw.

Our two goals in our warm up matches came from long balls flicked on by one of our strikers for another to finish again I think defences will be more aware of this and perhaps leave an extra man back in defence to cover the on rushing striker (Smeltz vs Serbia, Killen vs Australia.)

They'll be able to do this because they know we have very little creativity coming out of midfield (I don't mean to bag Simon Elliott again he's played very well in our two warm up matches but is not likely to rip through a defence by himself). This is the midfield we have simple as that so we have to learn to work around it and so far we have. I'm just concerned we may have become a bit predictable and will get found out in a serious match.

Friendly matches also throw up crazy results all the time. While I do agree with Ricky Herbert that the Serbia result was the best in the history of New Zealand football they didn't have their top line up out and Australia probably aren't the same team as they were four years ago. So maybe those games aren't as promising as we'd all like to believe they are.

As you may have guessed I don't believe much of what I've just written, I've just taken comments I've seen in negative press in Australia and New Zealand. Spun either by Australian football journalists trying to build up the Australian team or in general rugby followers in New Zealand who are terrified of football getting a foothold with the New Zealand public. They only have to look across the ditch to see how quickly football can take hold and start making a serious impression in the sporting landscape.

Onto the glass half full side of these arguments. First of all the idea of us sneaking up on anyone at the world cup is ridiculous. This is the biggest sporting event in the world there is no way any manager (with the possible exception of Diego Maradonna) will not have watched all of their rivals matches before the tournament.

I am still nervous about getting caught on the flanks but it's a consequence of our formation that has worked well and every formation has it's weaknesses. Ours is a lack of defenders out wide so be it we're stronger defensively through the middle, our strikers all work incredibly hard in defence and our midfield sets up just in front of our back three so it's not as likely to be exposed.

While both our goals in the warm up matches have been created the same way with a long ball forward how exactly do you stop that? Our strikers are all big and as he proved while be marked by Nemanja Vidic on Sunday Rory Fallon is great in the air. Both Winston Reid and Tommy Smith can hit accurate long balls so there will be a steady supply of them for our strikers to get on the end of. Long ball football while not pretty is effective and unless you want to sit back and defend for the entire match they're aren't a lot of ways to stop it. Yes we don't have a lot of creativity in midfield but we've shown we can work around it.

Friendly matches do throw up crazy result and neither of the teams we played had their top sides out. This in itself is true, but it ignores that they were both still very strong sides particularly Serbia who went all out to win in the second half and simply couldn't do it. We also showed we have the ability to hit teams on the break when they try this and with better finishing we could have got another. The Australian squad still hadn't been trimmed to 23 when we played them so they certainly went all out to beat us which I don't think they would have achieved had we not made all those second half subs.

What has been shown through out the world cup warm up matches program is the Asian sides (I include New Zealand in this) are a lot better than we thought. England had Manchester United's second highest scorer this year Mr. Own Goal to thank for their 2-1 win over Japan. Saudi Arabia pushed a very lackadaisical Spain all the way for a 3-2 loss and over night Australia beat Denmark 1-0. So perhaps beating Bahrain was a bigger achievement than we thought. 

On top of all this our side has great spirit, works for each other, and every man knows his role and limitations. These are the types of underdog sides that do well at world cups. My friend William wrote an excellent blog post about underdogs at the world cup and they all had these characteristics. The link is on the left.

There are two other things most successful underdogs have are. One is a good defence, no point in entertaining people and scoring a few great goals if you're going to get ripped to shreds every time the opposition have the ball. This we certainly have with Ryan Nelsen, Winston Reid and Tommy Smith showing signs of becoming a formidable trio at the back, and their games all complement each other nicely.

The other is a relatively easy group. By no means is ours a walk in the park but it could have been so much worse. Forget about progressing if we'd been drawn where either Australia or North Korea are.

Our final 11 is almost completely settled there are probably only two positions still up for grabs. Tommy Smith will definitely be in the team. The question is where whether he plays at left wing back or on the left of our back three so the decision is between Ivan Vicelich and Tony Lochhead. I certainly believe Vicelich is the better player of the two but I'd play Smith at the back as the key to our success in the tournament is being solid at the back and I'd like out best possible back three to play.

The final position up for grabs is Tim Brown's spot in central midfield. He could still make the cup but I'd be very surprised to see him fit for Slovakia. The options are Michael McGlinchey, Jeremy Christie and Ivan Vicelich. McGlinchey is the best attacker of the three but I'm not sure that's the type of player we need in there alongside Simon Elliott. Christie is solid enough in defence but more of his passes go to the opposition than another All White so I don't see him being the answer. I'd really like to see Vicelich get a run in there against Slovenia he's the best defensively of the three and can play a decent ball. he has lost a bit of pace since his prime though. If he can produce a good performance there the position is his. Hopefully none of this will matter and Brown will be fit but I'm not overly confident. 

