We’re supposed to be winning these kinds of games. We should have won this game. It doesn’t even matter if this is a weakened All Whites squad, that’s excuse is not gonna fly here. Kenya were every bit as weakened as New Zealand were as the two teams matched up in Mumbai. Yet as usual it was a narrow defeat for the All Whites on an international stage… heard that one before?

The All Whites were better in the first half, Kenya were better in the second half and the rain was pretty heavy the whole way through. Kenya won 2-1. It’s a frustrating way to start this tournament and it means we’ll probably need a win against India if we’re going to make the final. It’s a repeat of the same script we’re used to from the last four years, promising potential but a negative result, yet we’ve still got to acknowledge that this is a new manager in his second game with the team. There will be teething issues involved and the Intercontinental Cup is hardly a big deal in the larger scheme of things.

So keep that all in mind here. Fritz Schmid is still figuring things out and that might take a few games. You can naturally hope the All Whites will get better as the tournament progresses (unless injuries and fatigue become too much) and Schmiddy deserves a period of adjustment. Okay, now with that in mind I’m gonna reserve the right to criticise the bugger for a couple things.

Playing Alex Rufer up front doesn’t make much sense. That’s a drama we dealt with a few years back in the U20s and beyond. He’s a holding midfielder. Playing him up front when there are other strikers in this team (Myer Bevan in particular, who is one of the handful of guys in this team probably making a World Cup squad if we’d qualified) was a head-scratcher. It’s not that Rufer played terribly or anything, holding the ball up smoothly a couple times, but we have better options with better instincts available.

The rest of the XI was logical enough. Max Crocombe is the top keeper available and there was a back four of Dane Ingham and Tommy Doyle on the flanks with Adam Mitchell and Nikko Boxall in the middle, the latter on debut. Tim Payne and Cam Howieson in midfield again and then Jai Ingham, Matt Ridenton and Sarpreet Singh in more advanced roles to complete a 4-2-3-1 formation - same as against Canada and it’s a shape that suits the team nicely enough.

The only issue there is you’ve got a number of guys in unusual positions. Ridenton has played in the number ten role a few times but was mostly a deeper mid for the Phoenix. Rufer, obviously. Then there’s Tim Payne who was a very handy centre back for Eastern Suburbs in the NZ Prem, which is where he earned this recall. He can basically play anywhere through the middle, however it might have been more effective to chuck Ridenton deeper and sneak in another creative midfielder or a second striker. At least Payne does bring some physicality to the middle that the others don’t. Even Dane Ingham isn’t completely suited to playing at right fullback either, he’s better as a wingback where his defensive frailties aren’t so easily exposed.

But picking holes in the line-up like that looked silly for the first half hour as the kiwi team took control and pegged Kenya back deep in their own half. There were long balls but they were searching long balls in behind the defence looking for runners, rather than Old Mate Huddo’s purposeless thumpers. Set pieces were a threat too, Nikko Boxall with a swivelled strike deflected past the post. Alex Rufer smashed one way over the top with a bit of space on the edge of the box. Early chances, mate. They were coming.

And who was involved in basically all of it? Sarpreet Singh, of course. He almost got his reward for that with a one on one only to unleash a poor strike straight at the goalie. Rufer’s through ball was also a little under-hit, to be fair, but Sarpreet shoulda done better. Still, on a slightly bumpy pitch in steamy conditions (even at 8pm in Mumbai), with the rain getting steadily heavier, Singh was the one involved in most of the good stuff that went on. Dropping in between the lines and linking up, bringing it forward. Dude’s just getting better and better.

If it wasn’t Singh then it was the Inghams getting busy down the right flank. A few quality deliveries into the box from their side never quite got the final touch they deserved, while Matt Ridenton decided to cut past another defender rather than shooting after Jai had played him in. This was all good football, though. Meanwhile the best that Kenya could muster was one high and wide hopeful shot from outside the box. They clearly had the pace to do some damage but they couldn’t find the space to unleash it.

Granted, Kenya did steadily grow into the game and were unlucky not to take the lead after Eric Ouma flipped one onto the crossbar having snuck down NZ’s right flank in behind Dane Ingham. Who… didn’t do great, if we’re keeping it a hundred. The younger Ingham does plenty getting forward but the opportunities to overlap are limited in a back four. Take that out of his game and he doesn’t give you much. Memories of him getting skinned against Mexico at the Confederations Cup linger loudly and once again he looked like the converted winger that he is, yet to learn the tricks of the right back trade. It wasn’t a huge surprise to see both him and Alex Rufer replaced at half-time by Justin Gulley, on debut, and Myer Bevan.

