Ilford and the All Whites
I’ve been reading and listening to the response to the All Whites making the FIFA World Cup (because we all know it’s quite different to just the World Cup) from the Pommy media .
One comment was that the All Whites were a bunch of no-name journeymen … plus Ryan Nelsen.
Kind of reminds me of a similar comment about the NZ cricket team when Hadlee was the main event:
Graham Gooch once described New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee-led bowling attack as “World XI at one end and Ilford 2nd XI at the other”.
Mind you, as Peter Williams points out on TVNZ , there were some fairly handy cricketers in the Ilford Seconds:
“You look around the guys in the bowling attack – Derek Stirling, Willie Watson, Evan Gray – really good guys all of them but you wouldn’t call them amongst the greats of New Zealand cricket.”
“After being 144/5 New Zealand made 413 – guess who got the runs? Numbers six, seven and eight. Nothing has really changed. Evan Gray made 50 (his highest test score), Hadlee 68 and John Bracewell – batting at number eight – made 110.”
Not to mention that the same Ilford Second XI was competent enough to beat the might of England in England.
The point is that the only exposed form that the Pomgolians rate is in their own backyard. If they don’t know ‘em, they don’t rate them.
It is kind of ironic too, that the Poms have damned the All Whites because the sole goal scorer is in a team struggling in the Championship (the division below the EPL).
Given that most of the EPL teams are made up of players from everywhere apart from Mother England, it smacks of a bit of hypocrisy.
And as I pointed out today this blog’s Sunderland correspondent, NZ has actually drawn its last two games against UK opposition – Scotland and Wales. I’m sure that Scotland or Wales would be considered worthy by the same hacks.
Anyway, it’s all irrelevant now. We’ve made it.
And no, Ireland can’t join Oceania.
