Entertaining game. NZ played great! They showed they can compete on the world stage.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Kiwis' Fairytale Finish?
A LAST second goal from Winston Reid gave New Zealand their first ever World Cup ooints with a share of the spoils from their tight opening World Cup encounter against Slovakia.

Have your say.

Well done Kiwis!

At least one team in our region has a point.

haha go kiwi's!! If the Aussies can't win...well I don't want the kiwi's to do better but at least they are having a crack!

shit game but you just felt that the slovaks switched off to much

YAY fooking YAY

Oh fuck, here we go.

Fantastic cross from Smeltz to set up the equaliser too!

Fantastic goal NZ, I did a little celebration for them.

Great!... For the A-league

F*cking thank you NZ! Ricky Herbert you're a champ, players aren't bad either ;)

Aus game was horribly to sit through, this has cheered me up a little.

Amazing to think that the Slovakia goal could easily have been disallowed for offside.

edit: Oh yeah, and a nice little show for the A-League.

Edited by phreeky: 15/6/2010 11:35:58 PM

Good showing from NZ, congrats with the draw.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that is all.

sadly 442 hasn't utilised Winston Reid's name to it's headline potential...for example:

Reid All About It
Reid Into It
and the list goes on.

Yeah same, good to see the Kiwis doing well. :D

Herbert >> daylight >> Verbeek.

Reid got a yellow card for removing his shirt, lol.

Grats New Zealand.... and new zealand were playing far from their best for most that match.. the first 20minutes they absolutely dominated the game.. then fell off

Not the worst game at WC either. Quite entertaining.

Well done Kiwi's.

WELL DONE NEW ZEALAND!

Good to see one of us has something to cheer about. :) Well done boys, well done!

Good endorsement for a league that pim reckons is worse than euro training. NZ 1 point, Aus 0. I jumped when they scored, felt like the aus team of 06

The arrogance of the Euro/Slovaks knows no bounds. They thought they had one the game and were poncing around thinking it was over NOT. They must rival the Serbs for arrogance. Great result for the region and Oceania and yet another arrogant team from Europe gets the short shift.

Good work New Zealand! :D

I've got no comment on this game, but a mate of mine called me and told me he was happy with the draw tonight for the Kiwi boys...

Yesssss!!

Good stuff boys! We went off in the living room! haha great goal and well played throughout the match. It was frustrating for the 20 or so minutes after the slovaks goal, with the kiwis struggling to get beyond the slovakian midfield even, let alone getting to the front 3rd to create a chance. But the boys came through! Well done Ricki

Yep. Thats what I was thinking.
Fair play to them though. Much more organised than our boys.

To those genius's pointing out that NZ have 1 point while Australia have none....

Australia played Germany. NZ played Slovakia. Seriously...

yup seriously....

Nico23
Great Result for NZ but what it does reveal that Europe does produce some absolutely crappy overrated teams Slovakia is one and Serbia is the other to name a few.

Hey I was happy with New Zealand's performance because they represented the A-League more than the Socceroos do.

I was hoping Smeltz would have bagged a few, so that a European team somewhere would pick him up and take him off our hands in the A-League. :p

I don't think New Zealand played that well, just Slovakia weren't very good and New Zealand kept the pressure on and rattled them.

Re-evaluate on Saturday when Australia have played Ghana and still have no points and New Zealand have played Italy and still have one point.

Well Done All Whites !
Great Game. Kept posession fairly well
Good attacking at last.

lol @ the Australian guy taking the slovaks hat

Well done Kiwis!

^ err, that's a South African jersey mate

oh and best cap of the game.. they showed it in super slow mo.. priceless

pretty sure that's a South African.

Japan and South Korea both have 3 points. So by my reckoning thats Asia 6 and Oceania 1.:lol:

ahh your right...maybe.. not sure... not been getting much sleep the last few nights for obvious reasons :P..

Thought it might be a old Aussie one

Edited by moxstar: 16/6/2010 12:00:25 AM

To play poorly and steal a point at the end is a great result. We can definately play better and we will need to if we do who knows.

they're not results that allow you to compare aus to nz. Im not saying Slovakia is a bad team, great effort to draw with them, but you could say the opposite if, hypothetically, NZ played italy first, and lost, and Aus played Serbia first and drew.

We're one game in, NZ has played its easiest opponent, and Aus has played its hardest opponent. There's a long way to go, and Im just saying that I dont think there's any point to comparing the total points of Aus and NZ at this stage

few more caps.. :D



.