In the end I don't think we'll have quite enough quality to progress. That said I do believe we'll win a game, most likely against Slovakia. They're ranked 34 in the world and only have one top class player in Marek Hamsik who is brilliant but I think we have enough at the back to deal with him. This would be a dream come true for me as it would give us hope for the whole tournament with a bit of luck and other results in the group you never know what could happen against Paraguay on the day.

You can guarantee our boys will give everything they have and certainly won't be embarrassed at the tournament.

Slovenia are a well organised side who managed to beat Russia over two legs in a play off. They'll defend from the front and pressure us whenever we have the ball. Robert Koren an attacking midfielder who has just been released by West Bromich Albion - the same club Chris Wood plays for is probably their best player. So this Slovenian side isn't exactly stacked with quality. But no bad teams qualify for the world cup from Europe or anywhere else for that matter and it'll be another stern challenge for the All Whites.

I think we'll start with our top 11 or pretty close to it but expect a lot of the fringe players in the squad to get a good run in the second half. It's time to give these guys a go maybe we'll find something in a player we didn't know he had. Personally I'd really like to see Jeremy Brockie get a good run he showed quality when he came on against Serbia and hopefully we can also sort out the other midfield slot.

I expect a good first half from our boys with perhaps either a 1-0 lead onr 1-1 or 0-0 scoreline at halftime. I do think we'll lose the match in the second half though when we make a raft of changes to our team our back up players are just nowhere near the quality of our first 11. It's unfortunate but that's the situation we're in and these guys need to get a run now rather than in 12 days time at the world cup when we may need them due in suspension or injury.

As long as we take another step forward I'll be happy whatever the outcome of the match. Come on boys keep this up.

I'm not going to do an in depth preview of the entire world cup, there are so many online written by people who know more about each individual side than I do. However I'll give a couple of thoughts on the tournament.

Despite their result against us I still think Serbia are a very good side and have every chance of making the quarter finals at least and if they get there they can go all the way as their defence should be solid (although I imagine they're expecting an aerial bombardment after their performance against the All Whites.). England will lose on penalties in the quarter finals to France. The Netherlands will turn around their usual performances in the knock out stages to win their first ever world cup beating Italy in the final. I expect the USA to have a big world cup they're a lot better than everyone is giving them credit for and don't be shocked to see them in a quarter final. With out further ado here's my prediction as to how the world cup will go:

Round of 16

Winner group A: France vs Runner up group B: Greece

Winner group C: England vs Runner up group D: Serbia

Winner group E: Netherlands vs Runner up Group F: Paraguay

Winner group G: Brazil vs Runner up Group H: Chile

Winner group B: Argentina vs Runner up Group A: South Africa

Winner group D: Germany vs Runner up Group C: USA

Winner group F: Italy vs Runner up Group E: Japan

Winner group H: Spain vs Runner up Group G: Ivory Coast

Quarter Finals

France vs England

Netherlands vs Brazil

Argentina vs USA

Italy vs Spain

Semi Finals

Netherlands vs France

Argentina vs Italy

Final

Netherlands vs Italy

Winner

Netherlands

 

Now that complete waste of time is out of the way watch how wrong I am when the world cup gets going and there are upsets galore and teams we thought were dead certs to top their group missing out or just finishing second and underdogs ending up with easy runs to the quarters. That's why it's the best sporting event in the world by a mile - you just have no idea what is going to happen.

Anyway the next time I write one of these I'll be in South Africa I'll aim to have it up early next week when I'll try and fail to explain what the atmosphere in South Africa is like.

Until next time.

You can find me on twitter @kiwigunner and please join my facebook page the link is on the left. New 'Let's Shock the World Podcast' coming tomorrow evening.

Well I'm nursing a sore head after 1 too many bourbon's celebrating last night, and haven't had enough sleep after being woken up by approximately 14 000 text messages about the game. And I don't care!!!!!!!

With an article on football the most popular on stuff.co.nz the same day the All Blacks squad got named and any questions on whether we deserve to be at the world cup or not answered things couldn't be better! 

If someone had offered me a 2-0 loss with a good performance and another step forward from the Australia match before the game last night I would have taken it in a second. Well as we know something amazing happened and the All Whites beat Serbia the 15th ranked team in the world 1-0 and that ranking is too low somewhere from 8 to 10 would be fairer.

For the first 20 minutes of the match we held our own with Fallon looking lively through the centre and Serbia presenting no real dangers to our back three at this early stage. In the 22nd minute Winston Reid played a pin point long ball forward and Fallon beat Nemanja Vidic in the air for a great flick on to Shane Smeltz. Smeltz has been under pressure for his starting spot in South africa from Chris Wood, in 1 second with a superb first touch that took both the defender and the keeper out of it and an incredibly calm finish he guaranteed he starts every match and made it 1-0 to the All Whites.

