The All Whites Squad's Been Named For The Peru Qualifiers And The Reckoning Is Nigh
Hey look the All Whites finally confirmed their squad for the World Cup playoffs! The players had already been notified ages ago, with the media leaks soon to follow, and Peru named their own equipo a few weeks back - which meant that even the surprises weren’t really surprises and all we were really looking for was whether anyone had gotten injured. But we still had to wait to know for sure.
And here it is, the list of 23 men that’ll be tasked with getting New Zealand to the World Cup. It’s one that comes with a tinge of sadness (or perhaps hysteric joy, depending on your own proclivities) because there’s a very high chance that this is the last squad Anthony ‘Uncle Tony’ Hudson will ever name for New Zealand… although we don’t know that for sure. Andy Martin loves him some over-qualified young Englishmen in his stable. However, one way or another, it’s the definitive squad of Huddo’s reign. It’s the culmination of everything he’s been building towards – they contracted him ‘til the end of the World Cup campaign for a reason.
Okay then, let’s make sense of it all.
GOALKEEPERS
Stefan Marinovic – Vancouver Whitecaps (22 caps/0 goals)
Glen Moss – Newcastle Jets (29/0)
Max Crocombe – Salford City (0/0)
Does it really matter? Stefan Marinovic has never missed a start since he first played for the All Whites and in that time he’s gone from an unknown in the lower leagues of Germany to a starting goalie in the MLS Playoffs – a run which came to an end last week as the Vancouver Whitecaps went out 2-0 on aggregate to Clint Dempsey’s Seattle Sounders, meaning there’s no conflict for Stefan now. He would have had to miss one playoff for another had Vancouver advanced further. Sucks for him but it’s handy for the All Whites.
So Marinovic is the numero uno. No arguments. Then comes the thing about who backs him up in case of emergency. What you probably want in that situation is an experienced goalie who has been to a major tournament before. Someone who has played a lot of footy with the rest of the squad, someone trusted and with great leadership qualities. Oh hi Glen Moss! Happy to see you back, chief.
Mossy was basically in the last squad but they left him behind because you don’t need three keepers for one friendly game and his Newcastle Jets season was just beginning. Well, he’s been riding pine for the Jets but he’s back for the All Whites. Good job.
Which leaves that last spot, the third keeper. The 23rd man in any 23-man squad. Huddo had options here. Michael Woud went to Japan and with the progress he’s making in his career already this could have been one hell of an experience for him as a potential future number one in this squad. Or they could have gone with the cheap local option, an Ollie Sail (whatever happened to him?) or maybe even pluck a bugger out of the Premiership. Scott Basalaj, perhaps?
That’d be a bit of a cop out. And it’d be a bit of a ruthless one to wrestle the Wellington Phoenix’s prodigy Keegan Smith away from them when they’ve got enough to worry about already. Tamati Williams is warming the bench near the end of his career, Jake Gleeson still hasn’t apologised to Huddo and written his hundred lines of imposition on the chalkboard.
Max Crocombe then, sure, why not. He’s not playing Football League stuff in England but he’s a regular for his Salford team and they’re winning a lot of games as they push towards another promotion that will hopefully eventually get them into that Football League stuff. Plus thanks to his piss-take of a red card the other week (take-piss of a red card), everybody knows who he is now!
Crocombe’s been around the squad before even if he’s never played – including travelling to the Nations Cup. Plus he’s played for Aotearoa at youth level. It’s a little bit weird that he got taken over Michael Woud but it’s not the worst selection they coulda made.
