All Whites want to be early risers
In an ideal world, the All Whites would thump the Solomon Islands at QBE Stadium in Auckland tonight.
Something like 5-1 or 6-1, the two previous scorelines they’ve had on New Zealand soil would be great, but even a margin half the size would do.
If that were to be the case, they could take a breath and relax, heading into the second leg in Honiara on Tuesday.
But everyone knows that even the best-laid plans don’t always come to fruition.
‘‘That’s the plan,’’ said coach Anthony Hudson, when asked if his team were hoping to effectively put the World Cup qualifying tie to bed in the first leg tonight (kickoff 7.35pm).
‘‘But when you get to finals and these situations, it’s not straight forward. They’re always tricky games.
‘‘What we’ll probably find is the kind of game we played against Fiji and New Caledonia at home, where they’re going to be very stubborn.
‘‘I don’t think they’re going to come and attack really, [they’ll] counter attack, so irrespective of where the team is, it’s going to be a really tricky game.
‘‘Obviously we have the mindset that we want to go and finish the game off on Friday night. We want to be strong, we want to be aggressive, we want to set the tempo of the game.
‘‘We want to control the game and we want to push for the whole game to make sure we have a big enough advantage and that the tie is done.
‘‘But we’re prepared either way, whichever way it goes.’’
Hudson wouldn’t be drawn on what margin he had in mind as a target, but anything bigger than one goal would make the Solomon Islands’ task very difficult - the All Whites have only conceded once to a Pacific island team in nine games under Hudson, and that was from the penalty spot in a 3-1 win over Fiji last May.
Once tonight’s game is done and dusted, whatever the result, the All Whites will stay in Auckland for another two days, before heading to Honiara early on Monday, where they will arrive only slightly more than 24 hours before kickoff in the second leg.
It’s a decision that prioritises recovery from tonight over acclimatisation for Tuesday, and it’s one Hudson is happy with.
‘‘We’ve been to a few places now, a few different islands. It’s not always easy to train in certain places; we’ve gone early, we’ve gone late - I think we went late into New Caledonia [last November], late into Fiji [in March], and what [going late] allows us to do is have a good training session here, where the pitches are different.
‘‘That works for us, we’re in and out, the players are in New Zealand longer - some players don’t spend a lot of time in New Zealand, so it’s good to be home and have that sort of feel.’’