A minute later it could have been 2-0 with Chris Wood making a great turn to the left of the box and playing a nice ball for a fast arriving Rory Fallon to blast at goal. The Serbian keeper Vladamir Stojkovic made agreat save and unfortunately Smeltz couldn't take a tough chance to put the rebound into an open goal. To be fair Smeltz probably should have done better.

Serbia started to come into the game more after this and all four of our midfielders were guilty of giving the ball away too easily for the remainder of the match. Serbia looked very dangerous at set pieces not surprising considering Nikola Zigic is over 2 metres tall. Late in the first half, off a free kick a New Zealand player got a headed touch which left Marko Pantelic with a free header and an open goal in-front of him. Somehow he managed to hit the side of the net.

Serbia made a raft of changes at half time and if they'd been taking it easy during the first half they certainly roared to life in the second. Moving to a 3-4-3 formation which looked like a 3-2-5 at times they really went for the equalizer. They had a couple of good chances but a great block from Simon Elliott and a fantastic last ditch tackle from Winston Reid prevented the goal.

The All whites had two more chances with Fallon unlucky his headed flick took the ball away from a lively Chris Wood. Jeremy Brockie who played well when he came on was released by a long ball he should have done better although i think the keeper had it covered.

While the Serbs dominated possession and made the majority of play we had more chances than they did and probably just deserved our 1-0 victory.

With 20 minutes remaining Ryan Nelsen mistimed a header which Mark Paston had to be alert to save although he did make it look more difficult than it was. It would have been criminally unfair for Nelsen to concede an own goal he was brilliant on the night. He dealt with every ball played near him and considering the size on the Serbian front line that's a great achievement and he made a couple of crunching tackles to end Serbian movements that were starting to threaten. Vince Grella have a look at those tackles to see how to hit someone without causing unnecessary danger.

Tommy Smith was brilliant on the left side of our back three he has real quality is good in the air and most importantly his positioning was excellent. I can't think of a mistake he made all night long and he can play a good long ball. He'll definitely be in the starting 11 in South Africa whether he's at left back or in our back 3. Winston Reid showed the ability we've been told he has he looks like a genetic experiment to grow the perfect body for a centre half! He's tall, lean, fast, athletic and powerful. That said he did get caught out of position a few times but his speed and commitment made up for it. He's only 20 when he matures he'll be a top class defender, hopefully he'll get taken to a big club after the world cup and be given a chance to develop and learn the game under some good coaching. Both Reid and Smith showed they can play accurate long balls and with all of our 4 strikers great in the air this is hugely important.

Chris Wood played well and worked incredibly hard tracking back into defence. He's unlucky to be playing in a position where we have three other very good players. He'll still get plenty of game time at the world cup but it'll be off the bench. Smeltz played well and his goal showed why he has to start in South Africa. Rory Fallon was brilliant from start to finish. I'm about to write a sentence I never thought I'd write. He absolutely ruined Nemanja Vidic in the air last night, winning just about every ball played near the two of them. On top of this he had a great work rate and was unlucky not to score when played in by Wood.

Our midfield were all guilty of giving the ball away too easily but worked really hard and Christie had a good work rate but lacks the quality to play at this level. I'd still like to see Vicelich get a run alongside Elliott in our next match. Elliott is a feast or famine player. He played some really good balls forward but gave the ball away an awful lot. Leo Bertos and Tony Lochhead had similar nights with some good work going forward but both being caught out on the flanks in defence on occasion. I was impressed they both took yellow cards to stop Serbian attacks it's exactly what the best defenders in the world would have done if they'd been beaten in the same way.

While it was a truly great performance and a special night in the history of football in our country but let's not get carried away. We lost 4-3 to Italy in a warm up for the confederations cup last year and we were all getting confident before Spain battered us 5-0 while only clicking into gear for 20 minutes although our entire back three has been changed since then. 

It was Serbia's first warm up match and they were missing three of their best players in Dejan Stankovic of Inter Milan, Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea and Milan Jovanovic of Liverpool. With New Zealand only missing Chris Killen and Tim Brown of our presumed starting 11 in South Africa. That said this team has played an entire world cup qualifying campaign together and really went for it in the second half. I'll just list the players in their starting eleven and their clubs:

Vladimir Stojkovic: Contracted to Sporting Lisbon but loaned out to Wigan Athletic in the English Premier League.

Nemanja Vidic: Manchester United, EPL.

Antonio Rukavina: 1860 Munich, Bundesliga, Germany.

Neven Subotić: Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga.

Ivan Obradović: Real Zaragoza, La Liga, Spain.

Zdravko Kuzmanović: VfB Stuttgart, Bundesliga.

Nenad Milijaš: Wolverhamton Wanderers, EPL.

Miloš Ninković: Dynamo Kiev, the top club in the Ukraine.

Zoran Tošić: Manchester United, EPL.

Nikola Žigić: Birmingham City, EPL.

Marko Pantelić: Ajax Amsterdam, Eredivisie.