DEFENDERS
Michael Boxall – Minnesota United (29/0)
Kip Colvey – San Jose Earthquakes (13/0)
Andrew Durante – Wellington Phoenix (22/0)
Dane Ingham – Brisbane Roar (5/0)
Winston Reid – West Ham United (22/1)
Storm Roux – Central Coast Mariners (9/0)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (35/2)
Themi Tzimopoulos – PAS Giannina (14/1)
Deklan Wynne – Vancouver Whitecaps (13/0)
A week ago it was starting to feel like a less than 50% chance that Winston Reid would be fit enough to play and that was a shock to exactly nobody. But Winnie bounced back and while he was a little bit crap in West Ham’s 4-1 defeat vs Liverpool, so was every other West Ham player. Plus the All Whites’ chances of winning this thing depend very largely on an inspirational couple of Winnie performances. Blessings have been repaid… but no chickens shall be counted. 180 minutes over in five days with a significant amount of international travel before each of them is not something to take lightly from a man whose leg muscles are apparently made out of frozen chewing gum (*snap*).
How about it though? The All Whites are at full strength! Not only did Winston recover magically for these games but Andrew Durante pulled off his best Lazarus impression and Tommy Smith even managed to get some game time for Ipswich to complete his own comeback from injury. It’s possible that this trio makes for the starting central defence – although Michael Boxall would appear to have the inside lane on Durante’s spot, especially as a proper right-sided centre-back. Smith is best on the left and Winston will be in the middle, and Dura would probably prefer playing in those two spots ahead of Boxall’s. Plus in the year 2017… Boxall’s better. At least in this context.
Themi Tzimopoulos was a predictable reserve ahead of Sam Brotherton. Some might argue with that (like the name in the top right corner of this article) but neither’s playing and Themi can cover some midfield as well, not a worry.
Storm Roux returns from injury to create a little drama with the right wingback position. Roux appeared to give a good case towards establishing himself there against the Solomon Islands after Dane Ingham, the starter in the last two Confederations Cup games, was sent home for having a few too many sugary snacks on the plane over from Brisbane. Or something like that. But Ingham returned to play against Japan while Roux was injured. Tough to say who’s the preferred dude when in the last two squads there’s only been one or the other. And Kip Colvey would have a thing or two to say about that too.
Granted Colvey’s adaptability, allowing him to play on either side of the defence, probably makes him the ideal bench option. He hasn’t done enough to stand out for the All Whites yet but he’s massively useful… so useful that Tom Doyle’s been dropped. Folks always said that five wingbacks are too many wingbacks and it’s Doyle who suffered for that. Good news for people who wanna balance their All Whites fandom with their Welly Nix fandom but not so much for those hardcases out there who want Doyle to start on the left. He wasn’t going to though, Deklan Wynne is the preferred chap there.
MIDFIELDERS
Clayton Lewis – Scunthorpe United (11/0)
Michael McGlinchey – Wellington Phoenix (50/5)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (16/3)
Bill Tuiloma – Portland Timbers (22/0)
The lack of James Musa in here is a curious one. It might also be a tip of the hand as regards the starting team. Musa and Tuiloma are two very similar players in how they methodically approach the holding midfield role. Tui gives you more physicality while The Moose is a better passer of the ball. Given that Ryan Thomas is now a guaranteed starter and the player with the best technique in the country, that probably means he’s better suited to playing next to Bill Tuiloma, who’d shield him from his own biggest weakness which is his comparative lack of strength.
Except that Mike McGlinchey is more likely to start in central midfield than Bill Tuiloma is. Ryan Thomas could play further forward to fit all three of them in but that means dropping Kosta Barbarouses so that Marco Rojas can play further forward himself. Yeah… there’s not actually much wrong with that but it wouldn’t necessarily line up with what we’ve seen this year from Huddo. Tui seems to have blended into that first-off-the-bench role, the holding midfielder who solidifies the team in the second half – it was definitely the case on the Confeds Cup tour as Tui came off the bench in every single game.
The thing is, if you pick James Musa then Bill Tuiloma can start and Musa can come off the bench and perform that role. Or vice versa. When Tui was dropped for lacking match fitness it was Musa that came back onto the international scene as a direct replacement. But if there’s no Moose then there’s no other bloke who can do that job, which is where the tipping of the hand theme comes in. Sounds a lot like Tuiloma won’t be starting, right?