Btw that Slovakian goal was clearly offside in the replay.. but hey

I agree. Very good to see teams actually in our region grabbing wins.

Great news from NZ!

Hope that you guys can get out of your group even if we fail to.

The kiwis were celebrating like they had won the WC :)

Anything can happen i guess.. remember last time NZ and Italy played (last year) italy came from behind to win 4-3

Well done NZ. Slovakia was such a more skillful team but NZ grinded it out, and what a great finish to a match.

I would liken the match to walking along the beach, and kicking over someone's sandcastle that is nearly finished.

They've almost finished what they set out to do, and then someonn (reid) who has done nothing themselves walks along and boots the sandcastle to the ground. Neither party really gains anything from it, except the sandcastle builder is sad and pissed off, and the kicker just has a great sense of satisfaction.

remember what happened when we beat japan. I know was going nuts.
And I would have done the same if we had drawn. Our first points in a WC. Big deal. Let them have this.

Now thats how you park the bus and get a result on the counter... terrible game but got a point from the game. It is likely the weakest of the teams in the group though that they were playing, so its hard to tell how good that will be with the other 2 teams.

Well done on the result, but I needed to be woken up near the end of the game by its glacial pace and NZ's defensive gameplan. Its the WC though, so a positive result is what you need.

Edited by Heart_fan: 16/6/2010 12:20:54 AM

Watching the whine disappear from his face was priceless. So glad someone has a screen shot of that.

But at the same time, confidence is key in football (see Robert Green) and it could do serious damage in the australian camp the rest of the cup. That said, Kewell on the pitch now will boost the players immensely and could be another reason why Pim didn't bring him on, saving it for a key game.

New Zealand's confidence from getting their first goal and walking away against more fancied opponents will be boosted. They'll be looking to stun paraguay given half a chance, though by then they'll have a fit Cardozo to deal with.

It was actually 1974 that we got our 1st point mate, 0-0 vs Chile in the last group game.

:oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

I think you're a fool for putting the :oops: emoticons there, but get your point about celebrating points in the World Cup.

Edited by diego's son: 16/6/2010 12:36:48 AM

You obviously were asleep because playing 3-4-3 isn't parking the bus.

Well done NZ.

Thought Smeltz blew their chance late in the game, but great to see that they kept pushing right to the end.

NZ, Korea and Japan all being able to get results must be eating at the Socceroos too.

If that was 3-4-3 Ill go jump. It may have been on paper, but in reality, look at the way it changed pretty much from the outset. The game was on the Slovaks boots nearly all game, or the parts I was awake for :). The fact is that NZ can not play a traditional 3-4-3 at the WC, they would be ripped apart, as it is far too attacking for them to pull off successfully. NZ fans can be defensive if you want about it all you like, but the fact is they lack the experience and defensive strength to pull it off against stronger teams. A traditional 3-4-3 is an attacking formation, which, as you could plainly see, they were definately not doing.

A paper line up does not always dictate the true outcome of the way a game is played.

Edited by Heart_fan: 16/6/2010 01:08:58 AM

Smeltz really struggled at make any impact in most of the match. His header was very average technically for a player of his usually high standards.

I think that playing the strongest group member in Australia's case against what the other 3 played as secondary players in the groups really does not show the true positions just yet. The true test is getting out of the group. Anything other than that at the end of the day is a failure at WC level.

Korea and Japan did their job well to put themselves in strong initial positions, but NZ needed to win their game to have any chance of going forard I would strongly suspect. A point is a point but with the 2 strongest teams to come, it is not the best position to be in.

Edited by Heart_fan: 16/6/2010 01:16:09 AM

they had it at the start. they had 50-50 possession at one stage but they fell away one the slovaks settled a bit.

What do you expect? NZ to play like Brazil? It is very easy to come out with the 'parking the bus' line but I don't think you find any match reports that will view it that way. How much of the game were you awake for?

You obviously were asleep because they played 4-3-3.

In defence of Australia, those teams haven't played a Germany yet, they are sitting 2 levels above most teams seen at the Cup to date, the current Portugal vs Ivory Coast game is throwing up some good football, but the teams mentioned above haven't faced a 2010-style Germany to date.

Edited by diego's son: 16/6/2010 01:33:57 AM

Nelson, Reid and Smith = defenders
Vicelich, Elliot, Bertos, Lochhead = midfielders

Debatable on the 2 highlighted. Regardless, the game is over, go and enjoy it.

