Posts Tagged ‘match’

Grove finished 78 in jennifer miller new york

October 1, 2008

Susquehannock’s Peter Grove and Greg Gageby shared medalist honors on
Tuesday as the Warriors clinched the Division II golf title with a
first-place finish at Briarwood East.

Grove and Gageby each shot a 76 in a dominating performance that saw
Susquehannock post a team score of 404, 34 shots better than runner-up
York Suburban. It was the fourth time in six league matches that Grove
won or shared medalist honors. Matt Speights tied for third among
individuals with a 78, and Zach Speights finished tied for eighth with
an 85. Susquehannock finished the season with 78 points (26-4 record),
12 points ahead of runner-up Kennard-Dale.

The Trojans placed second in Tuesday’s match behind Beverly Pike, who
finished seventh with an 84. Ryan Mattlin’s 78 and Chris Rhein’s 81
helped Kennard-Dale place third.

Gwen ifill biography’s voters vice veteran

October 1, 2008

One talks too much. The other hasn’t talked enough. For voters,
Thursday’s vice presidential debate promises a transfixing match
between the loquacious veteran Sen. Joe Biden and the still-
underexposed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The gwen ifill pbs debate couch watch

October 1, 2008

The entry titled “Do you plan to watch all the debates?,” and any of
the comments about it.

Friday’s 9 p.m. face-off was the first debate scheduled before
the Nov. 4 election. Held at the University of Mississippi, it is
moderated by Jim Lehrer, host of “The NewsHour” on PBS.
Topics include national security and foreign policy.

Oct. 2: Vice presidential debate moderated by PBS correspondent Gwen
Ifill at Washington University in St. Louis.

Oct. 15: Debate on domestic and economic policy will be held at
Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Moderator is Bob Schieffer of
CBS.

The vice presidential debate will be and held Oct. 2 The debate
formate won’t be resolved until the vice presidential nominees
are chosen.

Tonight’s debate and forthcoming debates are ALL critical. So
rather than “get off the couch,” let’s get ON the
couch, America. Watch. Listen. Learn. VOTE.

Tonight’s debate and forthcoming debates are ALL critical. So
rather than “get off the couch,” let’s get ON the
couch, America. Watch. Listen. Learn. VOTE.

Tonight’s debate and forthcoming debates are all critical.
Rather than “get off the couch,” let’s get ON the
couch, America. Watch. Listen. Learn. VOTE.

I can’t imagine that anyone would make up his or her mind based
on how well a condidate performed in a debate. The candidates have
records and past performance in real life that means much more to me
than how they do at verbal jousting match.

I can’t imagine that anyone would make up his or her mind based
on how well a condidate performed in a debate. The candidates have
records and past performance in real life that means much more to me
than how they do at verbal jousting match.

Obama should not have been allowed to interrupt and talk over his
opponent and should not have been allowed to go longer than his time.
Obama should have given his position on the issues being discussed,
not attack his opponent.

The phish food bruins team julien

October 1, 2008

Most of the 31 Bruins arrived in Vermont with their precious golf
clubs, which they hope to break out at the Country Club of Vermont
today. They took part in a ropes course activity yesterday at the
Bolton Adventure Center. They signed autographs for fans last night at
the Ben & Jerry’s Factory, aiming not to ruin their preseason work by
sampling spoonfuls of Phish Food.

For the second straight year, the Bruins are participating in team-
building activities while using the Ice Center as their practice rink.

“We got really good feedback from the players last year,” said coach
Claude Julien. “They thought it was good. We felt it was very good.
You can credit some of it to the start the team had on the ice. But I
think as far as building team chemistry and players getting along, I
think when you look at the long run from last year, team chemistry was
extremely good. If you can start on the right foot, it just builds
from there. I think giving ourselves an opportunity to do those things
is very important.”

