NZ are in the playoff with Mexico with the first leg at the Azteca tomorrow. Mexico who are usually in the top 2 in CONCACAF surprisingly finished 4th and would have finished 5th if USA hadn't scored twice in injury time against Panama in the in the last qualifying game.
Mexico should thrash NZ in theory but you never know. They are on their 4th coach in 2 months and he has only picked domestic based players, mostly from the club he left to take the job, so leaving out the likes of Hernandez, Vela etc based in Europe. NZ suffered a massive blow with their captain Winston Reid getting injured in West Ham training last week. He's their only player playing at such a high club level. The next closest being a couple of players in the championship - Chris Wood who plays for Leicester (he scored that goal last week when Almunia kicked the ball in his face) and Tommy Smith of Ipswich.
To put it in perspective, there are 2 players in tomorrow's starting lineup who have not been able to find a professional club to sign them this season so have just been training and playing the odd game in local club leagues, and one from the amateur NZ national league although he (Ivan Vicelich) did play in the Dutch Eredivisie for a long time and has just been winding down his career playing for Auckland City. He's ancient now though as they pulled him out of retirement for the playoff 4 years ago and he's still in the team now! The rest of the starting 11 are from the A League.
Am going to the 2nd leg in Wellington next week so it would be nice if the tie can at least still be alive going into it. Am not an NZ fan but would still rather go to a match that means something. Would expect Mexico to win 3 or 4-0 at home though.
flobaba wrote:
@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Rvp injury pwease
He already withdrew from the Netherlands squad due to 'injury'
Funny how he never missed the internationals "injured" when he played for us. He just usually missed the rest of the season injured after playing in them!
