All Whites vs Costa Rica: The Immediate Reaction
Our wills and fates do so contrary run, as a clever chap once wrote. The All Whites went to Doha and they proved that they were good enough to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup but it just wasn’t to be. Despite a great team performance, a few tough breaks and a couple of sloppy moments meant that the dream slipped beyond them over the course of ninety minutes. On another day they’d have won this match. On this day they did not. Such are the fickle whims of fate.
It almost doesn’t seem fair. To think what it would have meant to have the All Whites at another World Cup, how much those players deserve it, and to see how brutally close they got only to be met with punishment rather than reward. But there is no fair in football. That’s the blessing and the curse of it. That’s why underdogs can topple powerhouse teams in cup competitions. That’s why we get to continue to believe in the romance of the sport despite the obnoxious money being pumped into it by folks who think they can simply buy success. That’s why the All Whites had this opportunity and it’s also why they couldn’t take it.
For every loser there’s a winner and it’s not hard to see how much this also means to the Costa Rican team. There are several dudes in that team who know they won’t get another chance to play at a World Cup, it’s an ageing team compared to the emergent youth of the kiwi side. Of course, most of those Costa Rican dudes have all already played at multiple World Cups which is a bit greedy of them... but suffice it to say that they’re all heroes in their own stories too, same as the All Whites are.
There was only one ticket left for this train. One team had to miss out. That’s how it goes. Yet it’s that sense of jeopardy that makes the prize so incredibly valuable and the New Zealand side right now are unfortunately having to be the heartbroken yin to the triumphant yang of Costa Rica. Talk of fairness or deserving or entitlement means nothing. There was a game of football and Costa Rica won it 1-0. The All Whites will just have to chill out in November with the likes of Sweden, Nigeria, Peru, Ukraine, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, and reigning European Champions Italy.
The emotional devastation is real and will probably take a wee while to overcome. Yet there’s so much to be appreciated about the way that the All Whites played. Danny Hay spoke in his pre-game press conference about wanting his team to focus on their own game rather than feeling they need to adapt to the opposition. For basically as long as long as there have been All Whites teams, they’ve approached matches like this with that adaptable mindset. But not this crew. This crew backed themselves to play the way they want to play with courage and confidence.
And what do ya know that’s exactly what they did. Despite falling behind to a soft early goal after only two minutes, the All Whites pretty much bossed the entire rest of the match. They weren’t just going punch for punch with Costa Rica: they were dominating them. Costa Rica did not have another meaningful chance in the first half whereas the All Whites had plenty and were understandably aggrieved not to be level by the break. Los Ticos did switch things up with a half-time triple substitution which steadied the ship somewhat but it was still the Aotearoa side with all the ball. Even after they were reduced to ten men the All Whites still bossed it. The stats don’t lie...
Honestly, when have you ever seen that from an All Whites team before? Sure Costa Rica aren’t exactly renowned terrors but they made the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup and have now qualified for five of the last six tournaments. This is a legit side and the All Whites held 67% of possession, completed 82% of their passes, led the shot counts by 15 to 4, and even still we’re sitting back looking at areas where they could have done more. Compare that to the Peru games back in November 2017 when across 180 minutes the All Whites produced a grand total of zero shots on target and had less than 40% possession in each games. The bar has been raised so much higher, sweet Jeezus.
The All Whites bossed that thing. Better team on the park for all but about three minutes. That’s not scant consolation: it’s vindication that, despite falling short of their targets in this match, the All Whites are trucking in the right direction. Especially when you look at the relative youth and inexperience of this team – there were five guys aged 23 or younger in the starting team and seven with 10 or fewer international caps. And yet they played like that.
The World Cup is expanding to 48 teams for the 2026 edition which is a typically stupid thing for FIFA to do but it does mean an automatic qualifying spot for Oceania and thus a strong likelihood that the All Whites will be there. Fellas like Cacace, Bell, Greive, Pijanker, etc. will be coming into the primes of their careers by then and it ain’t like those blokes are the sum of it either. Not sure Winston Reid will still be around in 2026 but Chris Wood, at age 34, should be. His style of play isn’t one that relies on speed or agility so as long as he remains injury-free then he’s got at least one more cycle in him. Perhaps even two.
The trick from here is to get this team playing as regularly as possible and against stronger or evenly-matched opponents. Get some momentum going off the back of this journey and channel the disappointment into future motivation. There are two games coming up against Australia later in the year which is a great start. The Eden Park game in September should to be massive... although it’s gonna be a bittersweet experience beating them whilst knowing that they’re going to the World Cup and we’re not.
