All Whites at the ONC: Thank God It’s Finally Over vs Papua New Guinea
It’s okay, you can open your eyes now. It’s all over. The All Whites are heading to the Confederations Cup as champions of the Oceania Nations Cup and that’s all that matters. Forget how they got there, forget the horrors that we had to witness on the way. Just look straight ahead and banish such thoughts.
Argh, but it really wasn’t fun, not even the final. It started midweek when Chris Wood left the camp and it turned out NZ Football knew that this would be the case all along and never warned us. It just happened, and then they denied it, only to confirm it later. What a mess. Jason Pine broke the news on twitter.
It seemed to be a FIFA window thing at first, leading to some scrambling internet research though apparently that wasn’t a factor (though it could have been, as was the case with Winston Reid) – what it was, was his sister’s wedding. So best wishes to the Wood family, they set the date based on the original schedule for the ONC and that went and changed, so typical OFC there. So dumb.
But the thing is, without Woody there was some silver lining. The Wood/Fallon partnership made the long ball approach viable but they barely linked together at all, they’re too similar as players. Wood is our best from this squad, however having to bring in Kosta Barbarouses here meant we were including a dude who can run in behind the defence, who can link up with Fallon’s flick ons and stretch the PNG defence out. In theory, at least.
Two other changes, both Luka Prelevic and Themi Tzimopoulos were suspended so in came Monty Patterson as a straight swap in midfield while Michael Boxall moved into CB and Louis Fenton started on the right of defence. It all made enough sense, Tommy Doyle wasn’t available so Mat Ridenton was the only other dude who’d played fullback this tourney – Fenton over him seems logical.
Although they did still line up in the same braindead formation that they have all ONC, five at the back for no apparent reason, zero width on attack… it’s too late to have expected them to change for the final, we could only hope we’d scrape through once again and that Anthony Hudson would never again stoop so low in the future. Bloody hell it’s been a brutal watch, but – spoiler alert – they saved the worst for the final.
Predictably, there were long balls. Long balls to strikers when midfielders are standing open and not even asking for it – it’s not exactly going to aid player workrate when that’s the encouraged norm. It was like if we went three passes without trying to get a striker involved we panicked and lumped it, so impatient. There was one Patterson shot way over but for the most part if it wasn’t coming from set pieces, specifically long throws, then it didn’t look likely at all. Fallon’s hold-up play was very average. Kosta hardly got involved. Considering they were the focal point of everything (granted the isolated focal point because the midfield plays so deep that they could never hope to feed off of them – the long ball travels a lot quicker than they do), that ain’t ideal. Colvey volleyed one over the bar too, trying to hit it on his left. Other than that it was mind-numbing.
I suppose it’s a good deal that we got 20 minutes in and Papua New Guinea hadn’t come close to threatening us. There was one counter attack but Tuiloma dealt with it powerfully… and was clattered for it, earning Tommy Semmy a yellow. Tui should’ve got one of his own soon after for a foul on Michael Foster, proper horse-collaring the bugger. Fenton wasn’t so lucky when he earned a caution for an aerial challenge.
On the other hand, Luke Adams made a couple of fine tackles. Along with the keeper Marinovic, Adams played every minute of the Nations Cup and he was beyond a doubt one of the better performers. Assured at the back and increasingly confident in the challenge, there’s a big future for a defender like that. He did have a well-shielded role in the middle of a back trio meaning he could sweep more, though that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have held his own in a back four. Meanwhile Tui fired off target from about 35 metres, probably showing a bit of the frustration that was absolutely being felt by those of us watching as an important game slipped by with nothing relevant happening. When you play spoilers against a team worse than you, you only really spoil yourself.
There was a feeling as the first half went on that maybe we were turning the screws but there were so few options that it was hard to tell. Like, with the long throws being such a target… shouldn’t we have come up with some better way to take advantage of them? As the game went on, Ronald Warisan in goal started coming out and catching them.
Michael Foster was getting scrappy in the middle with a big hack on Tui that earned a yellow. Tui was playing his best game of the tournament, one in which he’s been well below his usual standards but at least he had this game to restore some stuff. Without anyone looking to play off him, he took a lot of hits though. Lots of tackling in the middle of the park because players had to hold the ball so long with nobody showing an option. Wee Mac and Colvey did some nice stuff down the left but the cut-back was dug out by a defender. But then late in the first half we leaked a couple chances. Colvey gave the ball away and Mari had to make a save. Nigel Dabinyaba shot one across the goal from the edge of the box. Still, we got forward a few more times for a few more almost-chances. A Python ball too deep, some Wee Mac stuff drifting down the left. And one chance for Louis Fenton to run it down the line only for him to cut back tamely. Dammit, son, take him on!
