Labyrinthine Squad Yarns For The All Whites OFC World Cup Qualifiers
Okay so first of all we’ve gotta set the scene here because this is not a normal All Whites squad. Ordinarily we could look at who’s in and who’s out and draw some conclusions about where everyone is in the depth chart but it feels reckless to do that in such crazy circumstances. This tour is a special case.
Guys will be coming in and out as the tournament goes along. The squad for the last game will be pretty different to the squad for the first game. The whole thing must have been a logistical nightmare for team management and can’t imagine how frustrating some of Danny Hay’s diplomatic efforts must have been when dealing with clubs. Ultimately we’ve just gotta take the utilitarian viewpoint and treat this whole OFC qualifying thing as a means to an end.
Which is what it always should be, to be fair. Even under regular circumstances I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect Chris Wood and Sarpreet Singh to be available for five OFC games in the space of 12-14 days during the middle of their club seasons. The All Whites are good enough to get through regardless. Only gotta cast your mind back six years to the last senior Oceania tournament when Anthony Hudson managed the All Whites to a Nations Cup triumph... on penalties vs Papua New Guinea in the final, very slim margins, but that was Anthony Hudson after all.
This was the starting eleven for that 2016 OFC Nations Cup final...
Marinovic | Fenton, Brotherton, L.Adams, M.Boxall, Colvey | McGlinchey, Tuiloma | Patterson, Barbarouses, Fallon
Fair play to those guys on a hard-earned clean sheet but we’ve seen better All Whites teams than that (to put it extremely gently). But that’s veering off on a tangent. Gotta do that scene setting thing first so let’s get this train back on track.
This isn’t a Nations Cup. It’s pure World Cup qualification for the event in Qatar later in the year. You know, the one where pretty much every single one of the FIFA jokers who voted for it were later suspended from the sport for corruption? Yeah, that one. Normally this tournament would have been hosted by one of the competing nations - New Zealand actually won the bidding to host it when it was still in its initial September 2020 window. Obviously that didn’t eventuate and further covid complications have meant they’ve decided to host it in a neutral setting instead. That neutral setting being Qatar, conveniently.
The biggest struggle for the All Whites in Oceania games is usually the tropical conditions so that wasn’t going to be a factor anyway. But remember that they’ve played all of their recent friendlies in Middle Eastern countries. They’re well prepared for what they’ll face in Qatar. Not to mention that it’s much a much less gruelling travel schedule for those based at European clubs as the majority of the kiwi squad is.
The qualifying tournament itself comes down to eight OFC nations split into two groups. The Aotearoa team will face Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and New Caledonia with the top two advancing to the semi-finals and then the winner of the overall final advances to the intercontinental playoff in June. This time around that’ll be a single-legged tie at a neutral venue (Qatar again) against the fourth placed CONCACAF (North & Central America) team. Looks like Panama or Costa Rica will be the opponents there with three matchdays remaining to confirm it. There are still mathematical chances of USA, Mexico, or El Salvador getting that spot too but it’s highly unlikely.
That’s the state of affairs. The reason the squad is so funky is that OFC and FIFA are dumb and therefore they allowed the tournament to take place overlapping the international window. Meaning that players like Liberato Cacace and Joe Bell for example will not be available until the last group stage match. Some players will be able to sneak in for the second game thanks to their club schedules (potentially including Chris Wood, whose closest scheduled Newcastle game is on the same day as the first AWs match). Thus a collection of mostly A-League players will begin with the squad for those first few games and then leave as others show up. It’s basically a three tiered squad.
This is not too dissimilar to something the Blackcaps did last year when they sent a B-team to Bangladesh for some T20s, then were going to play Pakistan in the infamous abandoned tour with a half-and-half squad before hitting up the T20 World Cup (and warm-ups) with their full strength selection of soldiers. Alternatively you can think of this squad like a Charmander evolving into a Charmeleon evolving into a Charizard as the tournament goes along.
This has been a known hazard for ages. Danny Hay has made no secret of how he feels about the matter, calling it “highly disappointing” and then name-dropping the Danish FA’s sympathetic disgust (he happened to be in Denmark at the time this was confirmed) in a classic ‘Monique says you’re dumb’ moment. Chris Wood even brought it up at his introductory press conference after signing for Newcastle United. They’re exactly right too. It’s a ridiculous principle to have World Cup qualifiers outside of an international window.
