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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk zed B.

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Speaker 2: It's meantime up and running on the road to the

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six feet for World Cup. They've beaten Tahiti

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Speaker 2: three nilk goals to Eli just Ben Wayne and captain

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Speaker 2: Chris Wood Sutton over the time the head of this

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Speaker 2: time and that one was easy, Chris Word. That is

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Speaker 2: goal number thirty five for the captain, sim Peace corner

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Speaker 2: Keck and Tahiti just took their guard.

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Speaker 1: Or for their movement and a special goal from Chris Wood.

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Speaker 2: So the side's back in Auckland now they've arrived back

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Speaker 2: in the country for a rare home match. They face Malaysia.

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Speaker 2: This is a friendly at Albany on Monday night. There

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Speaker 2: are two more World Cup qualifiers, also both in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand in November. Captain of the side and one of

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Speaker 2: the goal scorers yesterday, Premier League striker with Nottingham Forest,

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Speaker 2: Chris Wood is with us from the team Hotel. Chris,

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Speaker 2: Thanks for taking the time. What are your overall reflections

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Speaker 2: on yesterday's performance and the word over Tahiti.

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Speaker 3: It's job done, which is a good thing obviously. Going

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Speaker 3: to the island. It's a difficult place to go at times, weather,

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Speaker 3: pitch and all of that type of thing, but it's

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Speaker 3: a job done through nil, win in and out, so

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Speaker 3: it's a good start to the campaign.

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Speaker 2: How challenging is it to play against a side like

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Speaker 2: that who really are going to sit back, sit deep,

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Speaker 2: try to frustrate you.

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Speaker 3: Look, yeah, I mean they say a lot deeper than

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Speaker 3: we thought they would, but that's how they designed to

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Speaker 3: play and try and get a result doing it that way.

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Speaker 3: That's their tactic, so that's fine, and we just had

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Speaker 3: to learn and work out how to break them down

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Speaker 3: and score. The goals obviously were very fortunate with Justice's

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Speaker 3: goal very quickly early on, a screamer from him, so

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Speaker 3: that settled everything. He made the job a bit easier.

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Speaker 2: In circumstances like this, is it really just about the

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Speaker 2: result or do you examine the performance and look for improvements.

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Speaker 3: You always want to play it well, but at the

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Speaker 3: end of the day, this is a tournament football. You

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Speaker 3: need to in games to qualify for a World Cup,

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Speaker 3: so as long as you win the games, it doesn't

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Speaker 3: really matter. Of course, you want to play nice football

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Speaker 3: in the in the process, but winning is the ultimate goal.

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Speaker 2: By every metric. Chris, you are overwhelming favorites to win

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Speaker 2: Oceania and to qualify for the World Cup. How do

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Speaker 2: you avoid complacency and keep your standards high?

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Speaker 3: It's all about mentality. You can't under estate anybody or anything.

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Speaker 3: You never know what you're going to face and you

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Speaker 3: have to be ready for all occasions and anything that

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Speaker 3: comes at you. So, yeah, we know we're favorites, but

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Speaker 3: that doesn't mean that we're going to qualify. So we

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Speaker 3: have to put in the work to make sure that

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Speaker 3: we do and that's that's what we're going to try

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Speaker 3: and do.

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Speaker 2: So back home now, you've got a friendly on Monday

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Speaker 2: and the next two World Cup qualifiers are also back

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Speaker 2: on home soil. How different is that going to be

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Speaker 2: compared to the well known challenges of playing in the

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Speaker 2: Pacific Islands.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think we're going to have obviously better conditions

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Speaker 3: with the pitch and whether I guess we'll be getting

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Speaker 3: better as the months come on, So I think everything

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Speaker 3: will be in our favor in that side of it.

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Speaker 3: But of course we're still going to come up with

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Speaker 3: the challenges of probably teams sitting off and have our

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Speaker 3: seven to break them down and things like that. So

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Speaker 3: there's going to be challenges, but I think we've got

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Speaker 3: a good enough squad to be able to do it.

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Speaker 3: It's just about doing it rise on the day.

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Speaker 2: Home matches have been pretty rare recently. I can only

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Speaker 2: find three in the last five years, which seems incredible.

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Speaker 2: How much you're looking forward to playing for the All

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Speaker 2: Whites at home.

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Speaker 3: Look, it's going to be fantastic. It's nice to be back.

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Speaker 3: We want to be playing in front of our home

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Speaker 3: crowd as much as possible, and it's nice to see

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Speaker 3: that the next three windows with this window and two

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Speaker 3: others that we're definitely going to be back here and

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Speaker 3: it's nice to see that we can play in front

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Speaker 3: of our home crowd. So we're really looking forward to

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Speaker 3: as a team and hopefully putting on some good performances

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Speaker 3: for them.

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Speaker 2: One thing that you have always done is make yourself

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Speaker 2: available for New Zealand. It doesn't ma to who you're playing,

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Speaker 2: where you're playing. You are very really unavailable, regardless of

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Speaker 2: the opposition or the nature of the match. What is

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Speaker 2: it that internally drives that in you.