Hehe at the South Africans cheering with the Kiwis - The Tri-Nations out in force eh? lol

Not quite it seems, but damn NZ should be like South Africans' second or third team behind their own, especially now? lol :d

And the Kiwis should be doing the Haka in the stands! (Maybe they did earlier lol?)



ROFL Mr Nelsen I presume? Somebody Youtube it?!

awsome job kiwis, was very happy when they scored,

Incredible job, guys! Amazing for the A-League and a momentous day for NZ football.

Great result for us but nothing to get too carried away with! I think we actually played better in the warm-up games and Slovakia were all over us. It was their cockiness which cost them the win in the end but, hey, that's the beauty of football.

I don't understand all this acrimony between the NZ and Aus supporters on here. Slovakia are no Germany, buuut..Germany (Rank #6), Aussie (Rank # 23). Slovakia (Rank # 36), NZ (Rank # 79). In context the result we acheived IS better than that of Aussie BUT no need to get cocky kiwis; we will probably get pumped by Italy and Paraguay.

I don't understand why Aussies would want us to fail or why kiwis would want Aussie to fail. It's just not the ANZAC spirit! We should be supporting each other, so thanks to all the Aussies on here offering their congrats and I hope that you guys have Kewell fit and get up for the next match. A draw with Ghana and a win against Serbia (when Cahill is also back) and you guys still have a chance of going through (you'd need to outscore Ghana but), though obviously 2 wins would seal it. It's an uphill battle for you but I think it's a more likely scenario than us going through...would love to be proved wrong on that however.

I don't get the 'rivalry' thing either, which is why I comment when people try to talk it up. It seems like a dumb and fake rivalry to me more than anything.

i dont believe it!

Well done NZ!

Congrats Kiwi cuz - good job bro! I did a little mini celebration in front of the tele when they scored. Pretty lucky - thought Smeltz had muffed their one & only good chance, but alas, they kept on pressing to get the result. At least they they were positive and had a plan to score goals, unlike the hopeless Roos a couple of mornings ago.

The comparisons between Australia and NZ should really stop, they're in two different groups, three different opponents. They might as well be in separate competitions at this point unless they meet each other in the knock out rounds (lol).

All the best to NZ, I'll definitely continue supporting you till you meet Australia in the final.

WELL DONE NZ, Showing aus how it should be done.... unfortunantly.

This is lol-tastic

'Australasia 1 - Slovakia 1: Kiwis get the point'
http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/australasia-1--slovakia-1-kiwis-get-the-point-20100616-ydks.html

great stuff for the kiwis, all the haters out there, take a chill pill, & be happy for our neighbours.

great news for NZ. Well done. I hope they keep up the good work.
Im still gutted about the Roos. We should all get behind NZ and the Roos since most of the world think we are push overs

I changed the channel at the 92nd minute...

Slovakia are a small country, have a population of less than New South Wales

Achieved Independence from the Czechs in the mid 90s

What utter rubbish...

I will continue to highlight good posts such as the above until the penny drops.

New Zealand obviously do not have the player quality as Australia do

But herbert is one of the better coaches from around the world.. if not one of the best (Considering the players he has)

btw apparently 744,000 people watched the game in New Zealand last night (which is pretty amazing considering they have a population of 4 million and kickoff was around midnight)

oh and



Edited by moxstar: 16/6/2010 12:56:16 PM

Ricki Herbert is the best coach in the world.

Now I've heard it all.

Good result for the Kiwis. I was happy when they got the goal. Awesome to see them fight to the end. Also, great to see what happens when a team actually uses STRIKERS!!! Especially since one striker, who sets up the goal, is from the A-League.

Slovakia did not gain independence from Czech republic!
It was one country before called Czechoslovakia and on 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Putting together Czech+Slovakia you get Czechoslovakia.

BTW I visited Czechoslovakia before it got separated and have been to both Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Czech Republic and Slovakia people are one of the most peaceful people in Europe and holiday was great.

Edited by krijoz: 16/6/2010 03:41:42 PM

wonders why notorganic hates NZ so much?

Who said I hate NZ?

well it is just that every comment you are dishing the All whites or the nix... don't you agree?

I don't agree at all.

I'm just a very negative person and rubbish everyone, including the FFA and other A-League clubs. In terms of NZF and Nux, it's a case of me getting irritated at a group of people biting the hand that feeds them.

phew I can sleep easy now!!

:) cheers