Three games post-hiatus for the All Whites, and three wins against three different nations from three different confederations. First they beat Curaçao 2-1, then they beat Bahrain 1-0, now they’ve beaten The Gambia 2-0. A fine performance, even if it did get away from them a tad at the end, from which they could easily have doubled that winning margin and it wouldn’t have flattered them too much. Right now there’s this generation of outstanding players all emerging at once and when you combine them with a few veteran legends, it’s a tasty mixture. Now we’re finally getting to see what that looks like.

Chris Wood scored both goals. Winston Reid tracked so well in camp that he was elevated into the playing group and ended up starting. Michael Boxall and Tommy Smith offered important roles off the bench as the team closed things out. Stefan Marinovic didn’t put a foot (or hand) wrong in goal. And around those guys you had ten of the seventeen players who got on the pitch having been given their debuts by Danny Hay within his five games in charge, as well as Sarpreet Singh and Libby Cacace who are still under ten caps.

Winston Reid himself was only making his 26th cap here – his first game of any description since limping off against Japan at the Olympics. He was partnered by Nando Pijnaker, the fifth CB pairing in five games under Hay... but overall it was an expected eleven. The depth guys got their game-time in the 2-1 win over Algeria A in the unofficial (and unbroadcast) so it was the first choice selection here: Marinovic, Kirwan, Reid, Pijnaker, Cacace, Bell, Stamenic, Singh, Champness, Just, Wood. The only partial surprises were Pijanker over Boxall (maybe just keeping Boxy fresh for the MLS Playoffs on Monday NZT – he’s playing Bill Tuiloma who already pulled out of this squad with a minor injury so it’d stack up... either that or Hay really wanted a left-footed CB for the build-up play; probs a bit of both) and Champness over McCowatt (presumably for Champness’ directness on the right wing, taking on players).

Nobody played poorly against The Gambia, however it was Joe Bell and Marko Stamenic who shone through. That’s because (until everyone got fatigued at the end) this was a game which the All Whites largely controlled, knocking the ball around and trying to work down the flanks, keeping the game in the attacking half, quickly winning it back whenever it got away from them. It’s the midfield who allow you to run things in that way. Both Bell and Stamenic are crazy good both in and out of possession. Very good passers who are strong in the challenge. They read the game well. Quick to close fellas down and get a foot in. Quick to release the ball to players around them. All of them things.

Controlling the game. Even just coming in with that intention is something we rarely see from kiwi football teams when playing outside their confederation. Anthony Hudson didn’t even wanna play that way within the confederation. But many of these dudes have played in knockout games at age grade tournaments. They’ve had those encouraging experiences. They back themselves. It all starts with belief and intent.

For about seventy minutes, that was what we saw. A few hopeful cracks from deep for The Gambia but nothing that came about from any major defensive lapses while the All Whites chipped away with a couple goals. We got 55 minutes out of Winston Reid. He served up some nerves in the first half by continually adjusting a dodgy shin-pad and at one point called to the physio to run on some tape - an injury is only ever a step away for Winston Reid - but this was merely a false alarm. He came through all goods. Looked bloody sharp, in fact. All those UAE beach sprints he’s been doing seems to be paying off – can’t wait to see what he does when the January window opens up. In a game like this, Reid’s ability to predict an inlet pass to a striker and rush up to shut him down was a huge disruptor.

But after Reid made his scheduled exit, things slipped ever so slightly. Not much but enough that when fatigue set in over the last twenty mins the All Whites became vulnerable... and Danny Hay probably over-corrected by switching to his preferred defensive mode of a back three. That invited pressure that they maybe didn’t need to deal with and honestly The Gambia should’ve had at least one goal in there. Bubacarr Trawally missing an all-timer of a sitter at one stage...

Gotta remember here that Nando Pijnaker has not been playing much at club level lately, while Kelvin Kalua is without a club. Even more to the point: guys like Joe Bell, Sarpreet Singh, Libby Cacace, even Chris Wood... no lack of match fitness there but those matches are coming in places like Norway, Germany, Belgium, and England where let’s just say the weather is a bit different than what the United Arab Emirates had to offer. The evening kickoff meant it wasn’t a major factor but seeing Joe Bell cramping up towards the end tells you what you need to know about conditions.