By the end of training camp, the Bruins will have spent only a handful
of days in Massachusetts. Last week, they stayed in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, for four nights, then traveled to Detroit for a 2-1 victory
Friday. The Bruins will spend tonight in Vermont and bus to Montreal
tomorrow for an exhibition game against the Canadiens. They’ll wrap up
the preseason with a match in Washington Sunday.

The Bruins’ first four regular-season games are on the road, but
Julien doesn’t want the team building to take place then.

“When we start the season, it’s not about bonding. It’s about winning
hockey games,” Julien said. “We need to do this kind of bonding now
before the season starts.”

But while the Bruins bond and take a breather from last week’s five-
games-in-six-nights grind, the Boston bosses are busy trying to
finalize the roster for next Thursday’s season-opening match against
Colorado.

While Julien and his assistants are watching over practice sessions at
the Ice Center, general manager Peter Chiarelli, assistant GM Jim
Benning, vice president Cam Neely, and director of hockey operations
and player development Don Sweeney are back in Boston, pondering such
questions as:

Does rookie Blake Wheeler deserve to make the team? Should second-year
pro Vladimir Sobotka start the season in Providence because he doesn’t
have to clear waivers? Are trades required to open up room or clear
cap space?

Last season, the Bruins brought 27 players to Vermont. They estimated
they’d bring a similar number this year, but several players – Wheeler
perhaps the brightest example – have extended their camp stays.

“A lot of players have had great camps and forced us to keep them and
have a longer look,” Julien said. “That’s going to make for some
pretty tough decisions.”

The Bruins must trim at least eight players before the start of the
regular season. Julien said some cuts will take place before Sunday’s
exhibition finale. Julien acknowledged that waivers and the salary cap
are factors in deciding the final roster, but he emphasized that the
players most deserving of jobs will make the team, not those who are
required to clear waivers or carry smaller cap numbers.

Jeff Penner spent yesterday practicing with his teammates,
participating in the ropes course activity, and taking part in the
autograph signing as part of the team-building schedule, things the
rookie defenseman never thought he’d be doing.

“I came in expecting to go to rookie camp and just seeing what would
happen from there,” said the 21-year-old. “I was hoping to get maybe
one exhibition game in. But I never thought I’d make it this far and
play in three exhibition games. So it’s been a welcome surprise.”

Unlike Wheeler, the 5-foot-10-inch, 191-pound Penner doesn’t have a
first-round pedigree. He was undrafted and played one year at the
University of Alaska-Fairbanks before the Bruins signed him March 29.
Penner appeared in two games for Providence before being a healthy
scratch in the playoffs.

But Penner has been arguably the biggest surprise in camp. Despite
thinking he’d be nervous for his first exhibition game, Penner has
played with poise. He’s skated well. He’s read plays. He’s moved the
puck effectively. He’s used efficient positioning to bust up scoring
chances.

Penner is a long shot to make the team out of camp, but he’s shown
that he can push the veterans and put himself in position for an in-
season promotion.

“I can take away nothing but confidence from here,” Penner said. “I
think it will do me real well in the future, regardless of whether I
stay here or get sent back to Providence.”

Phil Kessel and Manny Fernandez made it through practice without
limitations. Fernandez suffered a bruised thumb and middle finger on
his right hand Friday . . . Julien said Zdeno Chara (shoulder) and
Shane Hnidy(knee) could play tomorrow against Montreal.

The phishing filter web firefox search

October 1, 2008

When Mozilla released late beta test versions of Firefox 3 earlier
this year, I quickly became enthusiastic about the open-source
browser.

Now, Microsoft has released the second beta of Internet Explorer 8,
the next version of its dominant Windows Web browser, and it’s being
touted as ready for consumer use. While I’m still not sure everyone
should rush to download it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie, it’s definitely
worth a look if you’re an Internet Explorer user and want a preview of
where this browser is headed.

