Soccer: Give boys a break, pleads embattled All Whites' boss

JOHANNESBURG - Ricki Herbert is pleading for understanding as he prepares to put out the All Whites against Iraq at the end of another forlorn Confederations Cup campaign tomorrow.

Herbert feels that much of the criticism levelled at his players after the 5-0 and 2-0 losses to Spain and South Africa in Rustenburg was unfair and ill-informed.

While admitting players cannot hide behind their lack of game time for some sub-par performances, he is amazed at what he sees as a lack of reasoned analysis.

He lists his players and how much football they have played in the lead-up to the tournament. It makes sorry reading.

Of the handful of players in the US and Europe, only Simon Elliott, now with San Jose, is playing regularly. The rest are, at best, bench players. Some are not that close.

Interestingly, Elliott and Ivan Vicelich, who has just come out of a New Zealand Football Championship season, have been, with goalkeeper Glen Moss, among the better performers.

"You can't back up at this level without the right preparation," said Herbert. "People have criticised us for the tentative start against South Africa but as a coach I was delighted that for 20 minutes we kept them scoreless. That was a huge turnaround after what happened against Spain.

"It is a Catch-22 situation. On the one hand we want to play players like Chris Killen but expecting him to back up and play four games on the trot when he hasn't been playing is a big ask.

"But more than the lack of scoring, I was more disappointed in our lack of ball retention when not under pressure and, at times, the distribution was not too clever.

"I don't know what I will do in naming the team to play Iraq," said Herbert. "We are keen to get our first point at a Confederations Cup but does that mean we make wholesale changes? I don't know.

"There were aspects of the game against South Africa I was not happy with.

"We didn't get close enough to them but we were up against some very good players. Steven Pienaar has been playing week in, week out at Everton. The Red Star Belgrade boy [Bernard Parker] scored two goals. We don't have players like that who have been playing and can bring that kind of experience."

Looking ahead to September with planned warm-up matches in the Middle East and the World Cup qualifiers against either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, Herbert says it will not be any easier.

"Home-based players like Ivan Vicelich, Aaron Scott and Andy Barron will not have started their NZFC season. Others, like Kris Bright, Chris Wood, Chris James, Chris Killen, Steven Old, Jarrod Smith, Andy Boyens and Duncan Oughton, have no guarantee of regular football.

"But give me another list of players I can consider and I will look at it."

Returning to the job at hand, Herbert admitted it was a big ask for the All Whites to beat Iraq.

"They have to beat us to qualify [for the semifinals] and we can expect them to be 300 per cent more attacking than when they played Spain," he said.

"We either try to shut everything down and get that elusive point - and a bit of history - or go into the game with a longer-term view and have a look at things like playing Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen together again."

NEW ZEALAND V IRAQ
Where: Ellis Park, Johannesburg
When: Tomorrow, 6am (NZ time) live SS2