Key’s cheeky All Whites prediction
Former Prime Minister John Key is hoping to see a few more goals out of the All Whites than they managed over the weekend.
The 55-year-old left parliament last week and used his more open schedule to stop in at All Whites training in Wellington on Monday, sharing words of wisdom and encouragement with the squad.
He also had a cheeky prediction that they would better their 2-0 win against Fiji in Lautoka on Saturday when meeting the same opposition at Westpac Stadium on Tuesday, drawing on the Wellington Phoenix’s 5-0 win against the Newcastle Jets at the same venue on Sunday night.
‘‘They [All Whites] won 2-0 last time, I think here anything is possible, the home crowd could spur them on a bit, maybe it will be like the Phoenix last night, 5-nil.’’
That information was met by a chuckle from All Whites winger Marco Rojas, who scored one of his team’s goals on Saturday, capitalising on a howler from Fijian goalkeeper Beniamino Mateinaqara.
‘‘We’d love that too...we welcome that pressure,’’ he said with a smile.
‘‘It’s nice to have him here, it’s always nice for people like that to come down and say a few words. He just wished us luck and I think it’s good for the boys to hear it coming from him.’’
Creating more clear-cut chances will be needed to aid Key in his prediction, but Rojas said they weren’t far away from doing that.
‘‘It was difficult over there, you’d love to always score lots of goals in every game, but I thought we did create a few chances, we had a couple [of goals] disallowed that maybe should have stood and little half chances that on another day might have gone in.
‘‘At home we’ll be looking to score more goals and create a lot more chances.’’
Playing on the carpet-like surface at Westpac Stadium should also help their chances after battling through the soft, long grass at Churchill Park in Lautoka.
That should allow the All Whites to play at a tempo which will put Fiji under a lot of pressure, Rojas said.
‘‘We played a bit of the first half [on Saturday] at their pace and that’s not what we want to do, we want to play at a higher tempo and try and suffocate them. We’ll look at that and see if we can put it into practise tomorrow.’’
Changes are afoot for the match, with the likes of Dane Ingham, Tom Doyle, Tommy Smith likely to get starts across the back five, while captain Chris Wood was absent from Monday’s training after picking up a knock on Saturday.
Shane Smeltz would get a start up front if Wood was unable to play, but centre back Andrew Durante expected Wood to be OK.
‘‘He should be all right, the big man is just getting a bit of treatment, he’s a little bit old now...he’ll be fine.’’
Durante said any alterations to the starting XI wouldn’t change how they approached the game.
‘‘I don’t think it will be challenging at all. Everyone understands the system well, the gaffer is really switched on and makes sure everyone knows their roles and expectations within the team.’’
A draw would be good enough for New Zealand to win group A of stage three of Oceania World Cup qualifying. Stage four is a home and away playoff against the winner of group B, which Tahiti currently leads.
"It's nice to have him [ John Key] here, it's always nice for people like that to come down and say a few words. He just wished us luck and I think it's good for the boys to hear it coming from him." All White Marcos Rojas