Hooooowever... it’s hardly an excuse. The All Whites will still have the better collection of players in both those two group games and it might even work out to be a blessing in disguise if Chris Wood, etc. only have to play three times in two weeks rather than up to five times. Keeps everyone fresher for the semis and the final. Danny Hay has wisely kept a core of players who’ll be available throughout to ensure continuity – first and foremost Winston Reid of Unattached FC (who should finally reach 30 caps this month) – plus it gives an opportunity for a few fringe guys to get games. It is what it is. A logistical nightmare, sure, and a stupid bit of administration, but completely overrated as any kind of barrier to qualification.
Thirty players have been selected across the three tiers. The first game (Papua New Guinea) takes place 18 March local time while the international window opens on 21 March, the same day as the second game (Fiji) so anyone who’s able to leave the classroom slightly early might sneak in for that one but mostly it’ll be the third game (New Caledonia) on 24 March for which most of the cavalry arrive.
Would imagine that all of this is flexible to some extent, definitely the arrivals dates of some of the fellas will be. But it seems there will be 11 blokes who are with the team throughout the entire campaign. The rest of them are split into two groups. Here’s the breakdown...
STARTING BUT NOT FINISHING
Oli Sail, Dane Ingham, Dalton Wilkins, Clayton Lewis, Ben Old, Kosta Barbarouses & Ben Waine
FINISHING BUT NOT STARTING
Stefan Marinovic, Jamie Searle, Liberato Cacace, Tim Payne, Nando Pijnaker, Bill Tuiloma, Joe Bell, Marko Stamenic, Alex Greive, Elijah Just, Callum McCowatt & Chris Wood
THERE FOR THE WHOLE RIDE
Winston Reid, Tommy Smith, Matthew Garbett, Nikko Boxall, Niko Kirwan, Francis De Vries, Logan Rogerson, Matthew Gould, Cam Howieson, Joey Champness & Andre De Jong
Thirty players all up. The A-Leaguers are pretty much all gapping it after the first two games, although Tim Payne is arriving in the second wave to stagger the Wellington Phoenix hit. Payne will probably miss two Nix games, the others will likely only miss one.
The usual All Whites squad write-ups would have me going position by position through the squad but that doesn’t make much sense here given all the juggling that’s going on. It’s largely all the same guys that are always there anyway – Ben Waine and Ben Old are the only two players never to have been called up before. Matt Gould, Jamie Searle and Oli Sail are also uncapped... three keepers, there ya go. Cam Howieson is the only guy selected from the National League. Plenty of international experience though still a surprise to see CH picked ahead of someone like Ollie Whyte for example (especially since OW’s club bro Logan Rogerson is here), but maybe it’s a tad too early for Whyte in Hay’s eyes.
A few others to miss selection for this tournament... Sarpreet Singh has been dealing with a groin injury since at least the last All Whites tour and it finally caused him to miss a club game last week so he’s having to sit this one out. Ryan Thomas is yet to return from knee surgery late last year so he remains a long term absentee. Thommo had withdrawn himself from selection in the recent past, not wanting to travel too much with a couple young kids as well as not exactly being first choice at his club, and it’s notable that NZF listed him as “not currently available” rather than injured. Even though he’s definitely injured and that’s reason enough on its own.
Michael Boxall isn’t here, yet is listed as “on standby if required”. They say he’s recovering from an injury but he’s literally played every minute of Minnesota United’s first two MLS games this season which smells like more shenanigans from Minny Utd. They acted extremely dodgy around his Olympic selection after he picked up a knock and now they’re doing it again. Not entirely sure what to make of that weirdness, good thing Nando Pijnaker’s come into some ripper club form. Also Tommy Smith makes up for Boxall’s missing experience and brother Nikko is a CB option too.
Then there’s Michael Woud who recently moved to Japan. Extremely recently. He signed with Kyoto Sanga back in early January but was only able to get into the country this week thanks to Japan’s strict travel restrictions. Meant he missed the first few games of their season. Woud has struggled for confidence recently with some error prone performances for club and country but he’d absolutely have been in this squad if it were feasible. But it just isn’t. Fellas’s gonna wait all them weeks to get into the country then leave a week later? Nah, that’s nuts. We’ve got other keepers. This gives Oli Sail a great chance to make a well-deserved international debut in the first game. Or Matthew Gould... but probably Oli Sail. We know that Danny Hay’s been trying to get Oli Sail into this environment for a couple of windows now and finally here’s his opportunity.