Ahh but before that there was some red hot drama. Sarpreet Singh found a little space outside the penalty area and a sumptuous first touch allowed him to whip that ball inside the left post for his first international goal in his first international start. Sarpreet doing what Sarpreet does. 1-0 to the All Whites. Excellent.

Except they couldn’t hold on until the break. Kenya applied a bit of pressure and Ridenton made a sliding challenge on the edge of the area which conceded a free kick. More of a slipping challenge, actually. It looked harsh because not only did he make first contact with the ball but he’d slid over on the wet field so it wasn’t even on purpose. But take nothing away from Miheso Cliffton who curled a cracker into the top corner off his left foot with the last kick of the half.

It’s tempting to wonder what this game might’ve looked like if the All Whites had held on for that 1-0 lead at the break. They leaked one at a terrible time and this game was never the same. The NZers weren’t able to regain their early control and part of that was Sarpreet Singh not getting enough footy. Part of it also was having our midfield playing so bloody deep. Payne and Howieson didn’t do what they did against Canada and instead kept things too defensive to really dominate that attacking third when an extra man in support might have made the difference. Obviously they were wary about giving Kenya space in behind their defence to run into but… do you want to win or not?

Although the bigger issue was the rain. It was absolutely bucketing down by now and you had to feel for the Kenyan manager standing out there in his technical area getting drenched. Puddles were forming on the field. Makes it tough to build an attack when the ball is floating, you know.

Max Crocombe made his best save of the game to deny a shank of a clearance from Justin Gulley which almost led to an embarrassing own goal on debut but it was crisis averted. Also Tim Payne got hurt diving into a tackle and on came Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, another player who has performed best in defence lately yet was asked to play midfield and thus kept it too deep, while Noah Billingsley replaced Matt Ridenton which gave the lads more pace up front but at the expense of a little extra finesse.

No idea where Clayton Lewis was, by the way… not that you ever know what the situations are like within NZ Football. Who turned up late or who’s injured, etc. Also there are a lot of games in a short amount of time on this tour and we won’t know if Schmiddy’s got a rotation scheme until the end of it.

A couple set pieces gave the All Whites a couple good opportunities to throw buggers forward but then Noah Billingsley got hounded and conceded possession in the Kenyan half - not sure where the midfield was - and Patilah Omoto hit a low one straight through to Ovella Ochieng and he had too much pace for Adam Mitchell, poking the ball past Crocombe for what turned out to be the winner. The first goal was unlucky, can’t fault a great strike, but the second was terrible. One pass from the other half of the field split the entire defence, a shame since the CBs had been really good until then.

Henry Cameron replaced Jai Ingham with ten minutes or so remaining and he did nothing, same as every other time he’s played for Aotearoa. Myer Bevan had a couple headers and a mishit half-volley while Billingsley, despite losing the ball for the goal, did some stuff as well. He made a couple things happen. But they couldn’t find a leveller and frustrations simmered towards the end with Tom Doyle getting a yellow for dropping a Sonny Bill shoulder on a poor bloke. Shout out to Doyle on the captain’s armband though. He was always the top candidate.

The All Whites had the chances to win this sucker, especially in the first half, and it was only their own mistake that let Kenya take the lead and therefore settle in with numbers behind the ball. The weather didn’t help. Neither did it help that Kenya had already played a couple games last week and looked a more organised and refined team, if not the more talented/skilful team. The weakened squad thing isn’t an excuse. This team was good enough to win this game and they didn’t. That’s the bottom line.

When you’re dominating early on it’s easy to lose that cutting edge in the assumption that you’ll continue to dominate the game the rest of the way. Missed that chance? No worries, I’ll score the next one. Footy rarely works like that. You’ve got to make it count when you’re on top and if Sarpeet Singh’s goal had made it 2-0 rather than 1-0 then the All Whites might just have run away with it. Instead now we’ve got to cope with yet another narrow defeat for this team outside of Oceania and, tell you what, it’s hard to keep coming up with reasons not to be mad about that.

There’s a lesson for the young bucks then. Next time it’s Chinese Taipei, who lost 5-0 to India the other day. That’s on Wednesday morning at the same time. We can let the lads off the hook this one time but if we don’t win that next one then we’ve got a serious problem on our hands.

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