Soccer: Herbert's big gamble

Ricki Herbert. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Ricki Herbert has always been keen on a wager. Tomorrow he is taking the biggest gamble of his life. And, he won't have a dollar on it.

After weeks of speculation, Herbert has laid out his cards and come up with a radically different game plan for the greatest challenge of his coaching career.

No pussy-footing around in seemingly going for broke in the opening, away leg of the winner-take-all Asia/Oceania World Cup playoff in Manama.

He wants his players to shrug off the shackles. While not giving them carte blanche to attack, he is certainly encouraging his talent-laden strikeforce to take the game to the home team's defence.

The formation Herbert is going with suggests he sees this as the best ploy given the way he expects Bahrain to play. He probably does not even see it as a gamble.

On the eve of what promises to be a career-defining moment, Herbert has gone away from what most would see as the norm and come up with a game plan and strategy best-suited to nullify the opposition.

Gone is the conventional four-at-the-back defence. In comes a talented three-strong line led by inspirational captain Ryan Nelsen with uncompromising Ben Sigmund and the squad's most experienced player Ivan Vicelich as his lieutenants.

He has then gone for a four-man midfield with Leo Bertos and Tony Lochhead providing the width as wing backs - a role rarely seen in New Zealand teams at any level. They will have Simon Elliott and Tim Brown inside them legging it in the engine room.

But it is up front where this team can be an excitement machine.

Rarely has a New Zealand side been able to put out three players with such renowned scoring ability in tandem.

Chris Killen and Shane Smeltz have always been prolific both for club and country but rarely have they played together. They now get that chance and have the height and exuberance of new boy Rory Fallon to complement their goal-grabbing skills.

On paper it is encouraging but there is still much hard work to be done if Herbert and his team are to leave the kingdom with a result which will keep hopes of sealing the deal in Wellington alive.

Bahrain only need to look back one match to their last-ditch 2-2 away draw with Saudi Arabia to draw inspiration.

Higher ranked than New Zealand and with the benefit of a far more intensive lead-up programme, the Bahrainis are no fools.

In players like goal-scoring defender Sayed Mohammed Adnan, 26, a contender for the Asian player of the year, inspirational captain and midfielder Mohamed Saleen, African-born striker Jaycee John, who plays his soccer in Belgium (and scored the first goal in the draw in Saudi), and Abdullah Fatai, who, like African-born defender Abdulla Omar, plays his club football in Switzerland, the home side has talent aplenty.

Home ground and conditions will favour Bahrain but will also lead to immense pressure.

How well they handle that promises to influence their performance.

The All Whites must be switched on from the start.

The defence, and in particular goalkeeper Mark Paston, can ill afford any early lapses. A quick goal for Bahrain could be curtains for Nelsen and his team. Soak up 20 or so minutes of home team pressure and be ready with the sucker punch is their obvious plan.

Not since January 1982 have the stakes been so high.

The man in the street in Bahrain still sees their team struggling to take that final step. The TAB have reduced their odds on a New Zealand victory.

The result, perhaps, sits somewhere in between in a game in which Herbert's All Whites can snatch a result. To do so they must turn in something close to the effort which not so long ago had them, three times, ahead of Italy in a pre-Confederations Cup friendly.

Anything less will not be good enough.

BAHRAIN v NZ

National Stadium, Riffa, Manama

Tomorrow 4.30am (NZT) live SS1

ALL WHITES TEAM

Mark Paston
Ben Sigmund
Ryan Nelsen (c)
Ivan Vicelich
Leo Bertos
Tony Lochhead
Simon Elliott
Tim Brown
Shane Smeltz
Chris Killen
Rory Fallon

Substitutes:
James Bannatyne
Andrew Boyens
David Mulligan
Aaron Scott
Andy Barron
Michael McGlinchey
Chris Wood

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)