Now that’s what we’re talking about. The All Whites saved their best performance for the toughest game and just absolutely thumped India, did them dirty in front of their own fans. Magical stuff. A 2-1 win over the hosts means that, after some Charlie Kelly Meme investigation, the All Whites will qualify for the final against India as long as Kenya don’t beat Chinese Taipei by three goals. Which… they might. Then these two wins won’t matter as much as the one that got away against Kenya. But that’s out of our control at the moment.

Back to the game that mattered, the All Whites bossed this thing from minute one to minute ninety and yet for a long time it seemed like they might not ever get that ball into that precious net. It was chance after chance after chance and nothing stuck. Then they conceded in some seriously disgusting fashion. But cometh the hour, cometh the hero of the day. Alongside that other hero, the one who’s been the hero all tournament. And also the hero who scored the first goal. A few other heroes too. It’s the HERO Intercontinental Cup after all.

The prediction that Fritz Schmid would give Michael Woud the start here, splitting the three games evenly between the goalies, turned out to be true. Debut for Woudy, the last of the uncapped players to get their firstie in India. Tom Doyle was injured which meant Sam Brotherton made his first start of the tour (he started against Canada too so Schmiddy’s seen a bit of him already). Otherwise it was the same defence as beat Chinese Taipei. Meanwhile Tim Payne was back with Cam Howieson in the middle – same duo as has started three of Schmiddy’s four games, while Jai Ingham, Sarpreet Singh and Myer Bevan deservedly held their spots. Andre De Jong got his first All Whites start amidst them. Four changes from Schmiddy… which still wasn’t as many as India made for this one. After two wins from two the Indian team got some substantial rotation, keep that in mind if we play them again in the final.

What that meant was that Sarpreet Singh was back out on the left after playing through the middle last time. There’s a chorus that he should be playing centrally where he’s more involved but Singhy was hardly invisible in his two games at LAM. When he’s posted out wide he can swing in a cross as good as anyone in this current squad. Potentially as good as most anyone in a full strength team – accurate crossing’s been a bugger recently. Then he’s also able to drift in unmarked like he does and he’s always gonna find room to unleash that wand of a left foot in that situation.

Singh’s going to affect the game wherever he plays and this way it allows someone like Andre De Jong, getting his first minutes of the tour, to play in a genuine number ten role, acting as a fulcrum to get his other attackers into things. Bloody hell he did a good job of it too. ADJ was fantastic, bringing some great balance to the attack.

Which led to easily the best and most intense start to a game that the All Whites have made in a long time. The early ball into the box was causing India plenty of discomfort, with a fresh centre-back pairing having to play out of their skins to keep this thing even. De Jong should’ve done better with a header from a Jai Ingham chipped cross while Singh’s swinging lefties were causing havoc. There was room to work in out wide and with the All Whites attacking at pace they looked good.

Cam Howieson smashed one narrowly wide from distance, Singh mistimed a header, Bevan drew a quality save out of the Indian reserve keeper with a near post header from a corner, De Jong put another one wide… the chances were flowing and the pressure was that if they didn’t make it count then they’d get found out by an Indian team with weapons on the bench and an outstanding second half record at this Intercontinental Cup. They had a weapon on the field too in Sunil Chettri, the nation’s most legendary player, who almost embarrassed Mike Woud after the keeper had fumbled a long ball but he managed to snatch it back from Chettri’s feet, avoiding the penalty shouts from the crowd. Phew… wouldn’t wanna give away a goal that easy, right…?

So yeah, annoying in that they couldn’t get a deserved goal in the first half but massively encouraging with how much they created. The only drama there was that the crosses were coming so easy that they never thought to mix it up. Hit ADJ at his feet and run off him, get Sarpreet cutting inside and shooting, slip something through for Bevan to run onto. That kind of thing. Instead we were lumping crosses, albeit good ones, in an XI that let’s be honest didn’t really have anyone who is dominant in the air. But shout out to the midfield pair who were great. They got the combo firing here, Howieson getting forward while Payne sat deeper, rather than the double defensive look against Kenya. Allowed NZ to keep attacking in waves.

Chettri came close with a volley late in the first half after gassing into the area unmarked. That was a bullet dodged but then on came the man they call The Sniper, Jeje Lalpekhlua. India had struggled for an outlet in the first half but when Jeje came on as an additional striker they were finally able to get the ball out of their half with some regularity. The All Whites were still the dominant team but the game was immediately closer.

