I hear Ryan's Kiwi accent is still as prominent as ever...

I'm not a New Zealander, but having lived there for the last four years while studying in the university, perhaps I could say something about this. Like Australia, all of New Zealand's top players ply their trade in European/US leagues; we know of our Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliot of Fulham, I believe there are one or two kiwis in the Dutch and German leagues. There are also a few in the MLS or playing college football. In the four years that I was in New Zealand, the All Whites reached the peak of beating Australia (although it was a purely locally-based Australian team) in the Oceania Cup and went on to represent Oceania in the Confederations Cup. After that however, they lost to Samoa (or was it Tonga?) in World Cup qualfication (completely unheard of...before Australia left to join the AFC, World Cup qualification in this region was always a two horse race between Australia and New Zealand) and have been in a state of depression, especially with the New Zealand Knights being so rubbish in the A-league. The last I saw the All Whites play was a two game 'test' against Malaysia in New Zealand earlier this year. The kiwis won both games very easily (having said that Malaysia isn't exactly world class opposition) and in my opinion they are a very physical side without much pace or creativity. Think of a team of Robbie Savages, lots of stamina and enthusiasm but not much in terms of pace or flair. In the games against Malaysia, their best player were the wingers Vaughn Coveny and Jeremy Brockie. Their captain when Nelsen is not playing is Danny Hay, who used to play for Leeds and is now the captain of the New Zealand Knights (did I mention they are rubbish?). I have not been following their results in their tour of Europe (among other teams they played Brazil before the world cup! Nelsen was supposed to play but at that time was recovering from a broken leg) but this is clearly not Rovers' toughest friendly fixture. Perhaps however, it is suitable preparation for the Rovers, after weeks of European opposition, this game is to acclimatise the players back to the more physical British style of play. Because this friendly is so close to the start of the season, anything less than a comprehensive victory against New Zealand (with or without Nelsen) would be worrying.

I may be reading too much into it, but didn't anyone find the Chelsea team's after match celebrations a little over-elaborate? Mourinho's fist-punching at the end, all the players high-fiving and hugging each other and later throwing their shirts into the crowd, you would have thought that they'd won the premiership already! After all, didn't they expect 3 points when they arrived at Ewood? Or is that what they do at the end of every game?

I managed a 17 year old passable defender with unpredictable speciality. Better then firing fodder I suppose...

Anyone up for a 2 legged home/away international friendly? my team: ewoodies (138416)

My team is ewoodies (138416) of Malaysia's II.4. A bit too late to organise a 2 leg post/pre-season friendly now but I was wondering if there is a friendly cup that is organised thru here?

I have been following this thread with some interest as: 1. I am of Asian descent and am currently an immigrant in New Zealand. 2. I am a Blackburn Rovers fan and it has been one of my dreams to visit Ewood Park one day. Let me try to give my perspective on this. Immigrants in general have an extremely thrifty mentality, moreso if they have come to a more developed country to earn money to send back to their family back home. Despite the freeze the Rovers board has placed on ticket prices, they are still very pricey for just two hours of entertainment. Asians are generally more conservative as well. We all watched Bend it like Beckham right ;-). It doesn't help as well that cricket is fairly big in England. How does the racial composition look at the cricket matches in the Blackburn area? One thing that Rovers could do (if they don't already do it) is to distribute a free ticket to youngsters who play in their little league games (assuming that Asian kids play football?) so that their parents would have to purchase tickets to bring their kids to go. That's what the Football Kingz do once in awhile here in Auckland...although I would say that the poor turn out in home games is probably due to their terrible football rather than anything else. I am also quite disturbed at the underlying animosity towards Asians as shown by some here. While I am still keen to visit Ewood one day (and donate some of my hard-earned money to the Rovers shop ;-)) I'm not sure I want to spend a crapload of money to potentially get abused because my skin is of a different colour from other people.