He’s starting to make some progress
After the World Cup playoff loss to Peru, football writers and debate the future of All Whites coach Anthony Hudson.
Bear with us, Anthony, if you will. These past four years have been a shambles at times. You’ve been the public face of an organisation that can struggle to operate a fax machine.
There was the eligibility saga, in which some of your players were not New Zealanders in the eyes of Fifa.
There was the Alex Jones transfer debacle, in which New Zealand Football’s blunder cost the Wellington Phoenix a short-term transfer.
Then there is the fact NZF couldn’t secure regular matches for the national side, which I’ll touch on shortly.
What I’m saying is, it wasn’t your fault. Well, not all of it, and it feels like things might finally be turning the corner.
You’ve been dudded by people not knowing the basics, and still come out and got the team playing at a decent level.
It made you a grump at times. We get it. You came here with certain expectations, like the fairly reasonable assumption that the team you were coaching would play some actual games.
And it’s made you embellish your record at times. Hey, if I’d barely coached over the past four years, I’d include games I’d overseen with the kids in my coaching record as well.
But in these past few months, when all the tinkering and squad building was put aside and you brought together the team you wanted, things started to click.
I’m not getting carried away. New Zealand did well against Peru, but were outplayed. It’s hard to claim a moral victory when you have no shots on target over 180 minutes of football.
But the team still exceeded expectations. To stifle a South American team for much of those 180 minutes was a minor miracle given the quality they have, and the preparation New Zealand had.
Since you took charge, a full international schedule would have seen New Zealand play 42 matches under your tutelage, prior to Peru. Instead, you played 25.
Where would the All Whites have been with an extra 17 games under their belts? Imagine if even half of those were against non-ofc opposition.
Despite the limitations, you’ve probably put the best All Whites side we’ve seen on the park.
With the age of the team and the trajectory of some of the players, in four years time it will be even better.
Of course, if off-field issues continue, you might not get much time to work with the team during the next cycle.
But if you choose to stay, and it’s clear you’ll have options, I believe this team could make the next World Cup.
In the process you’d likely go down as New Zealand’s finest ever national team coach.
Whether that means anything, I don’t know, but it would be great to see you give it a go.