No that would be Mike Bassetts selection of Tonka Tonkinson for the world cup in Brazil but in the end he was vindicated so perhaps the selection of Mulligan will be to :)

^^ ok he's past it :lol: but what perplexed me was when Marius said the Kiwi cb's are better credentialed. since when did they play champions league and win their domestic league multiple times for example?

the real issue is, we have better options available, but our coach refuses to play them

Edited by cool_cat2007: 10/5/2010 04:08:10 PM

I'm proud of who I am, what about you?

Nothing else you've said above warrants a response.

well, credentials are somebody's qualifications for the job. Wynton Rufer had a great career but obviously he's not qualified to play up front this year in SA. he doesnt have the credentials.

in terms of qualifications to play at centre back this world cup, i think it is quite reasonable to point out your stocks are not as impressive as you might think, even relative to sad NZ:

Neil. No argument.
Moore. Great CV, but now A League/Greece and 36.
Kisnorbo. Injured. League 1/Championship player.
North. 2nd tier leagues.
Colosimo. A League.
Griffiths. Tradesman.

Nelsen. No argument. Premiership skipper. 4 goals this season for good measure.
Reid. About to win Danish cup. Uefa cup experience. Has worn Captain's armband this year at only 21.
Vicelich. 150 games in the Eredivise (and 3 years younger than Moore), but yes now playing at home - although for family reasons.
Smith. Championship defender.
Boyens. MLS.
Sigmund. A League.

all sensible debate welcomed.

All of the Serbian team would walk into the Australian side -- apart maybe apart from their keeper.

all of the England players would crawl into the Aus side.

i am excited...

Please don't take coolcat's naivety seriously. The thing with the New Zealand players is taht they're relatively unknown, this doesn't mean that they don't have any footballing ability. We've seen that they defeated a team that Australia struggled against.

Re: Chirs Killen: While he hasnt' been bagging the goals, he has been playing regularly at 'boro in 2010. And he's probably New Zealand's best option right now. It will be interesting to see how he goes.


I don't know about that. Certainly Kacar and Vidic would down back. Jovanovic and Zigic up front. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe Kuzmanovic. But that's about it.

Marius, you forgot Spiranovic, McKain, Milligan, Williams and Beauchamp, which adds significant depth to the aussie defence. There's quality tehre in Moore, Spira, Williams, Neill and if you wanted to stretch it...Milligan, Beauchamp and Kisnorbo.

Vicelich, Ried and Nelsen are all good options down back for New Zealand, but other than Nelsen there's little experience against particularly tallented strikers and they will struggle to keep organised under intense pressure. Particularly when it's likely that all three will start with NZ playing five at the back.

Cool Cat, I understand you know a fair bit about Australian football, good on you, but your knowledge on NZ Football is embarrassing. The way you gave a brief summary of each player in the All Whites illustrated your ignorance and the fact that you probably required Wikipedia to find out who most of the players represent. For example, you mocking Winston Reid (or at least our selection of him) because we used DVD's? That doesn't make him a less complete footballer because our coach hasn't seen him in the flesh, for all we know he could be not far behind Nelsen. What we do know is that he's quality and this is going by more than internet articles, DVD's, and the odd youtube clip. Major clubs are/and have in the past been interested in him and reports coming out of Denmark suggest he's the next big thing in the Danish league. Add to that your derision of Vicelich for playing 'state league' when he could have played in most A-League teams when he returned to NZ and could probably have returned to Europe was embarrassing to read. You can't mock a man for family reasons.

I could go on but I fear I'll be at my laptop all night trying to cover all the rubbish you've posted. I think you should look long and hard (hilarious, I said long and hard!) at your squad before passing judgment on ours. Old Aussie are in for a big shock this World Cup, pun intended.

fight fight fight hahahaha competetive!! :)

Go the kiwis, there are some decent players in you squad, hope you guys do well for the benefit of both New Zealand and Australasian football

its ok to bitch about each other here, i just hope we unite when we take it on the world stage as were both massive underdogs
that said i see aust having a legitimate chance of making the second round, whereas how many people would respond the same in regards to nz?

Once upon a time there was a team called France. Despite having won the World Cup 4 years prior, as well as having the likes of Zidane, Vieira and Henry (all in their prime) playing in the team, they went to the 2002 World Cup Finals where they failed to win a single game or even score a solitary goal.

The moral of the story here is that sometimes team line-ups don't mean jack shit.

Think it's pretty obvious that Aussie can name a better squad than us - that isn't even debatable.

we have more defenders than that. the point i'd like to expand on is, it doesn't matter who your core group is, if you get an injury, in one or 2 key positions, you are practically a state league team.




he's only in the running because Pim prefers mates.

Yet somehow you justify Vicelich's current playing situation and boast about his past playing achievements. now in the NZ championship because it's for 'family' reasons. like he had a choice :lol:



that was his solitary season in league 1 (though he played well in the F.A. cup against good sides). he's basically a championship player through and through.



same level as your 'superstar' wynton Reed



and championship winner. should be playing in Korea if not for paperwork bungle



playing ACL and excelling against top teams in the ACL



not a great level. sorry.



isn't a first team player

I'm sorry, but I don't get how a player who's played in the UEFA cup for a top team in denmark means he has an inferior resume to a guy who plays A-League and another player who your selling point is that he has played ACL and done miserably in it.

