Chilling On The Comedown After The All Whites Defeat In Peru
And at the end of all that, we’re back where we started. Out of the World Cup and heading into a future stuffed with a little uncertainty. But the future can take care of itself later, the real story is about that All Whites vs Peru second leg in Lima. Goals to Jefferson Farfan and Christian Ramos facilitated a comfortable 2-0 defeat and away we go.
Could it have been different if Chris Wood had been 100%? What about the overly defensive formation to start the second leg? Were a few of those young players a little raw to perform in such circumstances? Or did Rory Fallon not fulfil his leadership duties sufficiently? Could Uncle Tony have been more aggressive in the first leg? OH AND WHAT ABOUT THE LASERS!? The jet planes, fireworks and mystic shamans too… BUT ESPECIALLY THE LASERS!?
Chill on the lasers, mate. What are ya, the NZ Herald? The fact was that none of that stuff helped (excluding the lasers, obvs.) but, realistically, none of it also made the difference. No need to get salty here. The All Whites needed Peru to choke this one and they did not. We never really stood a chance under those circumstances.
Which isn’t to say that the All Whites were out of it. They were right in it until the second goal. It’s just that as the weaker team they didn’t have the ability to dictate the game. It was as we’d kinda expected, the only way we were breaking these jokers down often enough to have any control over things was either through their mistakes or through sheer chaos. Chris Wood brings the chaos but, even aside from the hamstring, Peru clearly figured that one out from the first leg.
In Wellington, Woody came on and caught Peru off-guard. A couple chances were created directly from his physicality, chances that the All Whites didn’t take. And had they snuck a 1-0 win then the lead up to this second leg would’ve been very different. The last 15 minutes of that game we’d have only been 2-1 down on aggregate and chasing the away goal that would’ve won it. But we didn’t score in Wellington and if there’s a missed opportunity from this tie then that was it.
In Lima, the Peruvian defenders – particularly Ramos and Alberto Rodriguez, one of whom plays in Ecuador and the other in Peru (though Roddy played in Portugal for a bit a few years back) – had a plan. Of course they had a plan, it’d have been naïve to think they wouldn’t figure something out after he caused havoc in the first leg. He came on to throw himself about and try rough things up and Roddy & Ramos countered by being equally as rugged. They’re tough buggers and they gave every bit as good as they got. It worked too, those 50-50 calls in the box almost always go to the defenders, it doesn’t matter that there was shirt-tugging both ways, that there was a push before the other push… it’s just way easier than calling a controversial penalty. (And speaking of penalties: the one on Kosta at the start was not one but Winston blatantly handballed another so a lucky escape there).
It didn’t shut down Chris Wood but it limited his effect on the game. Not even sure if he touched the ball with his feet for the first half hour he was on the park, at least it felt that way. The best shot he managed was that header… and it had already been whistled for a foul when Pedro Gallese palmed it away. The plan worked.
Can’t say the same about Anthony Hudson’s team selection. Wood and Rojas on the bench, Lewis and Tuiloma both starting. Durante in for Smith. Four natural central midfielders and no genuine strikers. Okay so obviously we were planning to sit deep that first half then. Perhaps an alternate formation was on the cards, something that’d mirror Peru’s 4-1-4-1 set-up? (A set-up which was pretty dangerous, allowing for five blokes to get forward plus a couple aggressive fullbacks too).
But no, it was the usual 5-3-2… which is the right call, you don’t prepare for years in one way then switch it up at the vital moment. The problem was our best midfielder was playing up front: Ryan Thomas. The others bring more literal strength to that role but nobody matches Thommo’s work-rate, he’s rarely ever caught out of position and his tackling is better than people realise. Better than Tuiloma’s, to be honest. Tui was too reactive there, he’d rush in and then a simple drop of the shoulder from the Peruvian on the ball and Tui was spinning away out of orbit. It happened like six times, come on bro.
Tuiloma’s not played consistent first team football since he was at… what, back at Birkenhead? He was a reserves player at Marseille and has been a reserves player at Portland Timbers too. What’s more is that he spent the last few months of the PT2 season at centre-back. He’d have been more useful coming off the bench in his usual Huddo role – this was his first All Whites start since March when we played in Fiji, breaking a run of seven subs appearances (with a squad omission in the middle).
And Clayton Lewis, unfortunately, wasn’t a lot better. The other bloke in the team who was dropped for fitness reasons earlier in the year. Clay worked hard in that first half but all he really did was give up fouls and play first-time passes that occasionally worked but more often required more patience on the ball instead. Then he was entirely anonymous in the second half until he was replaced by Marco Rojas (who didn’t do a whole lot either, although by that time we were going for Wood’s head not anyone’s feet).
Those two aren’t getting singled out punish them but more to highlight that Lewis, like Tui, probably wasn’t prepared for this. He has recently joined a new club, Scunthorpe in England’s League One. His fitness levels are still in the preseason stage and he’s only played one cup game for his new team. Now he’s playing in Estadio Nacional against Peru for a place at the World Cup. That, right there, is the difference between the two teams.
The fullbacks both did quite well, they’re playing at the same level as Tuiloma so that was an equally vulnerable area. Hence Kip Colvey and Deklan Wynne (especially Colvey, who was really good in the first half) deserve a lot of praise. One goal came down Colvey’s wing but it was a rapid counter attack which drew Winston Reid out of position and Mike McGlinchey didn’t have the pace to track Christian Cueva closely enough. The other came from a set piece.
Biiig things coming for Stefan Marinovic too. Geez he’s a top quality keeper and he’s gonna be getting the week in, week outs for Vancouver Whitecaps next MLS season. Dude’s got a decade of dominance ahead of him.
It’s easy to get swept up by the half chances and all that when you’re supporting one team but here’s the thing: New Zealand didn’t have a single shot on target across two legs. The only one was The Woodsman’s header… which didn’t count because of referinho’s whistle. Zero legit shots on target. In playing as conservatively as we did we were able to keep the scores within two but even if the score was still only 1-0 going into that fated final 15 mins… you could play that last stretch fifty times in fifty alternate universes and how many times would we sneak the crucial away goal? Maybe five… and we’d still probably lose two of them by conceding late again anyway.
It’s annoying because the first leg gave us hope that a result was there if we could get lucky. However this is what it looks like when you don’t get lucky, when the game plays out within the expected realms of probability. It was worth getting hyped about our chances, that kind of national anticipation was incredible to experience (well, amongst the footy community at least – there are still way too many people out there who seem to subscribe to this idea that football is a minority sport in this country, while rowing and sailing and golf get unwarranted priorities, and unfortunately a lot of those people seem to hold major editorial roles at significant media outlets in Aotearoa)… but in hindsight we just didn’t have the extra level required to make it happen.
You can’t complain when you lose to a better team. You can be disappointed, sure. But you can’t complain. Hey and in a few days we’ll get to ponder about what happens next with the All Whites. That’s bound to be exciting! (No excitement guarantees, only hunnid percent keepin’ it real guarantees).
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