All Whites 0-0 New Caledonia: Settling for a Point in Tough Conditions
It wasn’t that surprising, to be honest. A win would’ve had the All Whites on the brink of advancing already even at the halfway stage but Anthony Hudson has proved before he’s nothing if not a pragmatist. Oh hey and since it appears that quite a few folks need the info, *cough, mainstream non-football sports media, cough*, this wasn’t a two legged tie. It’s a part of a three team group stage. We play Fiji next window and then Fiji play New Caledonia the time after that.
But that didn’t mean that Huddo wouldn’t take a draw. He’d obviously take a draw, four points through two games is still a strong start. At the Nations Cup he went all defensive/long ball and looked for 1-0s and that got the job done, albeit not really in the interests of the fans. There was every reason to assume he’d do the same here.
So it was weird to see him name a team in 4-4-2. Diamond midfield of course. Not sure what the reasoning was for changing a formation that had worked for them and which had provided increasingly good footy other than that 4-4-2 had paid a couple dividends last game, while the three-man defence had given us a pretty stagnant start. But… how much of that is due to the midfield? Potentially most of it, you know.
The midfield here had Marco Rojas topping it, with Ryan Thomas and Moses Dyer centred and Te-Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi holding. Mike McGlinchey is presumably still injured after missing the first game so that’s one thing but what’s the motivation behind starting two amateur footy players ahead of Bill Tuiloma, one of our most pedigreed? Come one, there has to be someone else. Whatever happened to Dan Keat? All of those Scandinavian-based guys in fact, are they out of the reckoning coz of their weirdly timed seasons or what?
In defence, both Boxall and Colvey returned from suspensions which NZ Football didn’t bother to tell us had happened (at least I never saw anything, other than Box tweeting after the game). Boxall at CB, Colvey on the left with Andy Durante and Liam Graham filling the other spots. Stefan Marinovic getting yet another game in goal. Woody was up top, with Monty Patterson getting the gig running off him.
So Kosta left on the bench, Tui as well. Given Colvey can play either flank, that means Graham edged ahead of Wynne too. Or maybe he’s just mixing it up, we know he likes a bit of Clayton Lewis and he was on the bench himself.
That midfield was the real bugger. We simply don’t have the depth to go playing rotations and watching Dyer get pushed off the ball over and over, diving into tackles that he’d miss and playing a few erratic passes, it made you beg for Billy T. Still, the All Whites were much the better team for about 20 minutes. Chris Wood took a pop from the kick off, which was audacious but perhaps not as much as the several times that New Caledonians tried the same thing from range throughout the game. Seriously, it ain’t worth it.
By the way, New Caledonia named an almost unchanged team, only Loic Wakanumune coming in despite having a few extra players available this time (although Roy Kayara was replaced due to injury after nine minutes by Jefferson Dahite). Top club teams in New Caledonia and Tahiti actually compete in the French Cup so that caused a little disruption. Anyway, Woody also had a header thumped at the keeper Schmidt (SCHMIDTY!) from about eight yards, a lovely cross off the left foot from Kip Colvey, which Woody probably feels he shoulda done better with. Hit that far post and it was a definite goal. Well… not quite coz the flag was up, but it makes for good practice.
Then about quarter of an hour in Monty missed a sitter. Sort of a sitter, the keeper was advancing so there wasn’t much space or time but to miss the target from that range at any rate is not good. Great work from Durante pushing all the way up and nobody seemed to know who should be marking him, Dura nodding the ball back across for Python to do his thing.
Thing is, when you miss a goal at that stage in the game, it feels like you’ll have plenty more chances across the rest of it. Doesn’t always work like that, though. New Caledonia have some classy players, Georges Gope-Fenepej for example. The dude was a step above for the home team. Definitely their best player. He currently plays for Ligue 2 side Amiens in France and, like Bill Tuiloma, has experienced Ligue 1 footy in the past. Just a shame that neither he nor his teammates had their finishing boots on. Honestly they had their chances to win this game and for as the first half went on they got more and more on top.
Cesar Zeoula also plays Ligue 2, for Stade Lavallois, and he missed the best of them. Also Marinovic had to make a couple important saves. Mostly all stuff shot straight at ‘em, but you’ve still gotta keep ‘em out.
Then the lights went out.
Or something, there was a power cut and it’s hard to say what happened given we were all left watching Breakers highlights and Cricket Show excerpts. Hey the Breakers go good… but it’d have been nice to see the end of the half.
The All Whites needed to make something count from their period of initial control. They needed to get Chris Wood more involved and they needed to put some of the half chances away. It was a scrappy kind of game and in a way that suited the kiwis because it took them out of the risk-free style they were trying to play, making for chances at both ends but surely we’d come out on top if all that continued. It didn’t continue, so never mind.