Every single one of their players plays for a club in a top European league. That just shows how big a performance it was by the All Whites. That said international friendlies do throw up some crazy results on occasion such as Australia beating England 3-1 a few years back or Spain needing an injury time goal to beat Saudi Arabia 3-2 last night. I don't know if we'd have beaten them at a major tournament but this result certainly represents a huge step forward for our team. I have to agree with what Ricky Herbert said after the match, he said:

"This is a world class team," Herbert said. "They're going to go into the World Cup as a very, very strong team, so from our perspective it's an excellent result.

"Everybody is very pleased. I thought we played really well, the performances of a lot of them were right up there.

"I think around the world that's going to send a few messages."

Herbert said the Serbs were stunned at the result.

"They'd be extremely disappointed, losing to New Zealand, but I guess their aim, like ours, is to be ready for the first game of the World Cup.

"But for us, it's a fantastic result. It's the best we've ever had in the history of the game, to beat a team at that level.

"I think we can savour the moment tonight but we'll be back on the pitch in 24 hours because we've got a lot of work to do yet."
 

All Whites Verdict: A great performance, up front we were dominant in the air and have the finishers to score goals at the world cup. Our back three was great and will only improve with more time together, no one is going to find it easy to score against us in South Africa. Our midfield needs to hold onto the ball better and Bertos and Lochhead need to work harder not to get caught out on the flanks. Check out the links on the right of this page. The first is to the highlights of the match on stuff.co.nz if you haven't seen them. The second really impressed me it's of the All Whites celebrating in the dressing room after the game if that's not a team together I don't know what is, you really do get the impression there might be something special going on with this team. A huge thumbs up must go to New Zealand football for allowing the cameras access. I also watched Slovakia play Cameroon, other than Marik Hamsik who is world class they didn't show a lot and drew 1-1. Why Can't we beat them in South Africa?

Man of the match (excluding Ryan Nelsen): Rory Fallon worked tirelessly all night and completely outplayed Nemanja Vidic. An excellent performance from him. Honourable mentions go to Tommy Smith and Shane Smeltz.

Yesterday my friend William Fussey and I recorded the first ever episode of 'Let's Shock the World' - The New Zealand World cup podcast. The link is on the right please have a listen and subscribe through iTunes. You'll have a good laugh when I pick my dark horse to win the world cup.

Please join my facebook page and you can follow me on twitter @kiwigunner.

Until Next time. 

With the All Whites having left this side of the world it's time for the first really big test of our world cup campaign. We've gone to Austria, where 8 other world cup teams have also gone for their pre world cup training camps to get used to playing at altitude before they arrive in South Africa.

In the early hours of tomorrow morning we'll step out onto the pitch against one of the better teams in world football, a team I believe has a genuine chance to win this world cup. Serbia finished top of their group in UEFA qualifying. Their group contained France and they won at a canter make no mistake about it this team is every bit as good as Italy who we'll face in our group in South Africa.

Their squad contains some world class players particularly at the back where they have Branislav Ivanovich of Chelsea who made the PFA team of the year this season and Nemanja Vidic of Manchester United who is without doubt one of the very best defenders in the world. He didn't have the greatest season this year at club level but we certainly don't have Strikers of the quality of Fernando Torres who has given him a torrid time in recent seasons. 

In midfield they have Dejan Stankovic of Inter Milan who just won the champions league, while he is deployed in a more defensive role for Serbia than for his club he is a world class player that can do everything. He'll win the ball, pass intelligently and has a vicious shot. He's Serbian captain and has been a regular in the squad since 1998 becoming the second most capped player of all time for his country.

Up front they have Marko Pantelic who knocked in 14 goals for his club Ajax Amsterdam this season and Milan Jovanovic who is a lethal finisher and was Serbia's top scorer with 5 in qualifying. He can also play down the left where he is quick and calm on the ball. 

This is Serbia's first warm up match for South Africa so expect a side close their best 11. They will not do us the favour that Australia did and sit back in a very defensive formation, we're going to have to play out of our skins to even compete with this team. Ladies and Gentlemen we're about to find out if we can hold our own against the big boys of world football.

It looks like for better or worse we're sticking with the 3-4-3 formation that got us here. It worked well against Australia but Serbia will let their wing backs fly down the flanks. At least we'll know if my concerns about getting caught on the flanks are valid or not. Expect Chris Wood and Rory Fallon to have to do a lot of work dropping off and defending on the wings tonight.

All Whites manager Ricky Herbert has made four changes to the 11 that started against Australia. Chris Killen is in England getting married so Chris Wood who i think would have started anyway gets a chance to push his claims for a starting spot in Africa. It's out of him and Shane Smeltz for the final strikers spot, Rory Fallon is our hardest worker up front and Killen our best striker.

