Not what you’d call a vintage performance from Hudson’s Heroes, but there’s still plenty to be said for getting the result. A couple scrappy goals, a few very good chances aside from that and three points to start this phase of World Cup qualifying off on a positive enough note.

And look, we’ve all sat through much worse performances from this lot… against this team even. When they played New Caledonia in the Nations Cup it was an eye-bulgingly dull affair. 90 minutes of nails being dragged along a chalkboard – which was in fact the same metaphor used in the title of TNC’s match report from that one. The All Whites won on that occasion, making their way into the final with a 1-0 victory courtesy of this brilliant bit of placement from Chris Wood:

Yeah… safe to say the New Caledonians came to Auckland with a different keeper to start. Young fella Thomas Schmidt, who’s been a part of youth grade teams in the past few years. And his name is Schmidt. All DAY, son!

Obviously the All Whites had gone through a couple changes since these two teams last met, but so have New Caledonia. Only five players that started that game started this one, with a few of the better NC players left behind due to club commitments – if only the Phoenix had that pull, aye? Over on the kiwi side there were four familiar faces from the 1-0er back in June, though Mike McGlinchey presumably would have started if fit.

Initially, when I looked at the team they named there were suspicions that it might be a four-man defence. 4-2-3-1 is something Hudson has flirted with in the past. But of course there was no reason to change a working system and 5-3-2 it was. The confusion came from Bill Tuiloma being named amongst that defensive trio. Given he’s our only genuine midfielder, that was a bit demoralising in terms of the All Whites' ambition for this one.

As was the fact that Liam Graham was somehow named ahead of Mike Boxall… though it turned out that The Box was suspended so no worries. Well… except for the fact that Kip Colvey is better than Liam Graham (as, arguably, is Storm Roux who wasn’t selected at all). Maybe a split in game time over the two fixtures, that’d seem logical.

So that meant a midfield with Ryan Thomas playing deeper than usual and Clayton Lewis hovering somewhere around him, those two chilling with Marco Rojas zipping about in front of them. Kosta and Woody up topskees.

Before the game began, they played the national anthems. As per custom. And safe to say the New Caledonian team looked bloody freezing as they were treated to a bit of Auckland weather, ranging from the mildly chilly to blustering with some of that sporadic rainfall too. My prediction was that we’d see a difficult first half and then roll them over in the second half. The first part of that was true.

Three and a half minutes in, Woody fired a free kick from range not so far from the top corner. For a second there, it was like he was gonna provide the aesthetic correction for that one he scored against them last time but nah, just wide and a lil high. That’s a part of his game that’s slowly developing though, he can really strike that ball. Hopefully there are a few trainees at Leeds willing to hang around and chase after the ones that miss the target for him after training.

But it was all a tease as far as the game went, for the rest of the initial half hour there was bugger all to shout about. The game plodded along and the kiwi side couldn’t really be said to dominate possession either. A shame, because when they did look to keep the ball on the ground and string the odd one-two then they looked really good. Yet instead we saw that bitch of a long ball strategy coming out and with a swirling breeze, not even Chris Wood was able to get on the end of most of them. Themi was especially to blame there, he didn’t look like he could play a short pass if his life depended on it. Oh nah but he’s a no-nonsense defender so let’s all say how great he played.

Anyway, Ryan Thomas is a great player to have back and fit again. Some will have shivered at him played in a deep midfield role but he’s done that a few times for PEC Zwolle, in fact he can play anywhere in midfield that guy. He looked sharp though the game wasn’t really played through him. A bit after the 30 minute mark, Huddo finally bit the bullet and chucked Tui into midfield, a move that we’ve gotta give him credit for making.

Up until then, the wing backs had been caught out trying to find the balance between attack and defence. The NC wingers were only too happy to run in behind and although that didn’t lead to very many shots or even chances, it did contribute to a big disparity in crosses into the box in the opening half. Going to a more standard back four meant that Wynne & Graham couldn’t push forward as often but it made a big difference to the defensive shape and having Billy T in the middle was a boost too. We needed more physicality there and he provided that. He’s so good at shouldering buggers off the ball – he must’ve done that five separate times here.