Elliot Collier is another one who is listed as unavailable due to injury but it’s hard to see him being picked over guys like Alex Greive or Andre De Jong or Logan Rogerson anyway. Kelvin Kalua hasn’t been picked after being around for the last couple squads. No love for a couple other A-League blokes either although the ALM picks were mostly just a matter of filling gaps until the international breakers arrive. Alex Rufer shouldn’t be too offended – they needed forwards more than midfielders hence Waine and Old got in and not him. Ufuk Talay may have had a voice at that table as well.
Bringing us to Marco Rojas who has been playing fantastic footy for Melbourne Victory and would for sure have something to offer to this team but MVC have Asian Champions League games coming up and reading between the lines it sounds like Tony Popovich might’ve been rather forceful in those negotiations. That’s a delicate thing for Danny Hay to balance. He can’t pick Rojas for the first two games without club permission. He could for the next few... but the A-League doesn’t break so he’d be pissing off Poppa. And Niko Kirwan’s a nice example of how diplomacy can work: unavailable for the last tour because his club didn’t want to let him go and yet this time he’s here for the full tour. Do me a favour now and I’ll owe you one later.
Some other notable pros who haven’t made the cut... Nik Tzanev seems to have set himself back in the pecking order after his unvaccinated status a few tours back. That might still be a problem or maybe he’s been jabbed up since, who knows. But he allowed others to step in front of him and this is what can happen. Max Mata recently signed with Sligo Rovers but has only made a couple small subs appearances, not enough to force his way in. USL guys like James Musa, Deklan Wynne, and Kyle Adams are again overlooked. Fact is the USL just isn’t that strong of a league and there’s competition for all those places... although Nikko Boxall is here having recently moved to San Diego Loyal. His coach Landon Donovan was apparently very sympathetic to the quest of trying to represent your nation at a World Cup so good on him. Also Storm Roux started Hay’s first game in charge and hasn’t been capped since, Dane Ingham’s been picked ahead of him here.
Both Alex Greive and Matt Gould were tacked onto the last squad after others withdrew. Both are picked from the outset here. Greive was undeniable but Gould must’ve made a nice impression because Max Crocombe’s playing at the same level and has been capped before. Both the guys they replaced (ADJ & Marinovic) have also been picked so that’s cool.
Plus we’re gonna get the first glimpse of Kosta Barbarouses in an All Whites jersey since the last intercontinental playoffs against Peru in November 2017. Not sure how it happened but he’s been sitting on 47 caps for more than four years. Good ol’ Kosta. Hopefully he adds to his four international goals because he’s a damn sight better than that strike-rate suggests (having had to play in some very creatively dire All Whites teams over the years).
But the main man of this All Whites squad has gotta be Winston Reid. He was one of the most anticipated names in the Flying Kiwis January Transfer Window bucket and yet he never ended up doing anything. Danny Hay mentioned last All Whites tour that he’d been training with a local UAE club having moved to the country to work on his fitness after being released by West Ham but nothing’s eventuated there either. Maybe, just maybe, he’s been keeping himself available for this All Whites journey?
Once upon a time Winston Wiremu Reid launched himself into legendary status with a last-gasp equalising header for the All Whites against Slovakia at the 2010 World Cup. It was his fourth cap and still to this day his only goal for the AWs. That goal made him an instant hero and pretty soon he was playing for West Ham United in the English Premier League.
A decade later his West Ham journey has come to an end and while he’s still got several years of good club football in him... there’s maybe not that much else he feels he needs to achieve there. Not compared to the international scene, which he so often had to sacrifice for his Premier League career, having only earned 27 caps since his debut a dozen years ago. He hasn’t played against an OFC nation since New Caledonia in 2013 (and only twice else).
It could be that he sees his All Whites career as a case of unfinished business. And here he is, at this transitional stage of his career where he’s without a club having been so heavily guarded by WHU in the past, with this opportunity to bring his career full circle by qualifying for another World Cup. Back in 2010 he was an exciting emerging talent who found himself under the wings of iconic leaders like Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott. This time he’s part of a team with a whole wave of emerging talent as good as we’ve ever seen... except now he’s in the Nelsen/Elliott role. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. Let’s embrace it.
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