Then the goal came. Cacace had a rookie moment turning and running back towards his own goal and then ignored Brotherton to dish to a hesitant Woud, whose clearance was blocked and rolled into the goal off Chettri. Horrific goal to concede. Woud could have dribbled it past Chettri, he could have dished to Brotherton or he could have pumped it into the stands. But even then Cacace was the one who threw the hospital pass. He needs to be looking for a midfielder there. Guess you’ve got to expect some of that with young players. Both Cacace and Woud remain outstanding prospects, for the record.

But then we hit back immediately. Just an excellent goal too, Singh drifting in and a few sharp passes later he’s slipped De Jong in and, bingo, it’s 1-1. First international goal for ADJ. Notice that when the goal finally came it did not come from a header.

The subs started rolling after that, Nikko Boxall the first to sit with Adam Mitchell coming on and a couple minutes later Jai Ingham sat for Henry Cameron. Boxall and Ingham had started every game so rest would have been very much in the thinking for Schmiddy. Fair enough. He had more explaining to do when he subbed off an unhappy Tim Payne (for TAHW) but some impassioned words and some awkward hand-holding seemed to placate the lad.

By the way, how good were the Indian fans? The Blue Pilgrims! Wonderful stuff.

Adam Mitchell made a couple of superb defensive interventions along the way, while Jeje had an effort deflected over after two failed clearances made for a rare bit of trash defending. Gotta say that the defence has been much better than expected all tournament, a few clunkers aside. But with a win probably needed to keep NZ in the competition, the worry was that Schmid had subbed off all our best options. Billingsley replaced Bevan and then with 17 minutes remaining ADJ made way for Moses Dyer – the 23rd and final member of the squad to get some game time.

Like, every one of those attacking subs is worse than the player they replaced. The subs were probably necessary given the workload of those blokes but we also needed another goal. Ha! And you thought we wouldn’t get it!? Curses upon your faithless soul. There was a hero in our midst all along…

Yeah mate, shout outs to Moses Dyer! With only minutes left, the last of the starting forwards, Sarpreet Singh, got on the ball over on the right, rolled around his marker and stabbed one through for Dyer’s angled run and the last man to get on the park this tour scored the most important goal. Dyer got poked fun at a bit for Anthony Hudson’s love-goggles but this was only his second national team appearance in the last fourteen months and the other was a relative dead rubber draw in the Solomon Islands.

In that time Dyer’s spent time trialling with clubs in Europe and put together a strong campaign with Eastern Suburbs in the NZ Prem. He’s improved heaps since then. The other thing is that Schmiddy played him as an attacking midfielder where he’s at his best. Huddo liked him for a hard-working central mid but he’s more effective making enterprising runs like this in the attacking third. Full credit to a player who, if he’s keen, could probably get a gig in Colorado about now if he wants it.

Of course, it was Sarpreet Singh who set it up again. Quick recap: the All Whites have scored four goals at this tournament and Singh has scored one and assisted the other three. Now that’s called having an impact. The man they’re calling ‘The Dipak Patel of New Zealand Football’ been the kiwis’ best player in Mumbai, not only popping up at the key moments but playing with a threatening consistency the whole way. If he’s not Mark Rudan’s best friend within six weeks then #RudanOut. Sarpreet finally got a rest with a minute left as he was replaced by Matt Ridenton. Then he got himself another novelty cheque. Been a lucrative couple weeks for him.

Schmiddy’s now won two games from four. All against non-Oceania opposition and all away from home. There’s no bother with the quality of opposition because Anthony Hudson also started with a cruisy tour of Asia and from his first six games (Uzbekistan, China, Thailand, South Korea, Myanmar and Oman), his team won once, drew twice and lost three times. They scored four goals and conceded eight. Huddo debuted seventeen players in those six games while Schmiddy’s handed out first caps to ten men so far.

The direct comparison is a little complicated because the All Whites are in a stronger position now than then. In fact seven of Huddo’s early debutants are in Schmiddy’s squad in Mumbai. But what really matters is that the All Whites produced a start to finish impressive performance and scored goals at crucial moments, overcoming a mistake that could have spoiled them, and won a game away from home in difficult conditions. Haven’t felt this happy about a friendly result since… ever? Fingers crossed there’s one more act in this play.

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