Pretty much immediately after the change, Wood thwacked a free kick against the post. A lovey ball swung back in from Graham was half cleared and Lewis had a pop that was almost deflected nicely by a kiwi player in the box. New Caledonia then broke and a couple bits of impatient defending later (specifically a sliding tackle from Tuiloma that took him out of the play) they were on attack and threatening themselves. It was the best 60 seconds of the game, the only time it really got frantic and it kinda makes you wonder why the All Whites wouldn’t want to open it up like that more often. The closer, the tighter the game the more it trends in New Caledonia’s favour, really.

A few minutes later, Themi did his lumping thing again but this time Wood met it perfectly with a flick on header into the path of Kosta, who’d already read the move and was sprinting past his strike partner. Now, if we’re gonna play that way, this is the ideal plan. Wood coming back, dragging a defender out and leaving space behind for Barbarouses to run into. Only problem was Kosta’s shot came back off the same post that Wood had already pummelled, leaving it ringing like a tuning fork.

The goal did come before the half though, and it came from the best bit of football they played all day. After Tuiloma had sorta won a defensive header, Liam Graham had every chance to hoof the ball away. Instead he lobbed it short to Rojas, who flicked it past the one oppo player in the vicinity for Thommo moving forward. He hit Lewis who found Barba. Kosta played the ball in for Wood and with that the All Whites were hot on attack. Wood left the ball behind him but Rojas picked it up and it did get scrappy from there, to be fair, as Rojas’ reverse pass for Wood was blocked only to fall back into his path and his shot was deflected over the keeper for the goal. Hey, those things go your way when you can rattle the defence with pace on the break.

It’s not too hard to tell that Anthony Hudson learned a few things from his time with Jose Mourinho when you watch the second half of this one. They kept it tight and eventually reverted back to the three-CB thing with the ball going deep once more. Guys like Ryan Thomas faded from the game pretty substantially with the ball going over his head rather than to his feet and there honestly wasn’t too much of note that happened. A couple subs, sure. Moses Dyer and Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi got a run, as did Monty Patterson. A very young All Whites squad, this one. Chris Wood the captain doesn’t even turn 25 ‘til December.

New Caledonia’s best chance came a bit after HT when Liam Graham was a too generous with his marker, trying to show him down the line but still offering enough room for Roy Kayara to whip the ball into the box on his right foot and Cesar Zeoula was soon slamming his fist into the turf for missing the target with his header.

The second goal came with 71 mins on the clock, a Wood knock down header to Monty then squared back in his direction but the Leeds striker got his feet a bit tangled. Trying to improvise with a back-heel, he accidentally/fortunately mishit it right in the path of Marco Rojas who buried it from… let’s be generous and say about a metre out. Good-O, Marco’s been knocking them away lately and he doubled his international tally here.

Needless to say the game was iced from there on, which was disappointing given goal difference may still matter in this competition. It’s a group thing after all. I guess it all depends on how they’re planning to hit the away leg on Tuesday night, here’s hoping they don’t shut up shop completely.

The thing is, apart from Wood being great at the hold-up stuff, we don’t really have the personnel to play that way. All of our midfielders are young/small and not very many of them are direct players either. Thomas, Rojas, McGlinchey, etc. … they’re all better playing short passes and possession footy. It would’ve been nice to see them emphasise that more in this game but Hudson has long since shown himself to be a pragmatic chap. Just like that fellow Jose, he’s happy enough with a 2-0 rather than taking any risks in putting them away further.

And to be fair, he will have expected his team to play a little better than they did. It was disjointed in places and plain sloppy in others. But they were good enough to get the job done with a few positive signs in there too. Hopefully Wood can get on the scoresheet next time, you feel he deserves a bit more reward for the work he puts in for this team. Rojas was good as well. He never completely fits with the All Whites’ way of playing but popping up in the right place for a couple goals shows he’s feeling it after his hot A-League form and let’s just say that it’s nice to have Andrew Durante back too.

The other thing to remember is that this team hadn’t played at home for bloody ages, which was definitely a factor. Particularly in the first half, as the stuff they ended up playing in the second stanza was on the whole a lot better, it’s just that they lacked much urgency with the lead already established. Might have been tricky had New Caledonia equalised but then they never looked too likely. All in all, they did enough. Nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile in the other group…