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Speaker 3: It's the love for the country and the nation. I

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Speaker 3: mean New Zealand's my home. It's where I grew up

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Speaker 3: and it's where it's always going to be a home

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Speaker 3: for me. So I love coming back. I love the

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Speaker 3: environment that we come into when we go away with

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Speaker 3: that national team. It's just the boys are just like

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Speaker 3: your family and your brothers, and it's just so nice

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Speaker 3: to be a part of them being around. So it's

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Speaker 3: just nice to come back and just play football with

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Speaker 3: the boys.

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Speaker 2: And you're all in far flung you know, areas of

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Speaker 2: the globe, aren't you now? But when you come back together,

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Speaker 2: do you find yourself sort of fairly easily slotting back

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Speaker 2: into all white sort of mode again, everybody sort of

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Speaker 2: filling the roles they always do.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. It just comes second nature and

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Speaker 3: it's just natural to all of us, and that's a

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Speaker 3: good thing. I think that's why everybody loves coming back

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Speaker 3: and loves the environment.

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Speaker 2: Another goal for you yesterday thirty for New Zealand. Now

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Speaker 2: that extends your tally is our all time leading male goalscorer.

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Speaker 2: You're also closing an on Ivan Visil, which is our

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Speaker 2: record men's appearance maker. How driven are you by milestones

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Speaker 2: like these?

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Speaker 3: They're definitely great things to come into the fold of

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Speaker 3: as they get older and be able to look back on.

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Speaker 3: I'd like to achieve obviously beaten Oven then and even

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Speaker 3: further if I can. But ultimately the goal has been

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Speaker 3: in another World Cup. I think that's the biggest driven

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Speaker 3: and determination for me at this moment.

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Speaker 2: And inside the All Whites environment there are others coming

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Speaker 2: through obviously, and I see being Wayne another goal yesterday

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Speaker 2: inside the All Whites Chris, how much guidance, advice that

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Speaker 2: sort of thing are you giving to likes of Ben

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Speaker 2: Wayne and others as they look to forward their path internationally?

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Speaker 3: Look trying to give as much as possible. That's what

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Speaker 3: I'm here for that. I'm here for them to learn

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Speaker 3: off and ask questions and help them in any way

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Speaker 3: possible to make their career better and stronger and go

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Speaker 3: into bigger and better levels and hopefully in the elite

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Speaker 3: people in the past and exceed them if possible. That'll

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Speaker 3: be the best thing to have more boys playing in

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Speaker 3: the biggest leagues in the world and performing at the

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Speaker 3: highest levels both internationally and club levels. So yeah, it's

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Speaker 3: given an experience and it's like when he's done in

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Speaker 3: the past and things like that. So just doing as

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Speaker 3: much as they can.

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Speaker 2: And speaking of the highest level Premier League season underway,

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Speaker 2: you and Forrest have started well, just one loss in

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Speaker 2: seven games. You've got four goals in those seven matches,

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Speaker 2: seventy three all up. Now, what are the keys to

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Speaker 2: your goal scoring consistency in the Premier League?

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Speaker 3: Look at this moment in the team that we're in,

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Speaker 3: it's about having the support and the manager and the

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Speaker 3: backing of the manager. That's the best thing. He's coming

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Speaker 3: from day dot and played me, which helps massively. And

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Speaker 3: we've got a great squad and a great team and

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Speaker 3: a lot of very very good players that are going

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Speaker 3: to go on to bigger and better things or big

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Speaker 3: things i should say, and hopefully take this club that

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Speaker 3: we're out two big things and trophies and that. So

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Speaker 3: it's just fortunate to be a part of good team

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Speaker 3: and then able to do a job up front as well.

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Speaker 2: Great to have you back in New Zealand, Chris. All

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Speaker 2: the best for the friendly against Malaysia on Monday and

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Speaker 2: then the windows to come. Really appreciate you taking the

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Speaker 2: time for.

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Speaker 3: A chat chats. Thank you very much, thank you, Chris, Chris.

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Speaker 2: Wood there captain of the All Whites, I think you

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Speaker 2: know approaching you know, certainly the podium anyway, as our

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Speaker 2: greatest ever male player, he's our leading goalscorer. He's about

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Speaker 2: ten or eleven short of five in Visilich most games

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Speaker 2: full games for New Zealand. They play Malaysia North Harbor

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Speaker 2: on Monday, seven o'clock kickoff in that one, it's a friendly,

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Speaker 2: but the All Whites so rarely play at home. If

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Speaker 2: you're in and around, i'd get along. All the stars

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Speaker 2: are here, it's a pretty good team and from what

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Speaker 2: I understand, New Zealand Football have made this pretty affordable

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Speaker 2: only five bucks for kids, twenty dollars adults. I think

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Speaker 2: I saw five dollars for kids. And then games in November.

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Speaker 2: This one's at Albany. In November they play a couple

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Speaker 2: of games in World Cup qualifying, one in Hamilton and

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Speaker 2: one at Mount Smart so those are also available for

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Speaker 2: purchase and I think the ticket prices are the same

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Speaker 2: for that as well. So yeah, good to have you

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Speaker 2: all watch back home and a good win yesterday three

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Speaker 2: nil over Tahiti.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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