We should also be able to get some decent friendlies lined up around those fixtures. The tendency from teams ahead of World Cups is to try find warm-up opponents who are similar in style to those they’ll be facing in the real stuff. If you’ve drawn Ghana, maybe you play Nigeria. If you’ve drawn Poland, maybe you play Austria. If you’ve drawn Canada, maybe you play USA. And if, like France, Denmark, and Tunisia, you’ve drawn Australia... well New Zealand is close enough.
There’s a lot more to be said about that intercontinental playoff and there’ll be a much deeper breakdown of the game written very soon. No doubt that’ll involve going into some detail on a few of those officiating decisions – I do actually think that the two VAR calls were correct, by the way. It was a foul by Garbett, who hooked his arm around the leg of Oscar Duarte, and Kosta’s challenge was reckless and needless. A red card is probably justified when you mash a dude’s ankle sprig-first having left your feet entirely.
Now, some of the inconsistency around those decisions was much more frustrating, such as the denial of that first half penalty for the shove in the back on Chris Wood. But that’s where we come to the point where it has to be pleaded: let’s not do the referee abuse thing. Nobody needs to know what country he’s from or what his name is. Who cares. Not important. You can disagree with a decision without going after the man. And if the man was underqualified to be taking charge of such a major fixture then that’s hardly his fault. That one falls on the shoulders of FIFA alone.
And the All Whites were far from perfect themselves, let us not overlook that fact. The goal they conceded in the third minute was just awful. Defensively it was a lapse. Tuiloma got tangled up, Kirwan was playing high against the throw, Reid was drawn wide as a result, Bell couldn’t keep pace with Jewison Bennette and then wasn’t able to cut out the cross, Joel Campbell was the only CRC player in a penalty area with six kiwis plus a goalie and was somehow able to tuck smoothly inside the far post via a shank. It was a goal that could have been avoided at several junctions.
But the awfulness mostly came from how that goal played so perfectly into the gameplan of Costa Rica. It gave them a lead to defend and meant they didn’t need to exert themselves on the break. In some ways that aided the Aotearoa side as they were able to keep possession in the opposition half against a retreated backline... but it also meant they were always up against big numbers. The passing quality through the midfield was clear thus the All Whites would likely have been just as dominant in a tightly-wound 0-0 as they were playing from behind. Only then they’d have had more room to work with.
Then we’ve gotta think on some of the chances that the kiwis didn’t take. Garbett, Greive, and Wood all had good sighters that were at least as tough as the one that Joel Campbell scored. The xG for this game was 1.4 to 0.2 in NZ’s favour so can’t exactly complain about that. In a game which was always likely to come down to fine margins, Costa Rica put one away and New Zealand did not.
Sadly that’s a recurring issue. Defensively they’re growing into a really fantastic side. IThey only conceded in the 1-0 loss to Peru because of a random goalkeeping error. Then a rotated team drew 0-0 with Oman. And against Costa Rica we’re talking about a 0.2 xGA. They’re proving they can keep the goals out... but outside of Chris Wood, where are their own bangers supposed to come from? That’s the next step. Guys like Greive and Garbett are excellent players who bring huge workrates but at this early stage of their pro careers they’re hardly abundant goal scorers yet. One more way in which the inexperience of this team counted against them.
Watching Chris Wood absolutely monster some very large individuals trying to mark him, it feels like the All Whites didn’t go to that well often enough. They got good value out of Target Man Wood but they could have gotten even more. Of course one of the biggest what-ifs was the absence of both Sarpreet Singh and Ryan Thomas, the country’s two most technically gifted progressive passers. Legit creativity which they were unable to drawn upon. That’s footy, you’re rarely gonna have everybody available and in form at the exact same time, but those two were majorly missed.
Also, just a thought, but do you reckon if Callum McCowatt or Marco Rojas were healthy (both missed the game with illness) that Kosta Barbarouses would have even been subbed on? Love a bit of Kosta but he had a shocking eight minutes. The red card tackle, sure, but that mistake happened on the back of him losing the ball for about the third time since he’d joined the game. Too desperate to atone... did something silly.
Those options were taken out of Danny Hay’s hands, two more helpful attacking players who found themselves on the list of absentees. Alternatively Eli Just could have come on earlier given the positive impact he offered. Though to be fair to Kosta Barbarouses he’s a dude who has earned plenty of trust over his 52 international caps and sometimes you just have a bad day at the office. For most of us that means missing a deadline or spilling the coffee or whatever. For a very select few it could mean getting a red card in a World Cup qualifying playoff.
Take a big deep breath, in and then out again. Repeat that three times. This was a tough pill to swallow but there’s nothing we can do about it. Many of these players will be heading off on holiday, others will be returning to their club teams. Some are looking for new clubs and there will certainly be a few who find themselves caught up in the transfer chatter. All of them will settle back into their professional careers. They’ll play more football and they’ll continue to get better and as they do the All Whites will only get stronger and stronger.
This is not an ending. This is a beginning.
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