Was that the start you were hoping for from Fritz Schmid? Probably not. But a game like this one, a neutral ground friendly against Canada, wasn’t really about the result and you already knew that by the relaxed attitude towards certain players staying at their clubs. Still a win would’ve been nice, rather than the relatively tame 1-0 defeat that we got instead.

We’re in a second straight managerial spell that’ll be framed entirely around a World Cup qualifying cycle, which means that Schmiddy has a very direct comparison to live up to in Anthony Hudson. There are plenty of criticisms that’ve been chucked at Uncle Tony (a few of the same ones look like they might arise in Colorado too if results ain’t going good) but the only one that really matters is his record against Oceania teams and his record against non-OFC sides. A record that reads as such…

It took Huddo fourteen months and six games to get his first (and only, as it turned out) win against a team from outside the confederation and it was a 1-0 victory against the powerhouses of Oman. So on one hand it’s hard not to look at this result and say: ‘oh look, another All Whites game where they played kinda well but still lost narrowly without scoring a goal’. Just like those 1-0 defeats to Northern Ireland and Belarus or the efforts at the Confederations Cup or the friendly against Japan or the two Peru games where Huddo was ever so proud of the lads… despite them barely having a shot on target over 180 minutes. But Schmid deserves a clean slate. This is a platform to build from if nothing else.

Canada were in the same situation as NZ with former Footy Ferns gaffer John Herdman taking charge of his first game while also without a few of his best players. No Scott Arfield or Atiba Hutchinson because of injury while Junior Hoilett stayed with Cardiff City to help with their promotion efforts in the English Championship. No room either for 17-year old wonder kid Alphonso Davies who is starting to really light it up for Vancouver Whitecaps alongside a couple kiwi teammates.

Of course that’s nothing compared to missing the combined talents of Chris Wood, Winston Reid, Stefan Marinovic, Tommy Smith and Ryan Thomas (who was with the squad but not risked because of a minor knock). That’s arguably New Zealand’s five finest players right there all out of action, half the starting line-up unavailable. Not to mention possible starters such as Bill Tuiloma (who made his MLS debut a few hours after the All Whites game ended), Deklan Wynne, James Musa and Kip Colvey. Oh and the recent retirees Andy Durante, Glen Moss and Shane Smeltz.

This is the XI that started against Canada:

CROCOMBE / MITCHELL, BOXALL, BROTHERTON, DOYLE / PAYNE, HOWIESON / LEWIS, MCGLINCHEY, ROJAS / BROCKIE

This is a possible alternate XI of unavailable players:

MARINOVIC / COLVEY, DURANTE, REID, SMITH, WYNNE / THOMAS, TUILOMA, MUSA / SMELTZ, WOOD

And just for kicks this is the XI that Anthony Hudson picked which lost 3-1 to Uzbekistan in his first game in charge (Neil Emblen picked the squad, btw):

MOSS / ROUX, DURANTE, REID, DOYLE / MCGLINCHEY, TUILOMA / BOYD, JAMES, BARBAROUSES / WOOD

Safe to say that Huddo started with a lot more to work with than Schmiddy and got a much worse result out of it. Then he deliberately weakened his squad for the next few games to ‘expand the playing group’ and he found a couple scoops from that and a couple duds, whatever. Schmiddy’s done the more recommended thing by starting low and working upwards so it’ll constantly feel like his team’s making progress. Perception makes a big difference in this business.

Okay so first thing is there were two starting debutants in Max Crocombe and Adam Mitchell. A little odd to think that Crocombe hadn’t played yet but that’s what happens when Stefan Marinovic plays a million games in a row. And Adam Mitchell gets in outta the Bolton reserves where he’s been a regular at centre-back while that team wins game after game. Not a natural right back and you could see that a couple times as he was exposed against the pace of Liverpool youngster Liam Millar but we never really got a proper look at him before a hamstring injury caused him to be replaced by Dane Ingham within quarter of an hour. Hopefully it ain’t too bad because Mitchell’s a player on the rise who could very well be playing English Championship next season if it all works out.

Elsewhere it appeared to be a 4-2-3-1 formation with Tim Payne and Cam Howieson in the defensive mid positions. You’d have figured that Matt Ridenton would’ve gotten one of those spots out of club seniority (A-League > NZ Premmy) but then maybe that’s just more fuel to the flames of the Phoenix needing to sign up a couple more of these top performing Premiership blokes. Also we’ve got trash depth at midfield, to be honest. Not trash players, just trash depth. Kiwi goalies, centre-backs and strikers are doing their things all over the planet but Ryan Thomas is the only central midfielder on the radar at a genuinely high level. But maybe that’s changing, give it a few years.

