New Zealand made their debut in World Cup 28 years ago. This is the second time they are going to play a World Cup. New Zealand where Rugby and Cricket get the top priority, Football remained a step son for a good long time. On the road to South Africa, they started with consecutive 5 victories in the Oceania Group. Then a penalty save of Paston in the playoff against Bahrain gave them the ticket of this World Cup 2010.Captain and Center back Nelsen is undoubtedly a high profile play maker in this team. He is the only players who have been playing in the English Premier League. Again they have a very good attacking zone ruled by Smelt. He is dangerously finishing skill equally in leg and air. Oh! Forget to mention Kris Killen, Fallon, and Kris Wood three perfect penalty shooters. On the other hand accumulating some players of average standard, the Slovakia are increasing their skill. In their qualifying round, they gradually increased themselves. Their main attraction is Martin Squaretail playing in heavyweight team like Liverpool.
Match Schedule
June 15, 2010 Monday
Kick off 11:30 GMT
A comparative study
Comparative field
New Zealand
Slovakia
FIFA ranking
78
34
Highest FIFA ranking
47 (August 2002)
17 (May 1997)
Elo ranking
74
48 (tied with Poland)
Highest Elo ranking
39 (June 1983)
28 (May 2001)
Biggest win
New Zealand 13 – 0 Fiji
Slovakia 7 – 0 Liechtenstein
Biggest defeat
New Zealand 0 – 10 Australia
Argentina 6 – 0 Slovakia
Confederations Cup
Appeared 3 times Round 1, 1999, 2003 and 2009
n/a
OFC Nations Cup
Appeared 8 times & Champions, 1973, 1998, 2002 and 2008
n/a
World Cup
World Cup & Best result
Appeared 2 times and Round 1, 1982
First in 2010
Match played
3
n/a
Match won
0
n/a
Match drawn
0
n/a
Match lost
3
n/a
Goals
2/12
n/a
Points
1/18
n/a
Friendly Matches
Friendly matches victory
Serbia,
none
Friendly matches loses
Australia, Slovenia,
none
Friendly matches drawn
none
Cameroon,
From the above comparison I would like to give New Zealand 60% marks and Slovakia 50% marks. What about you?
Let’s guess the result of this game. I think the result will be New Zealand 0-0 Slovakia! What do you think?