I was honestly expecting to see a headline today "WHITE OUT!" and i suspect that had the much criticised Brett Holman not popped up to seal the result i probably would've. So even though the stereo type is 'a game of too halves' I'm going to write this in terms of colours! I believe it's the artist that I've been hiding under my outer engineer finally getting a run!
WHITE - The all whites dominated, it's the simple truth. Before Bertos was nearly killed (see red below) he was brilliant. Perfectly illustrated by the fact that the two challenges in question happened while he was breaking down the right wing, and then tracking back in the centre of defence. Despite this and the Killen dude popping up to latch on to a good through ball which Craig Moore could of done better with (watch the replay, he ducks under the ball as it comes over as he is not challenging Fallon who flicks it on, he's standing flat footed waiting for the ball to come to him) I honestly don't think NZ were that impressive. Rather i think they just had the calm heads required to take advantage of a dis jointed and unfamiliar Socceroos team. Add to this a seemingly bobbling pitch, which either was remarkably slow (from the coverage) or slowed down the passing so much it was noticeable and it was definitely an ALL WHITE first half. Well done NZ, I think your calm heads will stand you in good shape for SA. Good luck to you.
RED - Much covered in the media today already so i won't Andy Harper on it, but Grella's challenge had intent and was a straight red, and Cahill's had no intent but was still a straight red. I wish Pim had of done what he said post game and substituted them immediately to make it clear to the world that it's just not on! Once again i will congratulate Bertos as if someone had of nearly put me out of a world cup i wouldn't of been as calm as he has been reported to be today!
GOLD - There wasn't much of it really. Let's be honest. I'd forgotten Jason Cullina was even on the park until the second half, Grella i only noticed because of the challenge (see above), apart from one good knock down and blocked shot from Cahill it was pretty terrible. The second half was a world ahead of the first but not a world beating 45 minutes of football. No surprises Macdonald got dropped, if that 65 odd minutes were his last chance it wasn't really good enough, although it does beg the question why there weren't any other strikers in the provisional squad (brosque, Griffiths x2, that south american/australian young guy etc). Vidosic did well to be quickest to react to a deflection from a Cullina pass and did what he should have hammering his shot into the ground and across the keeper (did anyone else have flash backs to a Kewell goal against Croatia?? Or was that just me?). Hollman did well when he came on, and i won't join the numerous critics accept to say i think their are better options available, and scoring a goal at international level should not be sneezed at! My biggest concern was Neil and Moore, I'd be interested in watching a replay and running the numbers, but i would guess that they won less than 10% of the balls in the air, for a CB pairing, that's not good enough. I hope they were just having an off night, but I'm not convinced Moore is ready to go at this stage. Add to this the removal of Jade North already and another defender (at least by my count) to get the chop and defence could be our biggest issue in SA.
So it was a bit of a ramble, but i think it expresses my views on the subject at least. And it's not like anyone reads this anyway! Good luck Socceroos, I will echo Pim's comments that if the world cup was in 3 days I'd be worried, but with 3 weeks to prepare i think there was enough in the second half to suggest we'll be competitive!
See you at the art convention...
B!
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