Ruminations on a World Cup campaign

1. Tommy Smith:

Our best player. His feints, dummies, positioning etc to gain control of the ball and maintain possession reminded me of a real player. But see 8 below.

2. Ryan Nelsen and Mark Paston:

Were good. Obviously.

3. Ivan Vicelich:

I reckon the Italy game was Ivan’s best game in an All Whites shirt. In all three games he was good “mopping up, calming things down, keeping cool and issuing orders”. The sight of Ivan taking the kick off to commence the second half of the Paraguay game nearly made me pee my pants. But if you play an uber defensive “mopper upper” then the other central midfielder really needs to be an outrageously creative playmaker – and with all respect to Simon Elliot he’s a million miles away from that. Did someone say Michael McGlinchey?

4. All Whites v Slovakia:

Probably the worst performance I’ve ever seen from an All Whites side in the last 10 years. Were it not for 3 seconds in the 96^th minute then it would’ve been a very poor start to the campaign. I guess both teams can be forgiven as it was their first up match (and also Slovakia’s first game at a World Cup and the All Whites first game at a World Cup in 28 years) – but it really was like watching two teams wearing lead boots chasing a balloon...in slow motion.

5. All Whites v Italy:

Italy had 23 shots on goal to our 3. On a good day half of those would’ve gone in making it something like a 12 - 2 final scoreline in Italy’s favour. On a great day all of those would’ve gone in making it a 23 – 3 final scoreline.

6. All Whites v Paraguay:

How can you play 3 strikers and yet not have any shots on goal? OK, I exaggerate... we had three. What was Ricki Herbert doing – surely we should’ve just flooded the pitch with our attacking players and pushed everyone forward. We were on the verge of making it through to the second round. I would’ve liked to have heard Chris Coleman’s punditry on ITV – apparently he was imploring Ricki to dispense with the defence minded game plan and push players forward. It was as if not conceding a goal was more important than progressing to the next round!? Maybe Herbert should’ve taken some goalscorers. On that note here is Fallon’s league and cup record for the 3 seasons prior to the World Cup: 114 appearances for 17 goals. Here is Killens: 57 appearances for 6 goals.

7. Luck:

I think we were lucky with the draw – being drawn in the same group as Slovakia (in their first World Cup) and the aging Italians – and lucky with playing Slovakia first up and Paraguay last. I reckon it would've been a different World Cup had we come up against Paraguay first... or been drawn in Group G.

8. Rory Fallon:

I find it hard to support the guy. He turned his back on NZ to go play for England. Even when it was obvious that he’d be forever warming the bench of some third rate outfit, NZ still wasn’t good enough for him. Only when he got a whiff of a World Cup did he show his face. Same goes for Tommy Smith and Winston Reid. I bet neither of them would’ve come calling had there not been a trip to the World Cup on offer. It’s much easier to support those who have put their hand up to play for NZ from the start – you know, Vicelich, Smeltz, Killen, Elliot, Bertos, Paston etc. Guys who have fronted at the Caketin in front of 2000 versus Vanuatu and at QE2 in front of 9000 versus Malaysia etc.

9. Mainstream media coverage:

The mainstream media coverage was just an embarrassment - TVNZ, TV3, The Herald etc etc. A whole lot of people who didn’t know what they were talking about. So too was seeing All Whites players like Winston Reid, Rory Fallon, Tony Lochhead et al appearing in the Womans Day!! It made me ashamed to be a NZ football supporter. Also embarrassing were the many “journalists” who just couldn’t hide their manic hatred of the world game, ie Leggat, Rattue, Eric Young and co.