Hudson has been with his squad in Seoul since early last week as he continues to work to a plan which calls for the nation’s young talent to put their hand up for inclusion in the coming journey of the All Whites towards Russia in 2018.
The All Whites coach says a number of the new additions to the group have responded well in their time together over the last seven days.
“We’ve looked at a lot in training this week and we’ve been impressed with how some of the younger lads have come in and imposed themselves on the group,” Hudson said.
“This is our last chance to identify the young players we can potentially bring with us for the rest of the campaign and I want to see, within this context, which of those are going to be the ones. Further down the line we’re going to have to rely on some of those players.
“There are a few of the younger lads that have been doing our style of play for a little while now with the Wanderers and we’ve had a little bit of contact with them. That goes a long way as well, a young player will be given more of a chance if he understands his role in relation to the team.”
Those youthful squad members will be led by a cluster of players with international experience and Hudson expects the likes of captain Chris Wood, defender Michael Boxall and midfielder Michael McGlinchey to help drive the team at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
“We want to see an improvement on our style of play in certain key aspects of it and the players who have been with us from day one to be more evolved in what we’re doing and be more vocal and take more responsibility.”
Tuesday night’s opponents – who last played the All Whites in two matches in New Zealand in 2000 – met Uzbekistan a few days ago and Hudson says it was another illustration of the strength of the nation ranked 56 in the world.
“I didn’t learn anything new from what we knew from the Asian Cup,” Hudson said.
“I’ve seen one of the strongest teams in Asia who are very organised. They play a style somewhat similar to what we are trying to work towards in terms of what they do with the ball.
They have some top players who are playing at great levels. They are a dangerous team but I think we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect game for the objective of where we are. “
Turning his attention inward, Hudson said the focus of his group will be firmly on moving their progression forwards along the timeline which leads to the beginning of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying later this year.
“This game is about us. It’s about our development towards the World Cup. It’s about our development of the team. It’s about us working on our style of play. Korea just happen to be in front of us. We’re not preparing any more or less than any other game that we would prepare for.
“Our approach to the game will be similar to the previous games. I thought we were very good against China. We were very intense and created many chances and we need to grow from that performance and show a similar type of intensity and approach to the game.
“When we haven’t got the ball we want to try and win it back as quickly possible and when we have it we want to try and build the play up with control and we want to have good movement, play good football with a purpose to creating chances.”
Follow the All Whites in action against Korea Republic tonight in Seoul LIVE from 11.50pm on SKY Sport 1 with updates via New Zealand Football’s Twitter account @NZ_Football.
All Whites (from): 3. Deklan Wynne, 4. Themistoklis Tzimopoulos, 5. Michael Boxall, 6. Bill Tuiloma, 8. Michael McGlinchey, 9. Chris Wood (capt), 10. Joel Stevens, 11. Marco Rojas, 12. Tyler Boyd, 13. Benjamin van den Broek, 15. Storm Roux, 16. Louis Fenton, 17. Samuel Brotherton, 18. Clayton Lewis, 19. Thomas Doyle, 20. Ryan De Vries, 21. Max Crocombe (GK), 23. Cameron Howieson, 25. Stefan Marinovic (GK), 26. Moses Dyer
Korea Republic v All Whites
Tuesday 31 March, 11.50pm (SKY Sport 1)
Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul
For more on New Zealand football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz.

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