As expected Winston Reid comes in for Ben Sigmund and will play on the right side of our back three, it's his time to show he's a genuinely talented defender who can play at the highest level. Tommy Smith comes into the 11 for Ivan Vicelich to flank Ryan Nelsen on the other side of our back three. Personally I would have brought him in to replace Tony Lochhead at left wing back, I expect we'll see this in the second half. 

The other change is injury enforced with Jeremy Christie coming in for the injured Tim Brown to play in central midfield alongside Simon Elliott as Michael McGlinchey is experiencing hamstring soreness. Christie is a player I know very little about he was released by the Phoenix earlier this year and fought his was back into the All Whites side with some good performances for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the second tier of US football. I'd like to see Ivan Vicelich get a run in midfield in the second half we need a ball winner in their with Brown injured and he may be the one to provide that option. 

The diagnosis on Tim Brown is as positive as could be expected after surgery. The surgeon Stu Walsh stated:

"It is still too early to comment on his chances of being available for the World Cup at this stage,'' Walsh said. "That will depend on how quickly he heals and how well he progresses through rehabilitation.

"The usual recovery time for this type of injury is three to six weeks, depending on the individual, and it can occasionally be much longer.

"However, Tim is a strong and fit athlete, who is very motivated and looks after himself well, which will benefit his recovery. We are therefore optimistic about the prognosis.''

So there's still a chance he'll be fit for Italy if not Slovakia. I imagine if there is any remote chance at all of him featuring Herbert will keep him with the squad as his replacement Cole Peverly will not play in South Africa and Herbert is also Brown's manager at club level so he will probably take the risk of him re-injuring himself.

Slovakia play Cameroon early tonight at the same venue we are so it's a good chance to see one of our world cup rivals who we must at least draw with if we're going to progress at the world cup. And can someone in New Zealand please live stream the All Whites match tonight. I live in Australia where it's not on TV or send me a link if you know where it is being streamed.

Until next time. You can find me on twitter @kiwigunner and please join the facebook page, the link is on the right.

Last night I left the pub, as I'm sure most kiwi's did, very disappointed. Not in a million years did we deserve to lose that game. That said there were an awful lot of positives to take out of the performance and one big negative.

1-1 probably would have been fair but with a bit of luck and at least one of the two red cards given we would have won that game easily. I was stunned how well we held the ball and by how much we created in the first half. We had three really good chances, showed great spirit and were dominant in the air both up front and at the back these can only be good signs. Especially when we have our dead ball expert Leo Bertos on the field for the entire match. 

Australia looked much better in the second half but weren't completely dominant until we made a raft of changes with Jeremy Brockie, Micheal McGlinchey and especially Andy Boyens poor on the night.

 

I'll go into those later in the blog. First of all I want to get the analysis of the two challenges on Leo Bertos out of the way. Vince Grella's was a vile tackle. He left the ground with both feet up - something you should never do. He was looking directly at Leo Bertos and landed straight on his leg. I don't think he intended to injure Bertos, but he certainly intended to kick him and 'let him know he was there'. It's exactly what you would expect from a man managed by Sam Allardyce at club level. I find it unbelievable that Grella did this after his attack on Rory Fallon for Fallon's comments before the game. Tackles like this have no place in football or any other sport other than UFC for that matter.  This photo shows what can happen when players leave their feet.

It should have been a red card and if the card had been shown the second tackle on Bertos by Tim Cahill would not have happened. This challenge was reckless and dangerous but not deliberate. He raised his foot to knee height so it also should have been a red. If Bertos had got his studs stuck in the turf it could have easily been a broken leg, thankfully bad bruising and a nasty gash is the only damage done to Bertos and he should be fit for Saturday.

I must say well done to Pim Verbeek for criticizing both of the tackles after the game. It was great to see an opposing manager stand up for what was right not just protect his own players. I was disappointed that our defence didn't give the Australians a kicking after those incidents. I'm not suggesting we should have put in tackles like that but it would have been good to see Ryan Nelson go through Tim Cahill while collecting the ball on the way. 

Now I've got that out of the way onto the game it was a horrible way to lose but let's look at the positives. Our formation worked pretty well I assume we'll stay with the 3-4-3 with our midfield setting up just in-front of our back 3 and our strikers a long way further forward. It can work as long as all three of our strikers work as hard as they did last night and either press the defence as soon as they lose possession or Shane Smeltz and particularly Rory Fallon drop off quickly and act as auxiliary wingers in defence. This said I still have concerns about the amount of space available on the flanks when the opposition break quickly luckily Australia decided not to take advantage of it.

I thought Fallon was superb last night his work rate was incredible and he made some brilliantly timed runs into the box if he'd finished the free header he had (which he should have) it would have been a near perfect performance. Chris Killen finished his first chance brilliantly and was unlucky not to score a second, this leads me to believe we can score goals at the world cup. Smeltz was solid if not spectacular although his headed flick on for Killen for our goal was beautifully played but we need more from him. I'd like to see Chris Wood get 90 minutes in his place against Serbia to find out how good he is. Wood didn't really have a chance to get into the game last night but didn't do anything wrong.