There are some intriguing features in IE8. It’s a little faster than
IE7 but doesn’t match Firefox 3’s remarkable speed. It’s got a lot
more to protect you from the bad guys on the Web. And it makes it
easier to find what you’re looking for, and to quickly make use of
that information once you track it down.

• Standards compliance. Internet Explorer 8 is the most
standards-compliant browser Microsoft has produced. That’s good for
Web developers going forward, because they don’t have to worry about
tweaking their sites to account for IE’s quirks. However, in the short
term, the release of IE8 is going to cause users serious pain, because
sites that are designed to adjust for IE will do so, not realizing
that IE8 no longer needs that. The result: Broken and ugly Web pages.
Fortunately, there’s a nifty button next to the address bar that will
cause IE8 to display pages in the same way as IE7. It works well, and
that’s good, because I suspect you’ll be using it a lot at first.

• Smart Address Bar. The address bar in Firefox 3 is so good,
it’s been nicknamed the Awesome Bar. As you type, it searches a
database containing your history and bookmarks and comes up with
suggestions, based both on the Web address and the site’s title. It’s
my favorite feature in Firefox, and now there’s a similar
implementation in IE. Microsoft calls it the “smarter address bar,”
and it adds RSS feeds and search suggestions to the mix. It also fixes
a problem in Firefox’s version, because it sorts the results based on
their source. This makes it much easier to spot the result you want.

• Accelerators. I have mixed feelings about this feature, which
reminds me of the lame “Smart Tags” from Internet Explorer 4. In this
case, when you highlight text, an icon appears. Click it, and you can
map a location, define a word, translate a foreign language, blog
selected text and more. This uses a set of Web services which, by
default, are supplied by Microsoft. For example, the default mapping
service is Windows Live Maps, but you can change this to Google or
Yahoo if you prefer. This can save a few clicks, but the same thing
can be accomplished with some good bookmarks.

• Web Slices. This is similar in concept to the Web Clips
feature found in the Mac OS version of Safari, but not nearly as
useful. There, you can highlight an area on a Web page and turn just
that section into a widget available from the Mac’s Dashboard. In
this, you can highlight content on a page and it will show up in
detailed form in IE8’s search suggestions. But there’s a big caveat:
The Web site operator has to include code on its pages to make this
feature work. If your favorite sites don’t do this, it’s worthless to
you.

• InPrivate Browsing. Nicknamed “porn mode,” InPrivate Browsing
lets you surf the Web without generating a history of either your
searches or visited pages. There’s also a feature called InPrivate
Blocking that will block content on one site that’s being pulled in
from another. But blocking doesn’t start until the third-party site
delivers content with a high enough frequency. You can customize this
to always allow some sites to deliver content, and to always block
others. Both InPrivate Browsing and Blocking are turned off by
default. One you close your browser, it reverts back to standard
behavior.

• Crash Recovery. Firefox has long had the ability to restore
pages that were loaded when it crashes. In IE7, the browser restarts
after a crash, but only displays the home page. Now, IE8 restores all
open pages — but chances are, it won’t need to. That’s because
if a crash is caused by content on a site, it will only shut down that
page, not the whole browser.

• Better security.Microsoft has improved IE’s phishing filter to
also detect sites that might distribute malware. The Smart Screen
Filter will alert you if the site you’re about to visit is suspicious.
I usually turn off IE’s phishing filter because it seems to slow
browsing, but the Smart Screen Filter seems much faster. In fact, I
was unaware it was even on and functioning until I went to check its
settings. There’s also new support to detect and block Cross Site
Scripting attacks, a common method for exploiting browser
vulnerabilities.

• Improved search. As with both Firefox and IE7, a search box is
built into the IE8 that lets you choose from multiple search engines.
You’re now able to switch between engines quickly, which makes jumping
from a search on eBay to one on Amazon much faster. Searches here also
include the sites in your history and favorites, just as in the
smarter address bar. In addition, downloading a search plug-in for
participating engines enables visual search suggestions, including
images, charts and maps.

