Wood shows his pedigree Hudson right to use tough love
It was the Solomon Islands’ coach who summed up Chris Wood’s impact the best, in the wake of his side’s loss to the All Whites on Friday.
‘‘He plays in the Premier League, [he] just signed a huge contract and the other day at Wembley [he] scored an equalising goal against Tottenham,’’ said Felipe VegaArango Alonso.
‘‘We are talking about Tottenham, not Solomon Warriors, with all my respect to Solomon Warriors, and we didn’t do the job. It’s tough; you want to stop him but how do you stop him?
‘‘It’s like New Zealand and Portugal, how do you stop Cristiano Ronaldo? You have a plan and you just try to see it implemented, but it’s still hard.’’
Wood, who was released yesterday along with Ryan Thomas for the second leg by coach Anthony Hudson, isn’t anywhere close to Ronaldo, really, but as far as the Solomon Islands were concerned, they might as well have been one and the same.
The Burnley striker finished with a hat-trick, consisting of a firsttime finish, a delicate chip, and a curling free kick, but he could have had four or five more, as he turned in the most dominant performance by a New Zealand footballer in years, even allowing for the quality of the opposition.
It was the 25-year-old’s second international hat-trick, following the one he scored against the same team five years ago.
Back then, he was League club West Albion, but spending time out on loan.
‘‘I’ve changed a 20,’’ said Wood game.
‘‘I’ve learned a hell of a lot, and I’ll have learned another hell of a lot when I’m 30 in five years time.’’
Wood’s potential has been obvious since he left New Zealand as a schoolboy, but he has had to work hard to get to where he is now.
He has worn the shirts of 10 different English teams and, wherever he has gone, he has always scored at Premier Bromwich most of his lot since I was after Friday’s My goal and the team’s goal is to get to the World Cup. goals – 102 in 297 appearances, to go with 23 games for the All Whites.
For a long time, it seemed like he might never get the real crack at the Premier League he so desired. He left West Brom for Leicester when they were a division below; then left Leicester for Leeds United when they were the same.
While he was biding his club in 53 time, and putting in the hard yards, those around him were taking notice, and so they weren’t surprised when he finally made an upward move, from Leeds to Burnley, last month.
For six months at the start of 2015, Wood crossed paths with Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, when they both found themselves among the wider squad at Leicester.
Schwarzer was a guest on The Totally Football Show last month, and when the conversation turned to Burnley’s collection of strikers, he singled out his former teammate as one to watch.
‘‘The only thing I would say is that Chris Wood brings a little bit extra. He’s got that extra little bit of quality. When I was with him at Leicester for six months, he was carrying a lot of weight, he was coming back from injury and was struggling to lose it.
‘‘He’s got himself into shape, and he’s scoring goals. Technically, he’s very, very good at finishing.’’
As he scored his hat-trick on Friday, Wood rose rapidly up the All Whites’ all-time goalscoring charts, passing Brian Turner (21), and Steve Sumner (22), so that he now only sits behind Shane Smeltz (24) and Vaughan Coveny (29).
He will top that list in no time but, for now, while such honours are nice, he has a singular focus.
‘‘I’m sure when I finish playing, [records] will mean a lot more,’’ he said. ‘‘My goal, and the team’s goal, is to get the World Cup, and we need to take that a step at a time.’’
At the 2010 World Cup, Wood was still a teenager, and behind Chris Killen, Rory Fallon, and Smeltz in the pecking order.
Despite his youth, coach Ricki Herbert still gave him a chance in every game.
‘‘We haven’t been there for seven years, at the World Cup,’’ said Wood. ‘‘I got a taste of it in South Africa, which was lovely, but I want to go there.’’
It seemed mean, cruel even, to chuck young fullback Dane Ingham out of the All Whites for eating too many caramel slices, but kudos to coach Anthony Hudson for upholding the standards he’d set.
The All Whites, to borrow the words of coach Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, in the movie Miracle, are not talented enough to win on talent alone. Indeed, few teams are any more.
No, given the All Whites’ technical shortcomings compared to the likes of recent opponents Russia, Mexico and Portugal and their future South American opponents, if they’re to have any chance at all they need to be at 100 per cent in every other facet of the game. Tactics. Psychology. And fitness. Hudson required his players to turn up to camp in condition to play international football. Evidently Ingham didn’t measure up.
A skin-fold test (i.e. a blubber test) revealed an unacceptable level of adipose tissue (i.e. blubber). In other words, he was sporting a one-pack. More Willie Foulkes than Cristiano Ronaldo. Next up was a beep test.
(Note: The Beep Test is not, as commonly thought, named after the Roadrunner. Nor is it a competition to see who can swear the most. It’s a test whereby the victim runs back and forward between markers, keeping pace with a recorded beep. The intervals between beeps shorten as the test progresses. Eventually the victim can no longer keep up with the beeps and, if he’s a serious footballer who’s tried his hardest, collapses in a world of oxygen debt, unable to talk, on or beyond level 16. If he’s one of the many slackers who inhabit first teams around the country, he’ll stop at about level 9, commenting breezily ‘‘Whew, that was tough.’’)
We haven’t been told what the pass mark was for the All Whites, but Ingham – who, with his All Whites place on the line, would have been highly motivated – fell short and was red-carded by the coach.
Strong action by Hudson, but probably effective. No-one is likely to repeat the mistake.
Clearly, the modern footballer needs to be as adept at passing a bakery as he is at passing a ball.
One might wonder how important the skin-fold test is. What does it matter if a player is carrying an extra kilo or two if he can still get around the field quickly?
The answer lies in marketing. Hudson knows that to grab a slice No-one is likely to repeat the mistake. of market share off the All Blacks, his players need to look just as good as Dan Carter and Sonny Bill in briefs.
OK, so the bit about Willie Foulkes, the 152kg goalkeeper who played for Chelsea in the late 19th century, is a slight exaggeration.
To the untrained eye, Ingham looks as fit as a buck rat. But Hudson had drawn a line in the sand, and Ingham strayed over it.
A coach needs to be careful when laying down blanket rules. No problem to shed a player like Ingham when there are adequate replacements, but what happens if a key player, Chris Wood for instance (who’s never looked leaner and meaner, by the way), turns up out of shape?
Does he put him back on the plane, or just tell him, ‘‘Chrissy lad, we’re doing a beep test tomorrow morning, so we’ve arranged a press conference for you at the same time. Just remember to hold your gut in, and keep away from the sausage rolls.’’