The last time the All Whites played against Bahrain, the kiwi team won 1-0 via a header off a wing-back’s cross by the son of a well known NZ sporting personality. Almost exactly a dozen years later (with Chris Wood the only All Whites player from that day still active) the same damn thing happened again. To be fair, the cross came from the other side. The goal was in the second half not the first. The father in question was a rugby player not a football coach. The game was a relatively meaningless friendly and not a decisive World Cup qualifier. But still... poetry.

This win means back to back victories this international window. The theme of the Curaçao write-up was how we’ve gotta savour any international win because they don’t come that often. Well two wins in four days happens even less often and we’re almost in rooster egg territory when it comes to doing so outside the Oceania confederation. In sixteen games, Anthony Hudson only ever won one non-OFC match with the All Whites. Danny Hay has just doubled that... and matched Fritz Schmid’s tally in the same number of games.

It was a good performance too. A better one than against Curaçao, which matters quite a bit because it shows growth from the team after more time and experience together as well as this just generally being a tougher fixture: against a better team on their own home turf. Where the All Whites high pressed themselves into exhaustion last time and, coupled with some wasteful finishing, left the door open to some dangerous attacks late on, against Bahrain there were very few moments where they looked troubled at the back. It took until very late in the game to finally score one and this game could easily have ended in a scoreless stalemate but the key word here is: ‘control’. They never lost it.

Hay named what was mostly a 4-3-3 formation (though formations are all pretty fluid and with Chris Wood hanging off the last man and Eli Just floating around it often looked more like a 4-2-3-1 in practise), going away from the diamond midfield of last game and making five personnel changes in the process. Sarpreet Singh gapped it early because his SSV Jahn Regensburg club are playing on Friday night in Germany (5.30am on Saturday NZT away to Paderborn) which is unfortunate but understandable. Meanwhile Bill Tuiloma has a grade one adductor tear so he was obviously out. That’s coincidentally the same injury that Raphael Varane suffered for France the other day so there’s heaps of relevant expert info out there all of a sudden and luckily it sounds like a grade one tear only required with a 1-2 week recovery period. The Portland Timbers will be relieved with playoffs on the horizon.

Elijah Just came in for Sarpreet Singh. Michael Boxall came in for Bill Tuiloma (and would probably have started instead of him vs Curaçao anyway were he not feeling ill). The other three changes were Joey Champness coming in for Matt Garbett to instigate the formational change, while Michael Woud got the start in goal ahead of Stefan Marinovic and there was a swap at right back with Kelvin Kalua in for Niko Kirwan. Champness’ appearance marks the eighth consecutive All Whites game with at least one debutant, which is every game since the second leg WCQ vs Peru. Danny Hay has used 29 different players in four games and 12 of them have been debutants.

This was an improved performance... it was also a very different performance. With Joe Bell and Marko Stamenic playing more like dual pivots, the All Whites were able to set up a wee bit of a block in midfield instead. Bahrain aren’t a team who move the ball as slowly and determinedly as Curaçao from the back hence the high pressing thing was discarded but they are a team the All Whites felt they could match in midfield... and they did. Bell and Stamenic were both excellent. Strong in the challenge, really clever with their distribution, high work-rates, and each has such a good read for the game. Bell is more of a known quantity at this point but Stamenic does some really subtle stuff which bodes so well for his development. Particularly love the way he’ll step through traffic in possession, not afraid of a dribble. I’m telling ya, he has the same potential as guys like Cacace, Singh, Bell. A couple years younger but on the same trajectory.

Then when the All Whites won the ball, there was a clear directive to move the ball high and wide as quickly as possible. That wasn’t always pretty as plenty of long passes were sprayed over the sideline. The pitch won’t have been a help in that regard. But we also saw plenty of beautiful switches from Bell in particular which aimed to get Callum McCowatt and Joey Champness on the ball ASAP. McCowatt isn’t quite the dribbler to make that work in isolation though he did have Just sliding over to help (those two are telepathic if you didn’t know); Champness on the other hand was an absolute thrill to watch spitting out stepovers the way he spits out bars. He was fouled three times in the first fifteen minutes.

That was especially handy because we needed to see a little more from this team from set pieces, which starts with being able to win a few more of them. Sure, Bill Tuiloma scored a free kick vs Curaçao (from a big deflection)... but this idea is about aerial dominance. Something that’s still a work in progress after only a few hints of being able to get big fellas like Wood, Boxall, Pijnaker, etc. involved on the end of those deliveries against Bahrain, so it goes. Wood did have a shot on target from a free kick on the edge of the box. Decent effort but like most of the All Whites’ shots in this contest the keeper didn’t exactly have to stretch for it. Champness also had one saved from a tight angle. Just shot straight keeper in the fifth minute (before Wood’s follow-up was deflected over the bar). The same chance conversion issues from game one remained.