Our central defence looked good last night as always Ryan Nelson marshaled our defence well and any ball played near him was swiftly dealt with. He's our best player in every game we play and that will continue right through the world cup.

The two biggest positives for our team last night were the substitute performances of Winston Reid and Tommy Smith. A lot has been written about these two and there claims to play for New Zealand but I for one am very glad they have chosen to play for us. When my friend William suggest Smith play as left wing back I laughed at him but I couldn't have been more wrong. To be fair to Tony Lochhead he was solid if not spectacular in the first half, in the second he was getting badly shown up down the left by Australia. As soon as Smith came on in the 59th minute Australia got nothing down that side of the park and when the opportunity allowed he got forward well, he's only 20 and may well have enough quality to play in the English Premier League one day.

Winston Reid looked the part from the moment he stepped on the pitch, initially deployed in an unfamiliar wing back role he didn't put a foot wrong. However when he moved into our back three he looked class, powerful, great in the air, quick and so calm on the ball he may have even held onto it too long on occasion. He has one of the starting spots in our back three for the world cup sewn up. 

Ryan Nelson obviously gets the central birth the other spot is between Ivan Vicelich and Ben Sigmund, personally I'd choose Vicelich. He's a bit more solid defensively but expect Sigmund to get some game time at the world cup as Vicelich and Reid can both operate in midfield. 

I hope not to see Andy Boyens play a minute at the world cup he got so badly rinsed down the right by an Australian (I can't think who it was Brett Holman maybe?) it started to become an embarrassment he's just not good enough for this level. Thankfully Bertos will be back and he was perhaps our most lively attacker before he got injured and did his defensive duties well.

Simon Elliott is a player I have never thought much off but he proved me wrong last night with a very assured performance in the middle of the park. His play making was good and he broke up a lot of the play made by the Australian midfield. He played a nice ball for our first goal but I hope he never takes another dead ball again, another reason we need a fully fit Bertos at the world cup. 

This Brings me onto the big negative from the match. Tim Brown looked lively throughout the first half and was unlucky his shot went wide when he easily could have scored he was very good on both attack and defence and is a key part of our play. Unfortunately he has fractured his shoulder he has 22 days to get fit before the world cup and provided he doesn't have to have surgery there is still a good chance of this. Let's hope he's OK.

Michael McGlinchey was poor when he came on to replace Brown he does have ability though and was good as a sub in the first leg against Bahrain and played well for the entire match in the second. We can only hope he returns to that form in time for the world cup. 

Mark Paston was great in goal he couldn't have done anything about either of the goals Australia scored and he took command of the penalty box well and dealt with any crosses that came near him.

So a very positive first hit out for our boys who showed great commitment, togetherness and strength if not always quality. We can progress from here, hopefully another step forward against Serbia on the weekend will see our confidence increase even further.

All Whites Man Of The Match (Excluding Ryan Nelsen): Nelsen deserves this every time he pulls on an All Whites shirt, so I'll ignore him for now. Chris Killen a great run and nice finish for our goal. He did give the ball away for Australia's first but you can't blame him for the defending after that.

You can find me on twitter @kiwigunner and please join my facebook page the link is on the right.

Yesterday I received a couple of very good comments from Will Fussey and Andrew. I thought they were worth going into in a blog post (and I live in Chinchilla so have very little else to do.)

William's team was this:

GK: Paston
Defence: Reid Nelsen Sigmund
Wing backs: Bertos Smith
Midfield: Brown Wood McGlinchey
Strikers: Smeltz, Killen 

Although he did acknowledge  that it is probably too attacking and you could bring Ivan Vicelich in for Chris Wood.

Andrew's team was this:

CB Reid, Nelsen, Smith
WB Bertos, Lochead
CM Brown, Elliott, McGlinchey
ST Killen, Wood

Both agree on the 3-5-2 formation, I'd like to go into this again. Basically what we're doing with that formation is sacrificing two wide players for 2 central players and asking our wing backs to do both the duties of full backs and wingers. If our wing backs were Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole I think this would work brilliantly unfortunately they're Leo Bertos and Tony Lochhead. 

This formation matches up terribly with Australia's 4-2-3-1 their three man central midfield of Tim Cahill, and two of Vince Grella, Brett Emerton and Luke Wilkshire will then be marked by ours of Michael McGlinchey, Tim Brown and Simon Elliott/Vicelich. Assuming this midfield can handle theirs (it can't) we're then left with 3 center backs marking one striker. 

Their two wide players probably Mark Bresciano and Tommy Oar then have the freedom of the flanks, to deal with this either Bertos and Lochhead drop back into traditional fullback roles and we have no width whatsoever in attack and no chance of scoring or our three central defenders get completely pulled out of their shape and Tim Cahill then has complete freedom to make runs into the box which he is one of the very best in the world at doing. The reason our central defence looked so good against Bahrain is because they held their shape so well, as soon as you get pulled out of it you create lanes for players to pass and run through.

