Quaker, you could be right. But better to fail in a warm up, than at the WC. Sometimes a loss, in this situation, is the best thing for a team. Lets them have a good hard look at themselves, make them more focused.

Or on the other hand a win could do the opposite. Give the team a false belief of there ability. False dawn if you will.

tfozz - in NZ this friendly will not be forgotten for decades to come.

ALBUNDYSFC - I think you're being too kind for Australia in saying how they were in cruise control while NZ was in 5th gear. In the game against Australia, despite being ahead we still did some substitutions (some forced due to Australian barbarism, while others done to test players in different positions). Whole point of this paragraph - don't flatter yourselves.

For the record I do think Serbia will beat Australia. Even with a few top players out. I'd be happy to see Australia win as I do support them but I don't think it'll happen.

Take your point loyalgunner. But Oz team that played NZ was not the first 11, can the same be said for NZ? And the Aussie come off the back of hard core training camp.

As for "barbarism" I can not debate it. What Vinnie and Cahill did can have no defence. Red card, no questions. I just hope Bertos will be ok for the WC.

Fair point about the first 11 thing but we were still being experimental too. And the thing about hard-core training is their own fault, really. If they'd been forced to run 30km the day before to evade terrorists then I'd accept it but if the coaching staff who themselves are part of the team made them do it then it's not an excuse.

Still NZ Football has done well, not only with this win against Serbia. Auckland Citys efforts in the World Club Cahmps, The Nix (aka New Zeland National team) in the AL. And NZ making the Confederations cup and WC.

I Like the Rebel ad which says - "The new black is white".

They haven't performed well for over a year now imo.

great for nzl and great for australia. it shows that we SHOULD be able to beat them, or at least get a draw. we only need 4 points to go through after all, if our goal difference is good enough.

:cool:

Good result for the Kiwi's, may boost their ranking by a billion places. Thats all we can take from this result :)

Edited by liverpool: 30/5/2010 01:40:09 PM

WELL DONE NEW ZEALAND. Everyone Knows the SERBS are HOT and COLD. Lets Hope IT IS THE LATTER when they play the SOCCEROOS.

ok so im gonna try and be unbiased. its better to lose at this stage so that we dont get ahead of ourselves at the world cup. we did deserve to get something out of this match however in the second half. but even so i am worried about the lack in depth when 6 regulars are out. the behaviour of some of the fans was so disgraceful i had to cover my eyes. moving onto the kiwis, how can they compain about the treatment to bertos against oz and then have fallon breaking obradovic's nose and hacking multiple others? and the fact that they made only one substitution showed that to them this wasn't a friendly. i think new zealand have shown theyre a hardworking team who could do something at the world cup. but if their opponents try as hard as them then i dunno......

Well done NZ

Important learnings even if they did not play all their stars

Well done NZ! Great to see you guys already playing another friendly, even better that you beat Serbia.

Win-win for us, and you guys. Let's just hope the Socceroos can pull out the same detarmination come the World Cup.

As far as them missing a couple of starters, it's not hard to shut down a couple of players in a game and make it much the same team.

Well done NZ, I had to read the result twice on livescore.

Actually I think this result may be bad for the Socceroos, this game really brought the Serbs back down to earth, and may be much more cautious against us and not underrate us. I guess you could say we may have lost our surprise factor.

AGREED DaWoo But Remember the SERBS are a very HOT and COLD side TEMPER WISE and will need things to go their way !

Great news. An A-League player striking down a group rival. Brilliant!

As someone said, New Zealand made four changes from the side that played us, and started that donkey CHristie in midfield.

It's not like they were at full strength either.

Serbia may be missing some top players but look at this starting line up that played against NZ and compare them to NZ players. Well done boys...

Vladimir Stojkovic: Contracted to Sporting Lisbon but loaned out to Wigan Athletic in the English Premier League.

Nemanja Vidic: Manchester United, EPL.

Antonio Rukavina: 1860 Munich, Bundesliga, Germany.

Neven Subotić: Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga.

Ivan Obradović: Real Zaragoza, La Liga, Spain.

Zdravko Kuzmanović: VfB Stuttgart, Bundesliga.

Nenad Milijaš: Wolverhamton Wanderers, EPL.

Miloš Ninković: Dynamo Kiev, the top club in the Ukraine.

Zoran Tošić: Manchester United, EPL.

Nikola Žigić: Birmingham City, EPL.

