Smith Impresses as New Zealand Lose
Friday, 4th Jun 2010 23:34

Central defender Tommy Smith won his fourth New Zealand cap as the All Whites lost 3-1 to Slovenia in Maribor on Friday evening. The match was New Zealand's final Europe-based friendly before the squad travels to South Africa for the World Cup.

Smith again impressed on the left of a three-man defence with New Zealand TV channel NZTV suggesting that the 20-year-old has cemented his place in coach Ricki Herbert’s first team: “The Ipswich lad goes from strength to strength in the national colours.

"Hardly put a foot wrong on Saturday and looked composed on his forays forward. Looks to have sealed the left-sided central defender spot, which will be tough on Ivan Vicelich if that is the case.”

Plymouth’s Rory Fallon scored New Zealand’s goal with former Town target Milivoje Novakovic netting twice for Slovenia and Andraz Kirm adding the third for one of England’s group opponents in South Africa.

New Zealand have one more training game with Chile in South Africa on June 9th before they start their World Cup campaign against Slovakia in Rustenburg on June 15th. Matches against Paraguay and Italy follow.

Photo: Action Images

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mickeyjb added 23:43 - Jun 4 Turning out to be a nice little bonus for us his international experience, however can anyone actually see NZ winning a game?
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martleshamitfc added 23:50 - Jun 4 Nope, but can only be good experience for Tommy. God lad who will be in the Town 1st team alot next season.
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generalpublic added 00:29 - Jun 5 reckon NZ have got as much chance as england of winning a game
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pacificblue added 01:12 - Jun 5 As a Blue living in NZ I have to say that sadly the All Whites have very little chance of winning a game. Their defence will do OK but going forward they have a real lack of goal threat, when Shane Smeltz is your primary striker you're in trouble.
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kiwiblue added 07:59 - Jun 5 of course, although brazil may be difficult in the final but its game of two halves. and any one can win it yeh right bro
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generalpublic added 13:03 - Jun 5 pacificblue you almost described town last season. i have heard that shane smeltz is twice the player chopra is.
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pacificblue added 14:02 - Jun 5 Twice the size maybe. Smeltz does alright down here in the A League but this is the league where Paul Ifill was probably the best player of the season playing for the Phoenix.
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NorfolknWay added 11:27 - Jun 6

Ifill was brilliant for the Phoenix last season, and I shouldn't think a job in the Championship would be beyond him. On the other hand, when it comes to being an out and out striker he wasn't as good as Smeltz. Although some may sneer at the A League it certainly holds it's own with the Championship. And winning the golden boot for two seasons in a row is a good achievement in any league. Consistency is one of the marks of a truly great striker.

Robbie Fowler made the point last year that he thought Smeltz was top class. Possibly Fowler just likes paying compliments, but he didn't need to. In a warm up game before the Confederations Cup Smeltz scored against the front line Italian defence. That's no mean feat. It's not as if the Italians were taking it easy just because it was a friendly. You don't want to muck about with your selection chances just before a major tournament.

Anyway, time will tell about Smeltz, Smith and all of the NZ squad. I shouldn't expect them to surprise like the Australians did last time, but I think they will show that they have more than one or two useful players. As for Ifill, if he can repeat the form of last season then one could well consider the merit of tempting him back to England!