Then there’s Clayton Lewis, making his return to the national team after signing with Scunthorpe in the English League One. He even scored on debut in a cup game. It’s a little concerning, although understandable given the circumstances of his move, that Lewis’ fitness has been a topic at Scunthorpe as well as with the All Whites (remember when Ingham was dropped for fitness and the Brissie Roar were furious!). But he deserves to be there so long as Huddo’s happy with his physical shape and every suggestion has been that he’s been working extremely hard in the gym now that he’s got that pro career up and running.
Hey, wait… where’s Moses Dyer?
FORWARDS
Kosta Barbarouses – Melbourne Victory (45/4)
Jeremy Brockie – SuperSport United (49/1)
Rory Fallon – Dorchester Town (24/6)
Monty Patterson – Ipswich Town (15/1)
Marco Rojas – SC Heerenveen (38/5)
Shane Smeltz – Borneo FC (58/24)
Chris Wood – Burnley (54/24)
Brockie and Fallon. Fallon and Brockie. Look, just as the third goalkeeper is largely a non-playing reserve role, so too will be a couple of the outfield slots what with a maximum-strength team requiring maximum roles from its best players. Ideally Chris Wood will play 180 minutes in these playoff games. Possibly even 210. There’s no reason to sub him off at any point (unless he’s injured) – no substitute is capable of offering more on their best day than The Woodsman does on his worst, not when he’s made a career out of popping up with that one crucial goal from that one crucial chance in a game you otherwise barely noticed he was playing in.
Which is why the idea that selecting more experienced players who can offer something more to the greater team environment is an applaudable out-of-the-box idea. As fans we tend to focus entirely on the ninety minutes of football for our reactions and revelations and we can sometimes forget that these athletes are humans too and in the same way that the office is a nicer place when people aren’t acting like arseholes, it helps for a footy team to have a positive and encouraging environment as well. It’s for a very similar reason that the Players Union in NZ is (brilliantly) trying to negotiate a single joint contract that’ll ensure the Football Ferns get the same travel/accommodation standards as the All Whites.
Point being that the off-field stuff matters and if Huddo genuinely believes that Fallon and Brockie can improve on that then fair call. He’s the boss after all. It means balancing out the benefits that guys like Sam Brotherton and Myer Bevan, who should emerge as regular starters by the next World Cup, would have gotten from being involved in an occasion like this. But… neither of them are playing for the first teams at their clubs either so it’s not like they put in an unrefusable offer or anything. Isn’t it funny that the Hudson Era started with young players getting picked for absolutely no reason other than to build some undeserving depth and now here we are at the potential end of it and he’s recalling Rory Fallon!
Of course, Jeremy Brockie should have been in there from the start on footy merits anyway.
Woody’s fit, that’s a magnificent thing to behold. Marco Rojas is the Spanish speaker in the team who’ll get to do all the away-leg interviews. Shane Smeltz is another veteran and one who’ll likely get off the bench before Fallon or Brockie too. Come to think of it, say The Woodsman gets injured (knock on wood), who’d replace him? Fallon is the best like-for-like option but he’s also the worst option. Brockie is the man in form but he’s not the man in favour. Shane Smeltz has the experience but perhaps the legs ain’t what they used to be. Myer Bevan was the last one to deputise for Wood… and he’s not even in the squad. Ah well, if it comes to that then we’re already buggered.
Monty Python Panesar Patterson is an option off the bench and a rare fringe youngster in the squad. For a team which features only three players with fewer than 10 caps, this is still a very young side. However Patterson’s that little bit younger and while Ingham and Lewis are genuine (if underdog) chances to start in one of these games, Patterson is not. Yet he’s a very useful player to have on the bench for a little injection of speed and skill. We don’t have too many proper wing options like him.
Also, Kosta is there. The end.
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