Marko Pantelić: Ajax Amsterdam, Eredivisie.

agree with atemp. any game where christie is involved, even as a substitute, cannot constitute a full strength NZ side. He is, effectively, the equivalent of Smeltz with a blindfold on, or Nelsen with his legs amputated.

Good win for New Zealand, was a pretty even game to be honest. Funny that a team of A-Leaguers and English lower league players managed to humble a side made up some players from Europe's best clubs. This is why international football can so often have that romantic element about it. It is great to see an A-League player scoring internationally, just like Hernandez did against France.

Christie is crap, Brockie needs to bury more of his chances.

Some of the Serbian fans were complete idiots.

If New Zealand can limit the damage against Italy and get some points off Paraguay and Slovakia, there's no reason they can't go through. Who would have thought it?

Edited by ClintSakura: 30/5/2010 03:44:56 PM

Could you see Pim picking Smeltz if he was an Ausie?...and playing.

Ducky, though I agree with the sentiment of your post. What really bugs me about the Euro lovers on this forum is their steadfast belief that having your best players in big European clubs means you are going to win the world cup. There are certain countries with huge depth and countless players in the big leagues to choose from. There the ones with enough depth to win the cup - Clearly Serbia ain't one of them. Sure they have some high quality at the top end but they is scant high level competition for squad selection... Couple the lack of need to prove yourself to make the squad with the tried and tested balkan hot headed choking tradition and you will see a rabble develop that can't galvanise into a team when it counts. Mark my words the Serbian media is devastated about this loss. They know how vulnerable they are. Their confidence is shattered right now. And if they need to find 3 points on 23rd of June to make the second round, watch the fear and inevitable choking retur. God damn it's gonna be great to watch!

Nope, because Pim is a clueless fraudulent Cock.

I could see him giving him a go... After all, he can score goals at international level... :-"

+1

He is exactly what we have been missing for years.

Yeah I'm sure the Serbian media are worried about their first run out in a friendly after arriving in Austria for a training camp a day and a half before the NZ game minus some of their more creative players :lol:

On another note Spain's media are crushed their team struggled in their first run out against Saudi Arabia :lol:

I'm quite suprised to see some of the comments on this. While it's an awesome result for NZ you have to bear in mind that it is only a friendly in the lead up to the world cup. Teams use them to experiement, go in not wanting to get injured and generally use them as a glorified trining session.

If anything this result might fire the Serbs up and put them on notice for the Australia game, who knows. Those of you getting ahead of youselves as though this is beginning of the end need to calm the fuck down.

i google translated this from a serbian news site


Saturday, May 29, 2010, 20:02 -> 20:15

Antic: I am not unhappy

Coach Radomir Antic said at the press conference that was not unhappy after losing to New Zealand 0-1 in a friendly match at Klagenfrutu.

"I'm not unhappy. In any case, our program is set forth and work on the 13th of June we are in the best form of the game with Ganom. These games are part of the preparations. I said before the game that the game is in the foreground. It is important to reach our best form when necessary. This will be quite useful for all. "
This is the first game after 14 February 2009. where repreznetacija Serbia did not reach a goal. Then the Serbian lost to Ukraine in a tournament in Cyprus. Serbia has not played a match without goals, once Radomir Antic on the bench.

"Ivan Obradovic has sewn mouth and feeling faint. Dejan Stankovic has undergone medical examinations and is ready, he will probably play the next game."

Serbian play next match against Poland, also in Austria, in Kufstein on Wednesday from 20.30.

yeah, devastated. new zealand were treating this match like the world cup final.

hahahahahah

I thought we were treating the AUS match like the WC final. Make up your minds......

So good. Kiwis will definitely be my second team at the WC so it's great to see this result.

I don't see this result as having a huge bearing on Serbia v Australia but it does have a bearing on the fans mentalities. Sometimes people have a habit of lining up to the two starting XI's, saying that one is better than the other, and that's the team that's going to win. The reality is a team can hit the cross bar 30 times and the other team can get a lucky deflection in.

People saying that we won't beat Germany, Serbia and Ghana have not watched much football. We will not start as favourites but we can win all three games. It might take a bit of luck, and it might not. There's certainly no point in entering a tournament thinking we're not going to do well though.

The only element against is that luck is often created by chances and we're certainly not giving ourselves a lot of changes with this formation. Our defense is going to have to be very good!