IIRC his child is mentally retarded and he was diagnosed with depression prior to his return to New Zealand. I think that's plenty of reason to decide that he isn't up for professional football and training 5 days a week over in europe tbh. That doesn't mean he's not a talented footballer.

Marius you say Kisnorbo is a leg 1/ championship player. Might I remind you that he took on the likes of Berbatov and Rooney and kept them scoreless, not to mention that 2 seasons ago he had EPL clubs after him but he decided to be loyal to liecester. Patty might not be an outstanding player but at the 2014 world cup he will be the one leading our defence.

when did i say Colosimo had a superior resume?

Marius attempted to strengthen his position by stating North plays in the '2nd tier'. it didn't make much sense and was inaccurate considering the league levels are pretty comparable to that of his 'superstar' player.

if you are going to play devils advocate, at least get the facts straight. how is Midtjylland a top team in Denmark? they haven't won a championship and in relation to their Euro adventure, they've lost out in qualifying rounds in the Uefa Cup. that was their highlight.

as for your latter point that Vicelich's circumstances prevented him from continuing in Europe, it doesn't change the fact that Vicelich's career was winding down and wasn't playing much for Waalwijk. No one said he wasn't talented. but he was nothing special.

As for Griffiths, you obviously aren't keeping up with what's going on in the ACL.

CC, we can go on, and I shall for just a bit longer

I can respond and tell you that Reid played against Man City in the Eufa and beat them in Manchester. I think you'll find he has his back to the camera in the photo for this BBC story - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7551402.stm
Every dog has his day, Kisnorbo too.
I can add that Tommy Smith is playing regularly for Ipswich at the moment (yes, it took an injury for him to grab a starting spot, but that is football). In fact, a few weeks ago he played the full 90 mins against Newcastle United (and I think it was at St James Park), a game they drew. That i suggest is probably better football than any of your defenders have been playing in recent times, with the exception of Neil (and I would suggest Newcastle would go ok in Turkey).

You have a better squad than us, no argument. But we have some useful players. I dont see why you have to rubbish them for the sake of it, esp when, in the case of these defenders, they stand favourably alongside your own crowd?

You used it as an argument as to why our defence is better than theirs. It's really not the point here. There's little difference in the center halves between the two sides, while we might have a little more depth, they've got more or less the same level of talent in their first choice players.

Midtjylland finished runners up in the 07 and 08 seasons and 4th last season, I'd say they're a top side.

The reason Vicelich didn't play much for Wallwijk was because of injury and said depression. Not because of any lack of ability.

Re: The Griffiths point, you can't be talking about Joel because he's not a defender. That would be just foolish. And Adam has played two league games in three years and has been mediocre at best for Adelaide, being ad fault for several of their goals.

apologies, that wasnt reid in the photo, but he did play the full 90

not sure why you kiwi's are surprised with the banter on this site?

This is the "AUSTRALIAN" 442 site..

As to a question of quality there is no point in comparing, us aussie's will over rate our plays as you kiwi's will do with your lot.

Just enjoy being part of the world cup, it's going to be great!!

The only thing I hope is that New Zealand put up a better display than in the confederation cup, it was embarrassing the way the other teams were able to control the games so easily and even worse the display shown after drawing a match against Iraq, the coach and player jumping around like they had won after Moss was the only thing that kept the score level.

to coolcat etc., australia has a superior line-up to ours, but your side isn't shit hot either.

On the NZ line-up, Christie before Duncan Oughton and Mulligan before Chris James...WTF??

Also, i'd be tempted to put in Kris Bright over Jeremy Brockie, as Brockie (like ferrante) would be a better as a rugby player, where the object is to put the ball OVER the crossbar.

Good luck New Zealand (you'll need all you can get), especially hope the HAL guys do our league proud.

I kept my mouth shut, unusually, 'cause as a loyal Australian citizen who lives and works in Christchurch I actually am sitting on the fence. I support both teams passionately. However, reality check will tell us that, no matter how long we analyse each player in isolation, the truth is the newly-selected All Whites have rather little cohesion due to to little time spent together at decent games. OK, they got overawed at the Confeds Cup (I cringed watching Ricky Herbert delirious with joy at drawing nil-all with Iraq). OK, they played a very decent game against Bahrain in Manama (nil all), better than the 1:0 win at home later. But they do not have much of an "instant" understanding that comes from playing together, and little experience, relatively speaking, together as one team.
Anyway, I am excited at the game on 24th May, because whatever way it ends, my team will win (unless it is a draw).

WWW.PREMIERSHIP.ALTERVISTA.ORG

WATCH ALL FOOTBALL MATCHES ON WEB-TV: A-LEAGUE, AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, PREMIER LEAGUE, LIGA, SERIE A, BUNDESLIGA, LIGUE 1, WORLD CUP 2010, CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, EUROPA LEAGUE AND MUCH MORE

Good luck NZ

I was wondering what else I could add here until I read Davstar's signature quote above this post

"Superman wears Tim Cahill pyjamas".

And I'll leave it at that. No more needs to be said until a quick paragraph after the Aus vs NZ game, then everyone can turn their focus onto the real show.

Edited by diego's son: 10/5/2010 10:49:37 PM

shame chris james didnt make the squad.
i liked him at the Confed Cup.

Anyways Ive seen worse squads. Good luck NZ
Hope the HAL players do well.

I hope they do well and yes, embarrass Italy.