Choose either a 3 man central midfield or a 3 man central defence or neither certainly not both.

As i said yesterday I think their central midfield goes straight through ours no matter what we do, so we should go with a traditional 4-4-2.The problem with this is none of us have ever seen Winston Reid play, apparently he can play either right or center back but prefers to be in the center, if he can handle the right back duties then our back four of Tommy Smith, Ryan Nelsen, Vicelich and Reid looks the goods probably better than Australia's defensively anyway. It's time to find out if this formation will work.

The other player that both William and Andrew had in their team is Chris Wood the thing is we know very little about him. He's obviously got ability and will be playing in the English Premier League next year provided West Bromich Albion keep hold of him. He started 6 games in the championship in England coming on as a substitute an additional 12 times, scoring once and contributing 4 assists. This tells me he's got some creativity and may be the sort of player we need to unlock a tough defence like Australia. I say give him a run on the left wing and allow him to cut back onto his right foot and let his powerful shot go. These are friendlies it's time to find out what this squad can and can't do and which players are up to it. for the same reason I'd like Brockie to get a good run in the team.

Regardless it looks like we're going 3-4-3 again that's how we trained today in Melbourne with the only change to the team that defeated Bahrain being Simon Elliott coming in for Michael McGlinchey (obviously for denensive stability). However manager Ricky Herbert stated there are 3 spots up for grabs, so obviously Smith, Reid and possibly either Wood or Brockie are being considered for a start. Thinking about it I like this formation a little better than the 3-5-2 as I'm sure Chris Killen plays through the center and Wood/Rory Fallon and Shane Smeltz drop a bit deeper on either wing so we end up looking something like 5-4-1 it worked for Inter Milan against Barcelona, you never know.Maybe we play with two central defenders in Ryan Nelson and Vicelich, and Reid gets a roaming role in-front of them?

A couple of links on the left one to the Stuff.co.nz article about our training today and one to my facebook page, please join.

Until Tuesday when we'll be celebrating a glorious victory over the Aussies........

P.S. NZ football the logo at the top is a photo of the crest on my All Whites away strip.

Well I've got my New Zealand football rant out of the way. It's time for our first big warm up match, it's starting to get very real that we're going to the world cup and I'm buzzing with excitement for this game and my trip to the tournament. And what a way to start our warm up! Our first trans-Tasman clash since 2005, hopefully this will become a regular event. If it's not possible to organise it to be played in Australia or New Zealand then surely London is the perfect place with all the super-patriotic expats living over there.

First of all Rory Fallon your comments were idiotic, he said:

"I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few injuries,"

"I don't think anyone is going to hold back against them. I'm certainly not going to hold back."

I hope no one holds back but the last thing either side needs is for players to be too pumped up and fly in with knee high challenges and all of a sudden there's a star player missing the world cup. Besides Fallon probably won't even start against Australia.

Let's have a look at our opposition first, Australia are a very good side and have a lot of quality, especially in midfield the area where we are without doubt weakest. They didn't lose a single match in world cup qualifying and in 14 games scored 19 and only conceded 4, playing against good quality opposition. They played 2 matches against Bahrain winning 1-0 away and 2-0 at home. They are very well organised and do not concede many goals at all.

Personal wise their defence is probably no better than ours but they play with 2 very good defensive midfielders (they can choose between Brett Emerton, Vince Grella and Luke Wilkshire)  in front of a back 4. Their attack is also quality where they usually play with a lone striker in either Joshua Kennedy or Scott McDonald (apparently he needs a big performance to make the final 23 man squad) infront of 3 attacking midfielders two of those spots for South Africa are certainties in Tim Cahill and Mark Bresciano. If he's fit the third will be Harry Kewell although youngster Tommy Oar is making a push for inclusion lately.

 

The real question with Australia is what sort of side they'll put out, Pim Verbeek has named a 30 man preliminary squad and this is their last match before it must be trimmed to 23. I'm sure he'd like to see some of his fringe players before he makes his final decision, that said there are probably only 1 or 2 positions he's unsure of so expect a strong side on Monday. I'm sure the Aussies will be up for it, it's their last game before take off they'll want to put on a big performance for their fans and give it to our boys for the first time in a long time.

Our squad probably has seven absolute certainties to start: Mark Paston, Ryan Nelsen, Tommy Smith Leo Bertos, Tim Brown, Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen. With Winston Reid almost certain to play so Ricky Herbert can have a look at him that only leaves 3 positions to fit Ben Sigmund, Ivan Vicelich, Michael McGlinchey, Rory Fallon, Tony Lochhead, Simon Elliott and possibly Jeremy Brockie and Chris Wood into. No offense to the rest of the lads but I can't see any of them playing a single minute at the world cup. 