Gonna ask this again now, does Moses Dyer have pictures of Anthony Hudson somewhere? Like, special pictures in a brown manila envelope, hidden away in a locked draw that Hudson is aware of and very keen not to have exposed. The guy’s a fine enough player. One of the better ones at SS Prem level… but that still makes him an SS Prem level player. Same with TAHW, although as a defensive midfielder he wasn’t really noticed too much. Actually, given we got smacked on the counter attack a few times that might not be a good thing. But Dyer was the main worry, for reasons already mentioned. Don’t wanna slam a young footy player, it ain’t his fault. He’s being played in a crucial position at a level that he isn’t used to. Not the level of his opposition but the level of his teammates. Marco Rojas and Ryan Thomas don’t want a midfielder that stands there immobile. They want a dude to pass and move, to get the ball and create space. It was so static in the middle and what you got then was Rojas coming back to collect the ball himself and then losing it under pressure a couple times.
Ryan Thomas was good though. He snuck under the radar but as the game went on he showed lots of composure on the ball, making clever decisions and playing the easy pass. If we had a couple more of him in the centre we might have even been able to string ten passes together.
Hmm, let’s not mention the camerawork by the local broadcasters either. Apparently the ol’ steadicam isn’t all that popular amongst the French nouvelle vague.
No subs at the break. Another example that Hudson was ready to settle for a draw if he had to. When the changes did come in the 56th minute they were a little odd. Barba for Python, fair enough. Wonder if we’d have won if Kosta had started? Also Tuiloma finally got the nod, replacing Hudson-Wihongi. Except that Tui went into defence and the team went 5-3-2 again.
It felt like a dumb defensive change, though it’s more complicated than that. Yes, it shores up the backline. However it also means that the fullbacks became wingbacks with more room to attack in. Get Colvey and Graham forward and they can swing more crosses into the box. More crosses mean more Chris Wood. That can only be a good thing. Woody was marginalised a little in this game but when he did get involved, usually trying to hold up the ball, he looked a step above as usual. Jeez, he’s gotten good that dude. Also Schmidty had misjudged a couple balls coming out to collect so that’s another reason to get the ball swung into the box.
Moses Dyer was better after the formation switch, to give credit where it’s due. It allowed him to play further forward and freed him of the defensive responsibilities that he’d been ignoring. Oh, he still gave the ball away heaps but he was doing so trying to be aggressive and attacking, which is so much easier to take.
One thing that isn’t mentioned about this team much: they’re not a very big one. You forget that when you look at towering blokes like Chris Wood, Winston Reid, Michael Boxall and one or two others but the rest of them are pretty slight. Marco Rojas, Ryan Thomas, Moses Dyer and Te-Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi does not make for an oversized midfield and perhaps we should have expected them to get pushed around a little. It wouldn’t be much better with Wee Mac and Kosta either, even if those guys are a little more experienced.
Liam Graham got injured and Wynne replaced him in the 65th min, Hudson forced to use up his las sub on a defensive change. Bloody hell and then Tui went and performed this piece of magnificence!
Holy crap, that is beyond amazing. That’s a spectacular bit of athleticism and awareness and commitment and all of those things. A clearance as good as that is worth the same as a Chris Wood thundervolley from the edge of the area.
The second half was absolutely brutal though. It was dark as the night set in, it was humid from the start, the pitch was causing the ball to take the odd bobble and the steady rain that had sprinkled across the first half became something closer to a violent downpour. These were not conditions best suited to good footy. Another reason why they needed to take their early chances. Since they didn’t, you can’t be too critical under the circumstances they ended up with. Impossible stuff.
Bertrand Kai got sent off with five minutes left. He’d already been fired up when Mike Boxall gave him a shove over the sideline and, after he clattered into Ryan Thomas, whatever Thommo said must have been really mean because Kai shot up like a slice of toast from a toaster and headbutted him in the face. Given that referee George Time (appropriate name) had made a few very odd decisions during the game - not match changing ones just odd ones - there was a feeling during the melee that he’d let the bloke off with a yellow but nah, out came the red one. Back in April the same ref gave out six red cards in an OFC Champions League game so yeah.
The red didn’t change anything. It was too late to affect the course of the game and the kiwis had already settled into pumping the ball into the box. Normally that’s annoying but when you hit stoppage time in those conditions, why the hell not? Nothing on target though, the game whimpering out to a 0-0 draw which no doubt Hudson’s happy enough with. Shout out to Andy Durante, who was very solid. Thommo and Boxall had good ones too, while Colvey and Wood had their moments. Woulda been nice to win but Hudson was happier not to lose and in the long run that’s probably for the best.