Microsoft says IE8 is feature-complete, so what you see in Beta 2 is
what you’ll get when the final version is released. It’s an impressive
upgrade, though I still prefer Firefox 3 for its speed, stability and
wide range of extensions and add-ons.

I’ve gone back and forth between IE and Firefox in the past, though,
and there’s a chance I may develop more fondness for IE8 once the
finished version is out.

When it comes to browsers, I’m fickle — I’ll use the best one,
regardless of whose name is on it. For now, that remains Firefox 3.

Operation repo matt’s de le la

October 1, 2008

Avec une victoire, l’équipe montréalaise pouvait
s’emparer du troisième rang. Mais la tâche n’était
pas de tout repos puisque le Minnesota tente tant qu’à lui
d’aller chercher une septième place.

L’Impact devra jouer son match sans leur entraîneur-chef, lui
qui a été suspendu pour un match en raison de son
comportement lors de la fin du dernier match.

L’Impact est très dangereux en première demie, Peter
Byers a reçu tout une chance de marquer mais il a finalement
échoué devant un Nicolas Platter – Gardien du Thunder –
qui ne voulait rien savoir, lui qui a effectué quelques beaux
arrêts.

Le Thunder a ensuite pris les devants à la 21e minute de jeu
lorsque Derouxa a laissé échapper un tir impossible
à arrêter pour qui était impuissant tout comme sa
défensive. Ce but fut inscrit sur le premier tir du Minnesota
dans le match.

L’Impact continua par tous les moyens de trouver des chances de
marquer, plusieurs tirs ont été effectués mais
presque aucun ne réussi à atteindre la cible.

C’est finalement à la 45e minute que l’on a pu voir le premier
tir de pénalité dans le Stade Saputo, Sando Grande
étant là pour tirer, il ne pouvait rater cela. Le tir
qui passera juste en dessous du gardien qui avait pourtant
sauté du bon côté.

Le tir de pénalité fut donné après que
Peter Byers ait été accroché après avoir
voulu faire une belle tête. Premier tir de
pénalité mais aussi le premier but de Sando Grande
depuis son retour au jeu.

La deuxième demie fut plus ou moins tranquille. Le Thunder
débuta en force avec plusieurs chances de marquer, mais ne
voulant lui non plus rien savoir arrêta tout les tirs.

Vous rappelez vous de ce que a fait la même chose pour priver
Jonathan Greenfield de partir en échappée. L’Impact a
ensuite eu des chances mais le ballon ne passait jamais dans la zone
du gardien sauf a quelques rares reprises.

Un match nul de 1-1. L’Impact reste donc en sixième position et
le Thunder tant qu’à lui, ne bouge pas non plus. Un match qui
pourtant, était important pour les deux équipes. Mais la
fatigue aura eu raison des joueurs du côté de l’Impact,
eux qui ont joué loin de Montréal mercredi soir.

Adam Braz a effectué un retour aux jeu, lorsqu’il a
embarqué sur le terrain à la 76e minute, un début
de match pour lui un peu difficile par moment mais dans l’ensemble on
pourra dire que cela a été satisfaisant.

L’Impact a joué à guichet fermé pour la 10e fois
cette saison, alors que 13 034 personnes se sont
présentées. Un total de 165 961 billets ont
été vendus depuis le début de la saison, ce qui
fait un nouveau record.

L’Impact peut aussi dire merci à son gardien qui a certainement
été le joueur du match, réalisant cinq
arrêts mais surtout deux très dangereux.

