OlyWhites at Tokyo 2020: Heads Held High
It was overwhelming. A quarter-final against hosts Japan who had won all three of their group stage games with the prospect of advancing to the semis of a major-ish men’s football tournament but to do so would mean a pretty significant upset and any boost that came from Winston Reid overcoming what Danny Hay had, perhaps knowingly, called a 20% chance of recovering to play (and it was a pretty bloody big boost) was offset when Japan very quickly showed what they were capable of as Wataru Endo inexplicably missed a sitter at the back stick in the tenth minute of the match...
That was a huge let-off. Could easily have been the winning goal right there and then. But it was also a warning of the threat that this Japanese team offered – the ball across by Daichi Hayashi was made possible by Nando Pijnaker being slow to step up with the rest of his defence and playing Hayashi onside... a single mistake and it could have been a killer. Those are the margins on this kinda stage.
What followed was a whirlwind, a swirling gust of nervous emotions. Trying to write a normal match recap about it would be futile because this was something else. This was an entirely in-the-moment experience. A cross into our penalty area caused an involuntary jump on the couch. A cross into theirs led to gasps and stumbles. New Zealand weren’t really in it from an attacking sense for most of the first half with the exception of one Chris Wood cut-back that was put over the top but the score remained 0-0 and the longer that was the case the more it played into the OlyWhites’ favour.
Danny Hay had reverted to the back three that did the job against South Korea... but it had the same flipside of limiting our options further forward. Ben Waine got a start up front with Chris Wood, his first start of the tournament, while Matty Garbett was retained alongside a recalled Clayton Lewis in front of Joe Bell in midfield. Callan Elliot started on the right side of defence. The rest was as it has been all tourney. Which did mean there were some solid attacking options sitting on the bench ready to rock and roll when needed: specifically Callum McCowatt and Eli Just. Hay’s selections worked nicely in a scoreless first half but, with Japan clearly dominating to that point, how much longer could we withstand things? And would we be satisfied with sitting back for ninety minutes and hoping for a fluke goal against the run of play?
Weirdly, the solution to that problem was another problem. Winston Reid would never have played this were it only a club game but a do or die knockout match at an international tournament, yeah sure that’s a risk worth taking. Some would say it backfired 51 minutes into the match when that sore knee flared up again and, after trying to run it off, the armband was quickly ripped off to mark the end of his afternoon. But 51 minutes of Winston Reid is better than no Winston Reid. He steadied that defence while he was out there and then, blessedly, when he had to be replaced it was Callum McCowatt who got the tap on the shoulder from Mr Hay rather than another defender. McCowatt came on as a central attacking midfielder, signalling a change in formation more in line with how they played against Romania. A game that had been looking like a gallant defensive effort with little chance of a goal of our own almost immediately became something very different.
McCowatt was brilliant leading the press from the middle. Suddenly New Zealand were sparking a few things and tellingly the rest of the subs were all aggressive ones: refreshing the right back role with Dane Ingham on to pick up where Elliot left off, as well as Eli Just and Joey Champness getting amongst it on the wings. Those last two arguably shoulda happened sooner than the 79th and 84th minutes but as it happened they got an extra half hour anyway as the teams still couldn’t be separated. To be fair, Japan continued to have the best moments and a couple sloppy misses combined with a couple brilliant Michael Woud stops were all that kept out. Meanwhile at the other end... let’s just say that Maya Yoshida didn’t play 154 Premier League games by accident. He was absolutely outstanding. A legendary performance from that guy... with the clincher in the penalty shootout to boot.
There was no separating them after extras. Both teams had flashes but it was all a blur. Off to spotties it was and, dunno about you, but I can’t say I had too much confidence. Japan had been the better team throughout the preceding 120 mins and they were the better team in that pressure-cooker tiebreaking environment too. What more can you say? No need to vilify the two dudes who missed or to wonder about what might have been... this is how penalty shootouts work. If you don’t want the heat then you’ve gotta score a goal or two in regular time and avoid it entirely. Otherwise someone has to win and someone has to lose and usually the penalty shootout does trend towards the team with more quality and momentum. That’s what happened here and thus the OlyWhites adventure was over.
It took a bit of time to come around to writing this but here we are and you know what? There’s no negativity lingering. No what-ifs pounding away. No regrets or frustrations. The tactical side of things worked well. The individual performances were mostly pretty great. Big players stepped up. The OlyWhites pushed a very good side all the way and it took penalties to eliminate them.