But you know what? International wins are allowed to be ugly. And what we’re talking about was only a period of 20-minutes max after the damage had already been done and the All Whites didn’t even concede during those twenty tired minutes. Job done. Nothing to worry about. The main thing there was that they’d left the door hanging open by not adding a third goal and killing things off earlier when they were dominating.

Here’s the thing about the lack of finishing touch now: did the All Whites actually miss that many chances? Nando Pijnaker absolutely should’ve scored that header and Chris Wood hit the post while going for his hatty (striker that he is, he’ll be regretting that miss as much as if not more than he’s savouring the two he did score). Maybe coulda cashed in on one of those set piece deliveries. Yet on the whole it feels more like they created less than they should have for all their promising play, rather than missing an abundance of sitters. We didn’t get enough of Joey Champness going 1v1 in the wide areas and when we did, well, we’ve already seen enough to know his decision making after a stepover isn’t always the best. Eli Just had a quiet game too, while the fullbacks didn’t get forward as often as usual. The majority of the attacking juice came either from set pieces or from Sarpreet Singh.

Which is fine. They scored two goals and could easily have had a couple more. Bell and Singh’s corners looked like they were wreaking havoc while Chris Wood was able to get a few touches in the penalty area and when that happens goals will certainly follow. It’s just that we know this team is capable of more. The crossing from live situations wasn’t great and at times they were more impatient than they needed to be. They’ll need to be sharper against better organised opposition.

It’s all part of the process and getting the final third of the pitch humming is the hardest part. That’s the area where you’re going to come up against the most opponent bodies, therefore the least space, and football is all about space. Space equals time. Time equals better decision making and execution. For example, as good as the pass from Singh was for the second goal – and it was good enough to coax an audible “WHAT A PASS” out of yours truly at 6.30am – take note of how much space he had to work with…

Gaping hole between The Gambia’s midfield and defence... in fact there was no midfield. Champness had won the ball back and the dude who was meant to be marking Singh stayed down claiming a foul. By the time he got up, Joe Bell had collected the ball from Marko Stamenic and slipped it towards Singh and he basically did the rest of it in slow motion. The Woodsman then made the dash alongside a retreating defence and smoothly pocketed yet another international goal.

Chris Wood has scored 14 goals in his last 22 caps. That includes 6 in 15 vs non-Oceania teams... which is less of a ratio but considering the All Whites only scored 11 total goals in those matches – this includes the bulk of Anthony Hudson’s tenure, explaining a lot of that drought - the numbers remain pretty impressive in that context. He now has 27 all up for the All Whites which is only two shy of Vaughan Coveny’s record. Accounting for the era that Wynton Rufer played in and how much his European career limited his national team availability back in those days... nobody could deserve that record more than The Woodsman.

He would have already shattered it if the team played more often but he’s almost there now. Wood turns 30 in a few weeks. His style of striker is not gonna lose much gas as he clocks in for his fourth decade on the planet. Coveny’s record is just the beginning, let’s see the man reach 50 goals. Hell, let’s see him break Ivan Vicelich’s 88-cap record too. With 60 in the bag, and the All Whites having played three times in two years, he’s on pace to get there sometime around 2041 when he’ll be turning 50. Thankfully we’re assuming games will come harder and faster from now on.

What else is there to talk about? Well there was a funny trend as the AW’s were navigating the latter stages. Three separate times there were All Whites players who got beaten and basically put their hands up and said: “yellow card please, sir!”. Three tackles that were closer to what you’d expect on a rugby pitch than a football one. Not malicious, purely tactical. And in the moment each were understandably pragmatic moves... albeit the kinds of tackles that would probably get you an upper-cut in the community leagues.

Also shout out to Francis De Vries who made his debut right at the very end of this match. Keeps up a trend of at least one debutant in the last nine All Whites games and brings Hay’s own tally to 13 players in five games. If A-League players are available come the next international break in January then the streak may well continue. Ben Waine, Oli Sail, Sam Sutton, Callan Elliot... all still uncapped at senior level. Or maybe recent call-ups Dalton Wilkins and Jamie Searle.

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