« Je pense que la fatigue accumulée durant les voyages a
joué contre nous, a déclaré Grande. Mais quand
même, ce verdict nul nous permet d’être toujours dans la
course aux séries. On doit maintenant se concentrer sur la
partie de lundi contre Portland pour augmenter nos chances
d’être dans les séries. »

« Le match de ce soir a été difficile parce qu’ils
étaient reposés en arrivant ici et de notre
côté, nous étions au Honduras il y a deux jours et
sur la route depuis longtemps, a déclaré Jordan. Mais
tout le crédit ce soir va à mes coéquipiers. Nous
avons tous puisé pour trouver l’énergie qui nous a
permis d’obtenir ce résultat. Dans ce genre de match, tu sais
que tu auras à faire quelques arrêts importants pour
aider tes coéquipiers et je suis heureux d’avoir pu contribuer
de cette façon ce soir. »

« On aurait aimé une victoire, mais de la façon
que le match s’est déroulé, on va prendre le match nul,
a déclaré Di Pietrantonio. Minnesota a fait de belles
choses, mais nous aussi nous avons obtenu des occasions sans toutefois
concrétiser. est un leader dans l’équipe et c’est le
genre de performance que l’on s’attend de lui lors des moments
où l’équipe joue moins bien. Le match de ce soir a
peut-être représenté ce qui va se passer au cours
des prochaines semaines, mais nos joueurs qui jouent un peu moins
devront apporter un peu plus d’énergie à
l’équipe. »

L’Impact n’aura pas vraiment le temps de se reposer puisque dès
lundi, il affrontera les Timbers de Portland, une fois de plus au
Stade Saputo.

The operation repo matt de la le

October 1, 2008

Les Olympiques ont débuté la rencontre en force.
Cependant ils se sont butés au gardien du Junior, qui
était prêt pour le match. Pendant deux
supériorités numériques dans les dix
premières minutes de jeu, les hommes de Mario Richer ont
multiplié les attaques, sans succès.

Après que les hommes de Pascal Vincent aient
écoulé ces deux pénalités, les Olympiques
ont été indisciplinés à leur tour, donnant
un cinq contre trois à l’équipe locale. Matt Fillier a
ouvert la marque lors de cette supériorité
complétant un beau jeu de passe orchestré par Luke Adam
et Pat O’Keefe.

Avant la fin de la première période, le Junior s’est
forgé une avance de trois buts. Lors d’une attaque
individuelle, Alex Wall a coupé vers le centre de l’enclave et
a déjoué le gardien Maxime Clermont à sa droite.
Avec seulement 30 secondes à jouer dans le premier engagement,
Taylor MacDougall a surpris Clermont du côté la mitaine
avec un tir qui semblait inoffensif.

La deuxième période a donné droit à du jeu
décousu, ce qui n’a pas plus à l’entraîneur du
Junior. « On a joué deux excellentes périodes, la
première et la troisième. La deuxième,
n’était pas au niveau d’intensité que l’on veut »,
a indiqué Pascal Vincent après la rencontre.

Le Junior a repris ce qu’il avait laissé en première
devant des Olympiques, qui semblaient avoir abandonné. À
la septième minute de jeu, Pier-Antoine Dion a
complété un jeu de Matt Fillier et Alex Wall pour donner
une avance de quatre buts à son club.

Samuel Grenache est venu fermer les livres six minutes plus tard,
profitant d’une échappée devant le gardien Marc-Antoine
Gélinas, appelé en relève à la
deuxième période, glissant la rondelle entre ses
jambières lors d’une infériorité
numérique.

Les esprits se sont échauffés avec trois minutes
à jouer dans la partie. Travis Stacey, des Olympiques, a
été expulsé de la partie pour avoir
été l’agresseur.

Absent de la rencontre de cet après-midi pour soigner une
blessure mineure, le Junior a confirmé que le joueur de 19 ans
sera en uniforme lors de la visite du Titan d’Acadie-Bathurst. Il
s’agira du premier match d’Esposito dans l’uniforme du Junior.

Pour l’instant, le joueur de centre est au repos. « Il ne
pratiquera pas pour les deux prochains jours. On va évaluer,
voir comment ça va», a déclaré
l’entraîneur-chef Pascal Vincent.

