The All Whites have confirmed their squad for the Confederations Cup and… it’s exactly the same as the squad they already have, preparing for the Confederations Cup. Sweet as, this was what we’d all expected from the start so all that means is that there haven’t been any sneaky injuries or bust ups in camp yet. Nobody tweaked an ankle or said anything mean about Huddo’s mum.

Which is to say that so far it’s all going to plan. Obviously a win over Northern Ireland woulda helped but it was the first game of the tour so they were hardly gonna be firing on all cylinders yet. Since then they’ve also had a hit out against Cabinteely and came away from that one with a 5-2 win.

Again, not a result that matters much but despite the call that they’d look to play the back end of the squad here, Uncle Tony sent out what was pretty much a top strength team. Glen Moss came in for Stefan Marinovic, Deklan Wynne came in for Tommy Doyle and Bill Tuiloma came in for Clayton Lewis. You’d imagine that Mari remains the numero uno over Mossy despite it but the other two might just hint towards a slightly altered first XI.

Which would mean: Marinovic / Colvey, Boxall, Durante, Smith, Wynne / McGlinchey, Tuiloma, Thomas / Rojas, Wood

You can make a few arguments there if you want, the central defence looks sorted unless Sam Brotherton overdoses on spinach and nicks in there ahead of Dura, but that’s extraordinarily unlikely – Themi’s ahead of him on the depth chart but the main problem with Dura is his pace and, frankly, Themi’s not solving that. The fullbacks are healthy for debate since there’s been a near constant rotation there (and there could be more even at the Confeds, tbh) while Bill Tuiloma surely demanded his selection in the second half of that Northern Ireland game. Nice to see we’ve a settled XI there, as well as a settled squad. When they roll out of the tunnel at the ‘Tournament of Champions’ (which nobody other than NZ Football is calling it, but fair play), they’ll still only be New Zealand. But so far so good in terms of giving the lads the best possible preparation.

Tommy Smith scored from a corner almost straight away against Cabinteely, 79 seconds it took and Marco Rojas had already hit the post before that. Then they conceded. Then Woody scored two in three minutes before Tui gave away a spottie. Kosta and Smeltzy each found the net in the second half. Those two were on because Anthony Hudson went and made nine changes at half-time, with Bill Tuiloma and Tommy Smith the only survivors – Tamati Williams, Tom Doyle, Storm Roux, Clayton Lewis, Shane Smeltz, Kosta Barbarouses, Alex Rufer, Dane Ingham and Themi Tzimopoulos all coming on. Then Smithy went off with half an hour left, Sam Brotherton getting a few mins in his place. The only two dudes who didn’t play at all were Stefan Marinovic and Monty Patterson, each of whom played against Northern Ireland. For the record, the locals also made a whole bunch of subs at the break, ten of them in fact.

Make a formation of that if you can, they were probably all straight swaps – which means Alex Rufer is considered a backup for Ryan Thomas and Storm Roux becomes an Azpilicueta-esque option at RCB, replacing Boxall. About all you can muster from that which could be relevant down the road.

There’s not much footage of the game and there doesn’t really need to be. But there are quite a few cool stories about it as the Cabinteely fans appear to have really embraced the occasion. It helped that Cabinteely FC are also in the middle of their 50th anniversary celebrations. You can argue that they shouldn’t have conceded two goals there but who really cares? It was a practice game and we’ve long since seen that the All Whites are a rather formidable defensive team… at least for their level.

With the camp in Dublin over, the team’s now leaving for Belarus where they’ll take on that lot in Minsk. That game kicks off at 5.00am NZT on Tuesday; it should be live on telly too. Belarus just lost 1-0 to Switzerland, not a terrible result, however they also lost 3-0 to Macedonia back in March which ain’t so flash. Came three days after losing 4-0 to Sweden as well. Being Eastern European and all they should be a little closer to the Russian style of which is probably why they were sounded out in the first place but they should also make for a winnable contest. It’d be handy going into the Confeds if the All Whites could get a win on the board, Hudson’s only got one of those that wasn’t against an Oceanian opposition. Belarus will be weaker than Northern Ireland and while the conditions will be tough they shouldn’t be any tougher than what is on the horizon in Russia.

Speaking of, those conditions are under a little scrutiny right now. Ticket sales have been pretty crap with none of the games sold out yet… although it sounds like Russians have a lot in common with kiwis in that walk-up sales are expected to be solid. There have been extra tickets allocated for some games so at least they’re confident.

Meanwhile security has been tightened once again – hey, this is Russia after all. Between the threats of hooliganism, terrorism and activism (one of those things is not like the other), Russia’s under a sharp focus to make sure this thing goes as smoothly as possible. A number of fans have been blacklisted from the event after prior troubles and the Kremlin have passed a decree that restricts how public gatherings can unfold over the course of the tournament. In other words, in a typically Russian manner, they’re cutting no corners.

This isn’t only an opportunity to show off the modern Russia to a global audience but it’s also a dress rehearsal for the much more significant FIFA World Cup next year.

Probably the biggest drama so far though has been the pitch in St Petersburg. Construction on the Krestovsky Stadium first broke ground in 2007 and was initially planned to be done by the end of 2008. Well, that didn’t happen. A 2011 completion date was pushed back with funding problems getting in the way but they finally got back on track in 2016. Zenit St. Petersburg will call the stadium their new home and it seats over 68,000 people for footy matches. Problem was the pitch was determined by FIFA to be unsuitable for play as the retractable field came with excessive levels of vibration. Something about the stability of the base, dunno.

Anyway it meant that Zenit didn’t get to test out their new pitch until near the end of the last season but after only two games the grass was so torn up that they requested to play their last home match at a different venue.

There hasn’t been a game there since but wouldn’t you know it New Zealand are scheduled to play there twice at the Confeds. Against Russia in the opening match and also against Portugal later on. Cameroon and Australia also have a match at the ground and the final is scheduled to be played there too. Assurances have been made that the pitch is ready to go now, we’ll have to trust it holds up over four games – the Krestovsky is also getting seven 2018 World Cup games including a semi-final and the third-placed playoff.

Doesn’t it seem like there’s always some major drama ahead of these tournaments though? Brazil’s World Cup was for damn sure full of them, their Olympics even more. Might be best just to close your eyes, plug your ears and chant ‘lalalalalala’ when people start talking about this stuff, otherwise it’ll soon ruin the World Cup completely. Because, erm… it’ ain’t getting any better when they take it to Qatar. Jeezus, FIFA, come on.

Anyway, shout out to the All Whites. So far so good and all that. Which doesn’t make it the tiniest bit likely that they’re gonna go out there are whup on Russia, Mexico and Portugal but a strong preparation at least means it won’t be any less likely. Gotta accept that we’re huge underdogs in every game, even the Russia game (they’re sitting there going: ‘Yeah, New Zealand. That’s the one we’ve gotta target!’ too). But get this team playing to their potential and with a little bit of luck you never quite know what could happen.

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