Not All White On The Night

I’ve had a week and a bit now to get over the disappointment of the All Whites being denied World Cup qualification by Mexico. I know it wasn’t exactly unexpected, but it was still gut-wrenching to go three goals down so early in the second leg and see our already extremely faint hopes extinguished altogether. I’ve mulled over what went wrong, and here’s what I think.

Ricki Herbert did the right thing in calling up young defenders Storm Roux and Bill Tuiloma. What he did wrong was play each of them on the wrong side of the field. Roux looked uncomfortable on the right, and indeed was caught out of position for at least two of Mexico’s goals, while Tuiloma is clearly right footed. When Tuiloma went off injured to be replaced by Louis Fenton, who was excellent in his time on the field, Roux looked accomplished and classy at left back.

Central defence just didn’t work. Whether Andrew Durante simply demonstrated that he doesn’t have the pace to play at international level or communication between him and Tommy Smith simply broke down as they attempted to play a very high offside line, I don’t know. If the ball was played in the air, those two looked at ease.  But when the little Mexican strikers ran angles and received beautiful through balls in behind the central defenders, the Kiwis looked lost. I’d like to see Durante included in future squads, but it’s clear our best pairing is Smith and Winston Reid.

In midfield, Chris James was solid if unspectacular. Out wide Marco Rojas occasionally looked a little lost. I think his best position is tucked in behind the strikers and it’s no coincidence that his best runs were made down the middle of the park. Barbarouses was all energy and action and he never stopped trying, which was fantastic to see. Rory Fallon, who I’ve previously said I thought was no longer up to international standard, lifted the whole team with his energy, determination and, I have to admit, glimpses of real skill.

However, high work-rate is not a quality Shane Smeltz and Jeremy Brockie should be putting on their footballing CV’s. Both are fairly limited players (average pace, no left foot) who are perfectly fine at A-League level, but are wholly ineffective any higher up. Brockie, whose job is to score goals, has scored no goals in 42 international appearances. Surely that’s not good enough. Smeltz has been a very good player for New Zealand but probably peaked two or three or years ago.

What was the worst aspect of the otherwise fantastic game of football at the Stadium? Easy – the play-acting, the theatrics, the impersonations of fish flapping about on a jetty. If an All White ran past a Mexican and said boo, or sneezed at them from 10 metres away, the little Central American players would collapse like shooting victims. God only knows how they’d react if they were actually fouled. I don’t have a solution for this blight on the game, but it ruins many a match and something must be done, even if it’s retrospective.

At the stadium I sat next to Gary from Motueka. As our discussion began to progressively focus more on the future and less on what was happening on the field in front of us, we essentially shared the same view. There are a number of talented young Kiwis plying their trade in football leagues around the globe that are of a significantly higher standard than the A-League. Gary and I agreed it is time for these players to be selected more regularly for New Zealand. And it’s also time for a foreign coach to be brought on board. Most of us fans want to see a pass-and-move possession-based game; not what we were served up in the past two defeats. Against the Mexicans we witnessed far too many instances of players in white passing to a team mate then standing still or going for a leisurely stroll as they seemingly thought ‘job done’. A top(ish) level international coach would not select players who play like that. 

New Zealand football has been in a holding pattern for three years now. It’s time to up the ante.

Rugby League World Cup Final Review

If you had to pick an Australasian side, you’d pick the Aussie team and maybe include SBW and, at an absolute push, Isaac Luke and Manu Vatuvei on the bench. We lost and anyone who thought we were going to win was dreaming.

What Happened To……?

I received a request to write something along these lines. This is pretty random stuff but here goes.

Sheffield Wednesday

Wednesday was always an ‘almost’ team. They’d spend time in the top league, occasionally be relegated and generally bounce back up pretty quickly. Their halcyon moment came in 1991 when they won the League Cup to win their first trophy in 50 years. Within a decade of that victory they’d been relegated twice and were a financial shambles mainly due to a series of disastrous and expensive player transfers. In 20 years they’ve had more managers than I’ve had hot dinners (as they say in Sheffield) and in 2010 the club was sold for £1. They currently sit second to last in the Championship.

Bradford City

Bradford City AFC spent 77 years out of the top flight of English football until they were promoted to the Premier League in 1999. They stayed up by the skin of their teeth the following season before being relegated the season after. Then followed the all-too-familiar story of financial struggles as overly ambitious managers and executives seemingly based their expenditure and financial forecasts on fantasy and make-believe. And that was the end of that. Or was it….in 2013 they became the first team from the fourth tier of English football to reach a major Wembley final – the League Cup. It was almost a fairy-tale story, but they lost 5-0 to Swansea City, although they then managed to get promoted to League One last season as well.

Portsmouth

One of the most spectacular and rapid falls from grace was that of Portsmouth FC. In 2008 they won the FA Cup and finished safely in the Premier League. The following season they were competing in the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) against teams like AC Milan. But, without wishing to sound like a broken record, massive financial problems set in and relegations to The Championship (2010), League One (2012) then to League Two (2013) followed. They were placed in administration, came within a whisker of being dissolved as an entity before being bought for next to nothing by a fans’ consortium and currently sit 17^th in League Two. All this less than four years after lining up against the might of Milan.

The Ultimate Warrior

Wrestling is kind of a sport; the results are no more fixed than an Indian cricket match or a lower league football game in England.  The Ultimate Warrior was my favourite WWF wrestler in the 1980’s. Without the bulk, the facepaint and the relative youthfulness, he now appears as a grey (long) haired chap with a goatee. He apparently called time on his wrestling career in the late 1990’s and now blogs a little and runs his website. I choose to remember him as he was…

Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts

The Snake was another fave of mine around the same time. After the master of the DDT finishing move left big-time wrestling, he moved on to small-time wrestling, booze and drugs. In 2012 he weighed over 140kg and was an addict well on his way to an early grave. But he has got his life back on track, got sober and lost about 25kg. Good work Jake!

Seattle Supersonics

The Sonics played in the NBA from 1967 till 2008, winning the Championship in 1979. In 2008 the franchise was relocated to Oklahoma, where the team is now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder. There has recently been a failed bid by a consortium, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, to purchase the Sacramento Kings franchise, shift it to Seattle and resurrect the Sonics brand.

Washington Bullets

The Bullets became the Wizards in 1997 to avoid any association with gun violence. Kinda boring, nothing else to add.

Charlotte Hornets

This one is more interesting. The franchise began the 1988–89 NBA season as the Charlotte Hornets. Following the 2001–02 season, the team relocated to New Orleans, becoming the New Orleans Hornets. After three seasons in New Orleans, due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, the franchise temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City, where they spent two seasons officially known as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. They then returned to New Orleans for the 2007–08 season and changed their name to the "Pelicans" at the conclusion of the 2012–13 season. And now the Charlotte Bobcats (owned in part by Michael Jordan)) have received approval to change their name to Charlotte Hornets, effective in the 2014–15 season. Got all that?

Hutt Valley Lakers/Shakers

This last one is more a request from me than anything else. The Lakers won a couple of New Zealand NBL basketball titles in the early 1990’s. My memory is akin to Swiss cheese but I have a vague recollection of The Lakers being forced to change their name to The Shakers due to a ‘forceful request’ from the LA Lakers. Does anyone remember that, or am I imagining it?

Till next time,

SG