It was midfielder Mike McGlinchey that dominated the early stages. Whacked one off the post and then headed one off the other post less than a minute later from a corner. Two golden chances that he couldn’t quite take advantage of. It was all All Whites at this stage and it’s worth mentioning that the wind was bloody blustery here, which the kiwis used well to their advantage in the first half. Not always, a few of those Mike Boxall long balls were only ever gonna drift too deep, but on the most part they were able to peg the Canadians back. Two fairly direct teams missing a few of their best options and playing with a heavy headwind, it was always gonna be the case.

How strong was the wind? This strong…

It took him three goes to plant the ball steady enough to kick it.

Canada did more into the wind than the All Whites managed in the second half though. Millar was a dangerous little bugger down the left. The odd set piece and then a save or two from Crocombe – one really nice one against Cyle Larin on the rebound having fumbled the initial effort. Bit dangerous there. They even got the ball in the net only for a lino’s flag to disallow it. Looked offside from the start and even then it came via an assist from the ref getting in the way of the ball so probably best that the officials brushed that one under the mat.

Then the All Whites scored. Five minutes before the break, Jeremy Brockie at the near post. McGlinchey, was playing quite far forward (almost a second striker at times), and he switched it nicely to Clayton Lewis, who up until then had been mostly anonymous other than getting an injury in a challenge that needed some treatment. Lewis looked like a player who hasn’t played a lot of first team football lately, which is what he is. But on this occasion he swung in a lovely ball to pick out the run of Brockie and the keeper was well-beaten. Except the flag went up again.

It took a few replays to figure this one out because there was no way it looked like offside at first watch. The cameras on offer didn’t really provide a clean look at the backline and Brockie was under some close attention from the defender so there was some detective work required. But it turns out it wasn’t him at all, it was Clayton Lewis who was offside from the switch from Wee Mac. Which… is kinda unacceptable. He wasn’t making a run in behind, he was standing on the sideline where he had an unobstructed view of the defence. He came off after 66 minutes and was limping around with his boot off afterwards but that was 25 minutes of football later, dunno. It should have been a goal had he been a little more switched on to the play.

Between that and the two McGlinchey chances the All Whites needed to be hitting the sheds at 1-0 up and they didn’t. Canada then came out with the breeze at their backs and scored within ten minutes. A long ball was misplayed by Sam Brotherton (another dude without a huge amount of footy lately) and Tosaint Ricketts got on the end of it. Crocombe hesitated in coming out to meet him and Ricketts smashed it home.

Pretty much two minutes after Alex Rufer had replaced Marco Rojas as well, which was a little underwhelming. Then a few minutes after the goal came the double attacking sub of Andre De Jong and Myer Bevan. Sarpreet Singh joined ADJ in making his debut off the bench eight minutes after. Some positive moves but there wasn’t a lot to show for it. Canada were much more threatening after the break and shoulda added another goal or two – Millar blew a couple great chances and Osorio pumped one wide.

Hence they lost. Needed to be more clinical when they were on top and it didn’t happen… but that’s okay. This is only the starting point after all. Had Chris Wood been playing then they easily could’ve gone up 2-0 before the break and there you go, his hold-up play and set-piece threat would have been perfect in this situation but instead it was Brockie and Bevan who are very talented players but in a different mould to The Woodsman. Or we’d had Ryan Thomas’ control and precision in the midfield.

Tell you who played really well though, that’s Tim Payne. He’s been doing the amateur thing in Aotearoa and he’s been playing centre-back for Eastern Suburbs yet here he was throwing himself around in the midfield and making things happen. He’s far from new to this scene but he’s never looked more comfortable or grateful to be in an All Whites jersey, making his return after two and a half years out of the side. Mike Boxall and Cam Howieson were solid as well. Howieson’s in the same situation as Payne and seeing both of them combining like that out of the Premiership was very cool… although we maybe didn’t need both of them out there at once. We could’ve been more attacking with only one deep midfielder and started Bevan up front with Brockie. Just saying.

In a year’s time if they’re still losing this game then we have a problem. Canada’s got some quality players but New Zealand has equally as many pros and when the plan is to qualify for the 2022 World Cup then beating teams like Canada is a necessity. But that’s in a year’s time. For now it’s enough that they even played.

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