Pour la rencontre de vendredi soir, l’entraîneur du Junior ne
peut dire avec quels ailiers son joueur vedette évoluera.

Fraîchement de retour du camp des Blues de St-Louis, le gardien
Jake Allen a récolté deux victoires cette fin de
semaine, dont une par blanchissage. À sa deuxième saison
dans le circuit Courteau, le gardien de 18 ans sait maintenant
à quoi s’attendre :

« J’ai joué dans la ligue la saison dernière,
ça m’a donné de l’expérience. Il y a des
très bons joueurs dans cette ligue, a indiqué celui qui
a aidé le Canada a remporté la médaille d’or au
Championnat mondial des moins de 18 ans cet été. Je veux
faire de mon mieux et aider l’équipe à être
à son meilleur.»

The operation repo is staged de le du

October 1, 2008

Le Raja est passé à côté d’une
défaite dans le match comptant pour la 3ème
journée du championnat national qui l’opposait vendredi
en nocturne au MAT au complexe Mohammed V.
Les Tétouanais sont venus à Casa pour confirmer leur bon
début de saison et c’est chose faite et d’une bien
belle manière car ils ont failli ramener les trois points de la
victoire n’eut été le but de JILAIDI (une reprise
de volée de toute beauté) qui est intervenu à
neuf minutes du coup de sifflet final et qui a remit les deux
équipes à égalité (1.1).Sans ce but, la
tension au sein du club allait à nouveau monter d’un cran
quant on sait que durant tout la semaine dernière les joueurs
ont dû faire face au courroux des supporters mécontents
après la défaire concédée contre les FAR
(4.1) dimanche dernier à Rabat. Pour cette rencontre, le coach
du Raja a laissé BOURKADI le gardien titulaire depuis le
début de la saison au repos pour titulariser ATTABA dans les
buts qui faisait quant à lui, son grand retour dans la cage des
verts. Tajeddine, Ciré Dia ont été
également titularisés ainsi que ZEKROUMI le transfuge du
Rachad Bernoussi qui a évolué en défense centrale
en compagnie de El Amrani. On a noté par contre,
l’absence du capitaine des verts, JRINDOU.Lorsqu’à
la 67ème mn les poulains de TALIB ouvrirent le score par Pierre
KOKO l’actuel meilleur buteur du championnat (5buts) et jetant
un froid encore plus glacial que le temps qui s’était
déjà dégradé, car il avait plus des cordes
juste avant le coup d’envoi du match. il imaginait pas la
difficulté dans laquelle ils venaient de plonger le staff
technique du Raja qui se retrouvait à ce moment du match avec
une équation difficile à résoudre.Après ce
but, et durant un quart d’heure, le spectre de la défaite
a fait le tour des travées du complexe, côté
rajaouis. Heureusement la lumière est venue de Moulay Abdellah
JILAIDI qui a reprit un centre victorieux (81’) d’un de
ses coéquipiers et parvint à battre l’inamovible
Moustapha CHADLI le gardien du MAT.A 1.1, le Raja va tenter
d’accélérer le jeu pour mettre en
difficulté son adversaire du jour mais ne parviendra jamais
à aggraver le score malgré quelques changements
opérés par José ROMAO le coach des verts.Lors de
la conférence de presse après la rencontre,
l’entraîneur du Raja s’est dit satisfait de la
prestation de ses joueurs et a fait savoir que l’équipe
était en net progrès match après match
excepté celui du week end dernier au cours duquel elle a
sombré. Il est convaincu que le meilleur est à venir et
demande au public d’être patient avec cette équipe
qui regorge beaucoup de jeunes qui ont besoin d’accumuler des
matchs saison après saison pour acquérir encore plus
d’expérience.Au sujet de sa nouvelle recrue (NDIONE) il a
reconnu que son adaptation n’est pas simple et cela est dû
au fait qu’il a pris le train en marche vu que ses
coéquipiers avaient de l’avance sur lui car il n’a
pas participé au stage du début de saison. Il est
persuadé qu’avec l’accumulation des matchs, les
automatismes se créeront entre Ibrahima NDIONE et ses
partenaires et qu’il apportera beaucoup au bastion offensif des
verts. Attendons de voir !Après ce match, le bilan du Raja est
négatif car les verts totalisent 2 points sur 9 possibles.

