Tag: New Zealand

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Pot Observations

TEN POT OBSERVATIONS.

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1. FIFA got the seedings right. Pot 1 seeds earned their ranking. France did not. France’s final appearance was four years ago.

2. Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have come out of the pot alignment better than most. Each of the smaller South American nations will avoid the big five African qualifiers in the 1st Round.

3. Argentina and Brazil cannot avoid the African qualifiers from Pot 3. The seeds for two potential Groups of Death have now been sown. Has FIFA put Brazil at risk for an early bath?

4. The most frightening Group of Death would be: Brazil, Mexico, Côte d’Ivoire and Portugal.

5. The dark horse of Pot 2 is Honduras.

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Hosting Players

All Whites Haka

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Will we see an All Whites Haka? The World Cup will be richer for the experience.

I had been keen on seeing Bahrain qualify. Bahrain were the sort of quick counter-attacking outfit capable of the odd 3-2 upset.

New Zealand inspire less confidence as Giant Killers. But who knows? A Haka just before kick-off might be worth a buried chicken or two.

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Hosting

Pinned in their Own Half

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Belated respect to the All Whites. New Zealand represent!

Bahrain’s unexpected defeat leaves the Arab World with only one representative in South Africa. Sayef Mohammed Adnan’s penalty miss in Wellington will have done more than just dampen the spirits on the Emir’s beach. It invites a significant Arab cultural deficit extending well beyond Bahrain.

This may well go unnoticed or be easily forgotten by Arab scholars and Arab media busy with grim development statistics and wars or captivated by ceremonial comings and goings and fashionable American and European diplomats and stars. It should not.

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All White Experience?

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While Omar and his boys from Bahrain were shooting down the Saudis in the Kingdom, New Zealand were in that other Kingdom kicking it with the Hashemites. It was an experience. New Zealand won the friendly 3-1. The Hashemites ain’t got game no mo’.

New Zealand fancy their chances now. Former captain, Steve Sumner, interviewed for the Christchurch Press, said Bahrain was their “best and easiet” route to the World Cup finals. Sumner also sees English Premier League experience as important for New Zealand, noting in the same interview, the presence of some hacker from New Zealand in Blackburn Rovers’ squad.

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Video

Stain on the All White Shirt



New Zealand did not have it all the own way in the Oceania qualifiers. The Fiji “general public” had been demanding a good result.

Roy Krishna, the Lad from Lambasa, obliged with two goals. (If only Roy’s grandmother had been born in Kilmarnock…Scotland could have been coming down the road.)

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