Group F - Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
 

Discussion around Group F involving Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia

Schedule

14 June 2010

Italy v Paraguay at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town

15 June 2010

New Zealand v Slovakia at Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg

20 June 2010

Slovakia v Paraguay at Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
Italy v New Zealand at Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit

24 June 2010

Slovakia v Italy at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
Paraguay v New Zealand at Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane

NZ to qualify top ... of the haka awards.

go nz!

Paraguay and Italy will ease through.

Slovakia is a decent side. Between Paraguay and Slovakia it will probably be about who gets the most goals past New Zealand.

World Cup-winning squad was named on Monday:

Aaron Clapham (Canterbury United): Age: 23. Uncapped.

didn't know Clapo was a kiwi

The New Zealand side leaves home tonight (via Melbourne for a match against Australia) on its way to South Africa. They actually had a public autograph/meet the players session earlier this afternoon which my brother attended, he seems rather pleased to have had that opportunity and got a shirt full of signatures.

Just watched the highlights of Italy vs South Korea from 2002. Had forgotten how much I enjoyed it at the time. So funny that late on when Damiano Tomassi crosses the ball into Vieri you can hear Barry Davies (on the BBC commentary anyway) shouting "oh no!" only for Vieri to then shank his shot over the bar. Stupid Italy, had enough chances to well and truly kill that game off.

Given that we're moving into the international rugby season, what is the media reaction to New Zealand going to the World Cup? Is it jumping on the band wagon type (when Australia qualified for the 2006 WC), or not?

Very much so. Column numbers on soccer out-numbering rugby by 2:1 I'd say. But then again, around world cup time paper interest in the round-ball game normally goes up anyway, so I'm not sure whether this is moreso than usual.

New Zealand for Top 2!

Seems like Ricki Herbert has settled on our first choice lineup, with Christie replacing Brown in midfield, and Reid and Smith replacing Vicelich and Sigmund at the back. I'm in favour of the latter - been quite impressed with those two, and Vicelich and Sigmund are both slow and a bit clumsy imo - but not a fan of the first. Don't rate Christie at all, and with Elliott already playing as a deep midfielder I don't see why we have Christie in there as well - he's too similar, except his passing's worse. It also leaves us with a big gap between our strikers and midfield, because they're both slow to get forward.

Reckon we should have McGlinchy in there instead. He's more creative, and has a better touch than Christie. Would have liked to see Aaron Clapham get a game in the friendlies - what was the point in taking him at all? After there was that talk about him being something of a creative midfielder, we haven't seen him at all, even with Brown injured. Seems odd.

A number of players, Clapham included, only went as cover if other players got injured. And nothing against the guy, but expecting someone to step up from amateur NZFC football to the world cup is ridiculous. Still, with a practice game against Chile coming up he might yet get a run. Agree about Christie, the guy is an awful passer, although he's not bad at floating in teasing long balls from the halfway line. Mind you, Reid, Smith and Elliot have already all shown a good ability to do that, so Christie just seems superfluous.

The other problem with the team is that while officially we're a 3-4-3, we're playing more like a 5-2-1-2. Bertos and Lochead are playing so deep that unless it's a set piece, they're almost never there on the attack, making anything but lobs in for Fallon far to easy to defuse. The side is really missing Brown and his willingness to get forward and provide an extra option.

Still, I don't think we played that badly last night, and if Killen had been on the left post rather than Wood, and if Paston hadn't had a local aneasthetic injected into his hands before kick-off, I think we could've gotten a 2-2 result. All in all, I think we've shown enough in these three games to show that, if nothing else, we won't be an embarrasment. Though anyone who thinks that we'll make the second round will be in for a rude awakening when the cup starts.

Those are fair points. I particularly like the look of Winston Reid and agree that he should start. Brown's loss is obviously major; most of the form guides have reinforced the obvious that we can't afford to lose any of our crucial players, and to be missing one, in Brown, before the tournament's even started is an issue. From what I've seen of Michael McGlinchy I've liked and I wouldn't mind seeing him or Clapham have a run against Chile in Brown's position.