Cologne bayern podolski in pimples

September 30, 2008

Bayern Munich’s Lukas Podolski is no closer to a return to former club
Cologne after it transpired that they cannot afford to buy him.

Polish-born Podolski is a regular for Germany, but he is third choice
behind Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni at Bayern.

However, he was given a standing ovation by Cologne fans after scoring
in Bayern’s 3-0 Bundesliga win at the weekend.

Cologne – who returned to the top flight this summer – want to bring
Podolski back to the RheinEnergieStadion but Bayern have slapped a 15
million euro asking price on the player.

“[Sporting director] Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had dinner with [Cologne
chairman] Wolfgang Overath,” Bayern team manager Uli Hoeness told
Bild.

“It soon became clear they cannot afford to buy Podolski, not now or
in the future. They should admit that it’s over.”

Podolski started his career at Cologne and he is still regarded as a
hero by the club’s fans, thousands of whom celebrated with him after
he helped seal his current side’s win.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bayern and Germany team-mate
Bastian Schweinsteiger said after the match, which put Cologne in the
bottom half of the standings and Bayern second.

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The tim brown stats nelsen whites brown

September 30, 2008

SLIGHTLY AWKWARD: Ryan Nelsen will captain the All Whites for the
first time since 2004 this weekend, replacing an unbeaten Tim Brown.

Blackburn skipper Ryan Nelsen today admitted to feeling some
awkwardness in being handed the honour of captaining the All Whites.

Nelsen will play his first full football international in four years
when New Zealand take on New Caledonia in a World Cup qualifier in
Noumea on Saturday.

The central defender, New Zealand’s most high profile player, will
lead the side in the enforced absence of Tim Brown, but will remain
captain when Brown returns from a one-match suspension.

“It was difficult for me because what they have done here is fantastic
and Tim has led the team to an unbeaten start,” he said.

“As I said to them, I don’t want to step on any toes. I wanted to
blend my way back in, but they wanted me to do a job and they have
been so fantastic and understanding.”

Nelsen, 30, made the last of his 34 All White appearances in the 2004
Oceania Nations Cup in Adelaide, when a shock defeat to Vanuatu led to
New Zealand’s elimination.

Injuries and the birth of his first child prevented him from being
available in the intervening years.

He returned to international duty last month, skippering the Oly-
Whites in their first two matches at the Olympics in China before
heading back to England for the start of the premiership season.

He described getting to lead the All Whites again as “a fantastic
honour” and rated it above skippering Blackburn.

“Obviously it’s an honour captaining in the premiership because of the
stature of the players you’re leading out – all international
players and all experienced international players,” he said.

Coach Ricki Herbert said the captaincy decision was arrived at after
he talked to both Nelsen and Brown.

“At the end of the day, I think the result out of it was the right
one,” he said.

“We’ve got two excellent players who wear their heart on their sleeve,
who are passionate about their country and who will both contribute
immensely over the coming years.” Brown said he had no qualms about
handing the armband over the Nelsen.

“But it was also on the understanding that, when Ryan came back, it
was his position, and rightly so.”

After Noumea, New Zealand’s remaining Oceania qualifying fixtures are
the return ties against New Caledonia in Auckland next Wednesday and
against Fiji in Lautoka on November 19.

With a 100 per cent record after their first three matches, the All
Whites need just one further win to top the Oceania group.

If they achieve that, they will qualify for both the Confederations
Cup next year and for a two-leg play-off against an Asian country for
a place in the 2010 World Cup finals.