0-0 at the break, with a bit of luck there would only be 45 more minutes of this (… we didn’t get a bit of luck). The game had gotten expansive towards the end of the half and it’s telling of what a shocker this tourney has been for NZ that the game opening up like that was in PNG’s best interests. They could hit us on the break because our midfield wasn’t covering space. And again, as with the whole ONC, we were giving away too many free kicks. Part of that is eager refereeing trying to keep the game under control but part is also that same impatient streak in our game. The whole mindset was wrong, blame the coaches. Boxall got a yellow for a cruncher.
The first change came after 52 mins with Marco Rojas, left out again thanks to the crappy game plan, replaced Python Patterson. Marinovic fired up on Dabinyaba after the striker ran through him unnecessarily after he collected a deep ball in behind. Two minutes after the first sub, Jeremy Brockie replaced Kosta Barbarouses. Patterson had tried but not been able to quite thread the gaps or get that crucial cross onto the foot/head of a teammate. Kosta just faded. He should have been a huge factor with his pace and skill but he couldn’t get on the ball and we didn’t play close enough to the opposition’s defensive third for his runs to be more than hopeful. Brockie is slightly better at playing through the middle, plus he’s been in good form. Fair enough… although giving Kosta a few mins with Marco in behind him might have been worthwhile. Let’s be honest though, Hudson was never going to sub Fallon off – he even made him captain.
Watson drew some laughs when he made a meal of charging down a defensive clearance. It seemed to hit him on the heel but he was down for an age. Not that we ought to laugh too much because some of our first touches were simply dreadful. And even with Rojas on, we were still resorting to the same imagination-less route one approach even though we now had almost an hour of evidence that it wasn’t bloody working. We came close when Fenton milked a free kick which was headed back at the far post by Fallon but cleared from a little off the line by Alwin Komolong, McGlinchey with the fine ball in deep.
Colvey was booked after a hospital pass from Adams drew him into a challenge. Tuiloma had to go off in the 71st min with double leg cramps. His fitness has been a problem and he hasn’t played a lot this season – given that he isn’t likely to play too much for Marseille next season necessarily (that club’s a bit in flux these days), his career is at a bit of a crossroads right now. Moses Dyer replaced him. Not exactly an inspirational sub but we didn’t have a lot of options. Ridenton and Hudson-Wihongi would be the other choices and they’ve been used mostly as defenders at the ONC.
It was all the same junk. We’d win the ball and then give it away in the transitional stuff because we couldn’t pass it around under any pressure. I get that conditions are tough but we didn’t even try. There was no width to speak of at all and nothing good was coming from deep balls. The odd foul conceded by Rory Fallon, maybe. Actually, there’s nothing odd about that, Rory Felon more like. Dyer was called offside from a Brockie lob in behind but at least he was trying to make a run, at least he was trying to find some penetration out there. This wasn’t one of them, but there were a few questionable offside flags – although it’s hard to say without decent TV replays.
A bit of head tennis saw the PNG keeper caught by Boxall for an injury delay. Tuiloma may not have given the go-forward he might have but his defensive work was top stuff and once he went off we started to see more and more of the Papua New Guinea lads running through our midfield with space. Raymond Gunemba in particular started to take over, with the crowd beginning to believe every time he ran the ball at speed. Brotherton had to whip away a tough cross from that dude, there weren’t too many proper scares but there were several times when we were only a slip or a trip away from real danger. Luckily PNG were genuinely awful in front of goal. Very luckily, because their attackers were now making more inroads than ours were, that’s for sure.
So we ended up in extra-time. Hold the applause. Straight away it was PNG on attack again as Mari had to make a low diving stop. A moment of appreciation for him, we’ll come back to this but goalkeeper is one position we don’t have to worry about. It was worth wondering if their keeper would have made that save, one which Mari made look routine, though we wouldn’t know, would we? You’ve actually gotta get a shot on target first.
