Opinion
Former All Whites and Auckland City coach Allan Jones joins the Herald on Sunday today as our World Cup columnist.
Ricki Herbert and the All Whites' coaching staff will not be able to get into work quickly enough after the match against Australia in Melbourne, as their Auckland preparation was so hampered by rain it was rendered almost ineffective.
Australian coach Pim Verbeek was pleased with the 2-1 victory but
not the overall performance, and he is not wrong.
Herbert will carry a reverse perspective into Austria where, like several other coaches, he has chosen to prepare at altitude - and rightly so.
New Zealand could have won, or at least got a positive result, from the match against Australia. From this distance, the coaching and medical staff will be concerned about the recovery of Leo Bertos and Ivan Vicelich but this will hopefully be nothing more than an inconvenience.
Then the real preparations can start. They will define the strengths of the side - such as the outstanding way in which Rory Fallon led the line and the organisational skills of Ryan Nelsen, aided and abetted by Vicelich and Ben Sigmund at the back.
All of the back three have a reasonable passing range and this is a big plus in the modern game when electing to play forward, either long or short.
The times when New Zealand went forward early to Fallon, he was killing the central pairing in the Australian defence, in particular the ageing Craig Moore.
The question for the coaches will be how and when do we get the ball to our strong central attacker - and who will make the support runs to pick up the pieces? The classic example of this was the beautifully cushioned knock down in the first half for vice-captain Tim Brown to shoot.
Unfortunately he pulled it wide of the back post and, even more unfortunately, Brown's tournament is now in danger.
I would like to see a greater variation of delivery to Fallon and Killen from both central and, in particular, flank areas. This would give them and the team an even greater opportunity for creating goalscoring chances.
I am certain the coaches will be putting in extra work to this effect so as to make it happen. From a defending perspective, while the back three stood up to the test, the secret to not having an abundance of goalscoring chances arise against us will be the tracking of runners into the box by our central midfield players in particular.
We must not allow players to run freely and unmarked into the back of our defence.
Defenders are affected by two things, the movement of the ball and the movements of players. Therefore, make the movement of the ball predictable and track all runners into the box.
People all over the country are asking how good this team is. Who knows, but I can state categorically that we have talented individual players, the attitude will be spot on, as it always is from Kiwi players.
I'm convinced, with the volume of expert support staff available, nothing will be overlooked in the detail required to ensure a sound performance in South Africa.