It’s also fair to say that they struggled to get Chris Wood involved throughout this game. Some of that was the team’s attacking fluency not quite being there (which again has to include an asterisk about the pitch) and some was merely bad crossing. Champness’ dribbling was a joy. His decision making afterwards not necessarily at the same level. As for McCowatt, if only he’d used Cacace’s overlapping runs more often. Get in behind, deliver that ball low from the by-line, take the offside out of the equation, and let Chris Wood get to work. There was a great move down that left side where Stamenic and McCowatt linked early in the second half but the instep flick from Champness was denied.

At which point it’s important to mention that Sarpreet Singh was definitely missed. Eli Just did fine but he doesn’t have as much range as Singh and also it meant one fewer option on the bench when it came time to switch things up. Hence when changes came with about quarter of an hour to go and the scores still even, following what had been Bahrain’s best spell of the game after they introduced Mohamed Marhoon, it was a double defensive sub that Danny Hay made. Kirwan on for Kalua as a straight swap at right back while Tommy Smith replaced Eli Just. On the surface, two backwards changes designed to consolidate the 0-0 draw. Settling for a proverbial point in a game they’d controlled.

However you peek below the surface level and it meant a shift to a back three which pushed the fullbacks into more aggressive wing-back situations with a licence to get forward. A key point given that the wide areas had been the focus of the attack all match. It also put Callum McCowatt (for a few minutes until Andre De Jong replaced him) up top closer to Chris Wood which helped bring The Woodsman into the game more. And while Kalua had a very impressive starting debut for a guy who is still looking for a professional club, Niko Kirwan is the more potent weapon going forwards. His good form at club level lately has been all about his work in the attacking third, particularly his crossing.

And hey what do ya know, when the winning goal came about it featured one wing-back crossing to the other wing-back. Chris Wood had left the Bahrain fella sprawled on the ground in trying to secure the bouncing ball from a throw-in (Wood glaring back with contempt at his futile attempts to muscle up with him... and then the vain attempts to win a foul). For some reason, everyone kinda stopped playing for a second and that allowed Libby Cacace to whip in what was by far the best cross all day, drawing out the keeper but swerving it beyond his range (maybe... Michael Woud claimed a couple that were in a similar range so maybe that’s being too generous). In swooped Niko Kirwan’s bunned-up head for the winner. Wing-back to wing-back. Wouldn’t have happened like that without the switch to the back three.

And there you go. Matty Garbett got a late run out off the bench in place of Just. A tad surprised that Hay didn’t make another time-wasting change towards the end, hand out another international appearance given those opportunities haven’t been too forthcoming but all goods. The Aotearoa lads closed it out nicely. A clean sheet that was never really in doubt – Nando Pijnaker was fantastic here while Michael Boxall held it down like a veteran ought to. 1-0 the final score and as silly and frivolous and unreflective as the FIFA rankings are... we can surely expect a healthy boost up the ladder when the next update emerges.

So what did we learn? I mean, it’s not a lesson but of the six players who started both games, only Chris Wood is older than 22 years of age. This was a remarkably young group of players and they won both games in tough conditions. Crucially, a lot of them have played together for years – there are clusters with the Ole Academy, with Eastern Suburbs, with the Wellington Phoenix, with the NZ U20s, with the OlyWhites, with FC Helsingør, etc – and finally we’re able to see some of those combinations translate to the senior international stuff.

Not only that, we also saw the All Whites win these two games with quite different strategies/gameplans and despite five changes to the starting line-up. That versatility is massive in international footy, it’s practically essential. You’re hardly ever gonna have a full-strength team and being able to nurture reliable depth is the key to success. Joey Champness for example, he probably hasn’t played his way into the starting team here but he’s shown that he can do something nobody else can with his direct dribbling ability. That’s a unique option in the group. Something that sets him apart.

Marko Stamenic arguably has played himself into the starting team. Crazy to think he’d not played for the All Whites before. Crazy to think he’s actually only played a handful of senior professional club games in his career. That diamond midfield from the Curaçao game suddenly looks rather enticing considering how it could one day accommodate Joe Bell and Marko Stamenic and Ryan Thomas and Sarpreet Singh.

Mostly though it’s just fun to see the All Whites playing and winning. It’s fun to talk about those games, to debate and dissect them afterwards. It’s fun to see these players that we follow at all these different clubs week in and week out all walking out there in the same jersey and combining for goals. Now let’s book some fixtures for the next international window too, please.

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