Colvey put a great cross in for Fallon but despite rising high in the air, he couldn’t keep the header down. Brockie almost got through as well but was tackled (and also offside). Look, we showed a bit of desperation in extras but it wasn’t really happening. This game had an inevitability about it from an early stage, we’d dug ourselves out of goalless holes in the last two games and eventually that becomes too much to ask. Brockie put in a nice ball to Fallon but he was too slow to make it count. Fallon’s just been unveiled as the new assistant player/manager of Truro City who play in the National League South in England, effectively the sixth tier. Safe to say the 34 year old is winding up his career over the next few years and he looked physically exhausted by the end of the second half. Given he’s one of the fitter ones in the squad, that tells a tale in itself.
A few more things happened. Some Gunemba magic followed by poor crossing, a Brockie shot that was closer to hitting a satellite in orbit than the goal, a sliding Adams challenge in the box and then we were off to penalties.
Which begged the question, given the lottery of spotties… would Anthony Hudson have been sacked if we’d failed to advance? The public vote would suggest yes. The cynical view of NZF would suggest no. I’m going with no, but nothing about their efforts at the Nations Cup was in any way endearing.
I love penalty shoot outs. I love them because they’re the purest tie-breakers imaginable. It’s the very essence of the game boiled down into a single act: kick the ball past the goalie and into the net. The two variables are the pressure of the situation and the goalkeeper and in Stefan Marinovic we had comfortably the best keeper of the tournament. He was rarely brilliant but only because he never had to be – he was never in a bad position, he never had to make up for some error of judgement. Every single thing he did was done right. Zero mistakes in 480 minutes of footy, there is nothing more you could ask for. Player of the Tournament in my eyes (plus he saved a penalty against South Korea once for NZ).
Plus we obviously had the better players in terms of technical ability, which doesn’t cover for that whole pressure thing, specifically the weight of expectation, but it does make a healthy difference. As worried as we all will have been going into penalties, it was soon clear that we did have a clear advantage. Up stepped Rory Fallon with no shinpads on (is that allowed?)… 1-0. Up stepped Koriak Upaiga… saved by Marinovic. Not a great kick, it was at a decent height for Mari and he dived the right way. McGlinchey and Dyer both scored, followed each by Semmy and Foster hitting the net. Jeremy Brockie had the chance to all but seal it and he put his spottie wide. Oh, you silly bugger. Thankfully Marinovic made another save, this time tipping Gunemba’s effort onto the post to preserve the lead. Marco Rojas buried one in the top corner to take the kiwis to the Confederations Cup. Yay… sort of.
The dramatic celebrations from the players were fair enough, they’d worked their arses off to get to this result, despite the standards. Seeing the coaching staff in the pile-on, that wasn’t such a good look. Surely they, having had the best view of it all, realised what a terrible showing this has all been? But shout outs to two players who got their moments to shine during the shootout. One is obviously Stefan Marinovic. I know we miss Glen Moss but Mari might even be better and considering Jake Gleeson is out there too, we’re well stocked for glovemen. The other is Marco Rojas, our most naturally skilled playmaker, who was marginalised by a negative approach from Hudson and left to feed on scraps when he did play. Not even scraps, really. When lacking creativity throughout the tournament, you should be trying to play off and around the players who can actually provide that and we didn’t at all. So it was lovely to see him get the shining moment in the end.
The rest of it has already been said, both in these All Whites articles here and by the masses on social media. Here’s my last word on it: The fact that it took us penalties to beat Papua New Guinea is not acceptable but it is ignorable. The tactical approach of the team here is in contrast to the way that Hudson has had them trying to play in the past so we can safely assume that this was all for business purposes. Get the job done, no matter how ugly. Ultimately, that’s what happened so try burn the memories and hope we get a few high profile friendlies next season – because, hey, we’re gonna be playing at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.
All Whites 0-0 Papua New Guinea
(4-2 to NZ on penalties)
All Whites Man of the Match: Stefan Marinovic
Papua New Guinea Man of the Match: Raymond Gunemba
Undercover Brother: Bill Tuiloma
Encouragement Award: Louis Fenton
All Whites Players of the Tournament:
1. Stefan Marinovic
2. Luke Adams
3. Chris Wood
Goals Scored:
Chris Wood – 4
Rory Fallon – 2
Themi Tzimopoulos – 1
Michael McGlinchey – 1
Kosta Barbarouses – 1
Luke Adams – 1