This team went where no kiwi men’s team has ever gone before and they did it despite a shocker result against Honduras. When have you even seen a team from Aotearoa able to get away with a throwaway game in the group stage before? Never is when. Chuck in Ryan Thomas. Chuck in Michael Boxall who would have been there had he not been injured. Chuck in Sarpreet Singh who also reluctantly withdrew. Then probably chuck in someone like Tim Payne to fill out that vulnerable right back spot and you’ve got one bloody useful All Whites squad already. Like, this right here was the skeleton of the team that’ll represent Aotearoa for the next decade. Joe Bell is going to get even better. Libby Cacace is going to get even better. Michael Woud is going to get even better. And on and on and on.
How about Gianni Stesness? What a tournament he had. Grown man football from that guy, he was bodying opponents into the dirt – he’s coming off a great season for Central Coast in midfield but I’m tempted to agree with Danny Hay that CB is the position where he has the highest ceiling. Either way, keep in mind that he’s one of the uncapped lads in the group. Nobody increased their All Whites stocks more in Tokyo than Stensness did.
Joe Bell was the player of the tournament, but that’s all been said already. There are rumours of top notch English Championship clubs, maybe even Premier League clubs depending on who you believe, that are interesting in his services... guarantee you right now you have not heard the last from the Bell/Cacace rumour mill.
Again, this under ordinary circumstances would have been a crowning peak achievement – and maybe from an international career perspective it will be – but so many of these lads are only just beginning to tap into the potential of what they can be as players. Their coach is one of only four New Zealand males to have played in the Champions League and no kiwi man has done so since Chris Killen back in 2008. There are at least three players in this squad - at least - who could realistically reach that level one day... and that doesn’t even include Ryan Thomas (who is two playoff legs away from doing so this very season) or Sarpreet Singh.
Speaking of footballing potential, gotta take a second to point out the context of who the OlyWhites were up against here... and were able to keep scoreless for 120 minutes. Maya Yoshida captained Japan, he’s a known factor. The Japanese Winston Reid – his time at Southampton left him only a dozen Premier League appearances shy of Reid’s career tally and that’s without counting his 100+ senior caps for Japan or his current status as a regular for Sampdoria in Serie A. Takefusa Kubo is on the books at Real Madrid, yet to feature for their top team but he’s still made 66 Liga appearances on loan at Mallorca, Villareal, and Getafe (and he’s only 20 years old). Ritsu Doan is a teammate of Ryan Thomas’ at PSV (though spent last season out on loan). Yuta Nakayama plays for Thommo’s old club of PEC Zwolle while Ko Itakura plays for Groningen also in the Netherlands. You’ve got Takehiro Tomiyasu at Bologna in Italy. Daiki Hashioka is at Sint-Truiden with Libby Cacace. Koji Miyoshi is also in Belgium with Antwerp while Wataru Endo used to play for STVV but was sold to Stuttgart a little before Cacace arrived at the club (having spent the previous season at Stuttgart on loan). Endo is one of the three overage players there alongside Yoshida and Hiroki Sakai – who played 145 times for Marseille in Ligue 1 before moving back to Japan with Urawa Red Diamonds.
It’s actually crazy how many of those stories overlap with kiwi equivalents. The parallel PL careers of Reid and Yoshida. The Ryan Thomas connections. Cacace’s club has Japanese owners so there are a quite a few who pass through there but also Bill Tuiloma played twice for Marseille (under Marcelo Bielse) while Marco Rojas played for Stuttgart... sort of. He was signed by them at least. It’s all comparable... except that the Japanese comparisons are better in almost ever example.
This is a nation that has qualified for the last six World Cups in a row, making the knockouts three times. Japan has won four of the last eight Asian Cups. They won bronze at the 1968 Olympic Games and were fourth as recently as London 2012. The optimism is real about this OlyWhites squad... and still they were rank outsiders for this quarter-final. International footy is ruthless like that.
Which is exactly why there shouldn’t be anything but celebration about what they achieved in Tokyo. Three clean sheets in four games, only one defeat from four games and they should really have won that too (yes, they did go on to lose one of those draws on penalties). They got better and more confident as the tournament went on and as stink as it was to lose the way that they did... there’s no shame there. There’s no sadness to be found. All there is, is pride for what was achieved and anticipation for what’s to come.
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