So what team should we put out on Monday? Well there are two things I think you should never do before a major tournament, one is make major changes to your formation. The other is make major changes to your defence, and I'm about to suggest we should to both! Because we simply don't have a choice, we've got three matches to get used to it before the world cup and we need all the quality we can get into the team.

 

We lined up somewhere between 5-2-3 and 3-4-3 (for those of you who don't know much about football, a formation goes defense-midfield-strikers, often there will be more than just the 3 numbers showing where the team intends to line up e.g. Australia usually line up 4-2-3-1). I can't see any way in which we can fit three strikers into the team against quality opposition so our hero against Bahrain, Fallon sits on the bench alongside Chris Wood. A change to 3-5-2 won't be hard for the players to deal with and is the formation I think Herbert will go for with his team looking something like this:

Goal Keeper: Paston

Defenders: Smith, Nelsen, Reid

Midfield: Bertos, Brown, Vicelich/Elliott, McGlinchey, Lochhead

Strikers: Killen, Smeltz.

With Bertos and Lochhead playing as wing backs and Vicelich as a holding midifelder (I didn't rate Elliott in his prime I certainly don't rate him as a 35 year old) just in front of the back 3. I have two real problems with this one relates to our wide players, Lochhead and Bertos, against better opposition they'll be pinned back and have to defend against quality wingers on their own and probably marauding wing backs. Neither is good enough defensively to do this and it will also mean that we have no width when we attack, and Bertos our best crosser of a ball won't be able to get forward to get the ball into our strikers who are both good in the air. It worked against lesser opposition but not against teams with the speed of Australia or anyone we face at the world cup.   

My second problem is the three man central midfield, we're going to lose the central midfield scrap against every team we play, we just don't have the quality of our opposition in there. Why waste a third player doing it? We'll have less ball and hope to hit teams on the counter, it's our only chance to beat anyone we come up against.

So I'm suggesting we go 4-4-2, lining up like this:

Goal Keeper: Paston

Defense: Reid, Nelsen, Vicelich, Smith

Midfield: Bertos, Brown, McGlinchey, Brockie

Strikers: Smeltz, Killen

Winston Reid prefers to play in the center but can certainly play on the right, Tommy Smith is left footed and has spent a lot of time at left back for Ipswich. And let's face it our fullbacks aren't exactly going to be flying down the wing to support the attack against better opposition so the key is defensive ability, this way we have our 4 best defenders on the pitch. Maybe we could move Reid into the center ahead of Vicelich and play Sigmund at right back he showed a willingness to get forward against Bahrain and I'm sure he could handle it.

The big question is with the left side of our midfield, Brockie is right footed and not a natural winger he prefers to play as an attacking midfielder. If we went with this formation I wouldn't expect him to play a typical wingers role, most teams that play 4-4-2 only use one genuine wide player and another who's more suited to tucking in and helping the central midfield. Brockie's creative and has pace but is very inconsistent, now's the time to find out if he's ready to be used in the world cup. We could also play Simon Elliott but again I don't really see the point of that. Chris Wood is also worth a try he's a striker but is quite creative as his record for West Brom in the league championship in England suggests, maybe it's worth a go? 

What do you think? Should we stick to the formation that got us there or make a change now and at least see if it works.

The game itself I think will be pretty tight, both teams like to play relatively defensively, it'll be up to Australia to get forward which they will. Hopefully we're good enough at the back to hold on and can nick a goal and get a 1-0. This match will tell us a lot about how good we are and if we have any chance at all to progress at the world cup. Honestly I think it finishes either 1-0 or 2-0 to Australia but you never know, as an Arsenal fan I can't count the amount of times we've dominated a team and either lost 1-0 or drawn 0-0.

To those of you lucky enough to be going on Monday (I had intended on coming down but it's just too close to the world cup and there's no chance of me getting more leave.) to a near sold out MCG i have one thing to say to you: SING LOUD! Don't act like a rugby crowd. Get behind our team and let them know we're supporting them whatever the score. You're there to support them, not just to be entertained, it's football not the theater!

A couple of song suggestions for the game, please note these are meant in jest. One great thing about being an Arsenal fan is our songs turn into All Whites songs so easily. Here's one I've bastardised (I'll leave out the anti-Semitic start which I've never sung):

Who's that team they call the All Whites?

Who's that team we all adore?

We're the boys in Black and White!

And we're fucking dynamite!

And Pim Verbeek's mother is a whooooooore.

You don't even have to sing that last line but it sure would be funny to hear it on tv. This next one I've robbed from an Irish mate of mine, it's a bit of a twist on 'Waltzing Matilda'.

I shagged Matilda, I shagged Matilda.

I shagged Matilda and so did me mate.

And she sang as I watched so I stuck it up her billabong.

I Shagged Matilda and so did me mate!

Give it a go boys and see if it takes off. All the best for the game lads let's stick it to those cocky Aussies with all their premier league experience and world cup success.

COME ON THE ALL WHITES!