Match 12: New Zealand - Slovakia Post-Match Thread [R]

Mani · Jun 16, 2010

Albirrojo said: ↑

Iran is a tough place to win if they did that there.

Not to take anything away from the New Zealanders but I wonder if Oceania and however there qualifying goes is not as tough now with Australia joining Asia. I know Australia had trouble qualifying in the playoffs so New Zealand deserve full credit.

But North Korea also had to go through qualifying and I'm sure there is a certain attitude if one wants to win in Iran or Saudi Arabia. I don't expect them to be the best at the World Cup but I don't think there record would indicate clearly they are the worst. I don't know how much better New Zealand would do going to play in Teheran or in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I saw there home games against South Korea, they hustle and I think that is to their advantage. Defense is a part of the game too. I don't see NK though engaged in acts that bring the game into disrepute, diving, being overly physical and things. That's a plus for them. They seem rather sporting.
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Naw, North Korea lost in Iran 2-1. It was the decisive game in North Korea that Latin Pride is talking about, which ended 0-0.

Amazingly, during the match in Iran, even when North Korea were loosing, they were still defending with 11 men. They take defensive tactics to a whole new level.

Iran Captain Javad Nekounam on DPR Korea

“They are a very hard team to beat. They were very defensive to the point of being unreal. Even when they were 1-0 down, they closed up. It was unbelievable,” he continued, speaking of Iran’s 2-1 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying victory over Kim Jong-Hun’s side in October 2008.
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The Jitty Slitter · Jun 17, 2010

With australia gone this was NZ's big chance to qualify - our group was laughably easy. In the past Australia have had to then go on and play someone from South America. We had to beat bharain.

I doubt it'll stay this way.

Ceres · Jun 17, 2010

Caesar said: ↑

I'm not suggesting that he'd be in the first-choice starting XI, but as a squad player? It's not like you've got a surplus of versatile right-sided defenders in their early 20s.
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Dont get me wrong, I think that Ried is a talented player, who is also going to move abroad and make it in one of the bigger leagues in Europe, but ther were no real future for him on the Danish NT, and I'm happy that he chose to play for New Zealand instead... The Danish league always develop lots of talent (both Danish and foreign) and Denmark have around 50 players in the top-5 leagues of Europe (and 17 players in the Dutch league at the moment), so personally I think young "foreigners" like Ried should chose to play for their own country, rather than chosing a slim option to play a few caps for Denmark.
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