The All Whites aren’t yet in a place where they need to be winning regularly against good international sides... but they’re getting there. That’s the next stage in this team’s evolution. Score some goals and win some games. We’ll cut them some slack along the way but streaks like the five-game winless/goalless streak that ended Danny Hay’s tenure cannot be tolerated again (not that it was tolerated then either, with Hay told he’d need to reapply for his job and then promptly walking away).

The last World Cup cycle saw a fresh and youthful core of players thrust into a rebuilt national team on the back of U20 World Cup and U23 Olympic campaigns. They came up short in the WCQs as Costa Rica’s supreme experience proved the difference. The All Whites quite clearly played the superior technical footy but that game came a little too early for them, considering how their best result during that cycle was probably a 1-0 win against Bahrain (via a last minute Niko Kirwan goal).

Potential is one thing. Delivering upon that potential is another and that’s where we’re at right now. The pathway has been cleared. They’ve got a fantastic young core who are regularly available, with enough depth to handle it even if a couple of them aren’t, and those players are now nudging towards the 15-20 cap mark. They’re still not international stalwarts but they’re also no longer rookies. Darren Bazeley has outlasted the crowd to become the permanent boss and he’s so far been able to keep up the momentum they found during the previous cycle. They’re still learning how to turn that into positive international results beyond our own confederation and that takes time. Progress won’t happen in a straight line... but they’re heading in the right direction.

In that light there should be no dramas whatsoever with a 1-1 draw against the Democratic Republic of Congo. It took a very late (and honestly kinda soft) penalty decision to allow Chris Wood to do do the honours from twelve yards in order to salvage that draw but, to be fair, it was also a very soft goal that the AWs conceded right at the start of the second half. In between it was a scrappy and competitive game with plenty of physicality and not too many clear chances either way. Two evenly matched teams and were it not for a couple of uncharacteristic slip-ups then a nil-all draw probably would have better reflected things.

The NZers definitely did miss a couple of their absentees, especially in the midfield, but they also found a way to grind out a result against a team we weren’t immediately expected to dominate. Was it pretty? Not really (except when Sarpreet Singh had the ball). But that doesn’t matter. International football is rarely an aesthetic delight. Much of it is about scrappiness and grittiness and being tough to break down. All things which come with experience, hence this result was another important step forward for the men’s national team of Aotearoa.

Fresh Blood

Annoying news midweek with the departure of Matt Dibley-Dias. The Fulham prospect, current captain of their U21s team with three Premier League matchday squads to his name, was a major coup within this squad alongside fellow multi-national Tyler Bindon. Bindon has already played U19s for the USA but even his American mother is a New Zealand footballing legend (earning 78 caps for the Football Ferns as a goalkeeper) while his dad represented NZ at volleyball – the parents met at uni in the States and then moved to Aotearoa where Jenny became naturalised (Jenny and Grant were in the crowd for this game, by the way). Bindon has made it pretty clear that his heart is with New Zealand, where he spent most of his childhood, and so here he is.

Dibley-Dias has more options with England, Portugal, and Brazil also available to him. But his kiwi links run pretty deep to – born in Wellington with his mother’s entire side of the family being NZers. It was a bummer that a hamstring injury has delayed his debut but don’t worry about this being the fish that escaped the hook. He wouldn’t have been permanently tied to NZ even if he had played – these are only friendlies and he’s young enough to switch – so the most important thing is that he got into the environment for a few days, met the lads, got into some training, and felt welcome. That means more than the caps he missed out on.

Both Bindon and MDD almost instantly become key players for the Olympic campaign next year which will also be coached by Darren Bazeley. Even then their eligibilities wouldn’t be set in stone as Gianni Stensness played the last Olympics then swapped over to Australia. But Bindon’s straight-up told us he only wants to represent Aotearoa and Dibley-Dias has taken big strides towards that future this past week too. This is nothing but good news.

Bindon made his debut off the bench with about five minutes to go. On for Michael Boxall as the right-sided central defender. Not much time to make an impact but that’s fine. He earned his first cap. Special moment. Bindon is the third player given a debut by Darren Bazeley, following after Callan Elliot and Kyle Adams. Curious that they’ve all three been defenders (although Dibley-Dias would’ve joined them as a midfielder had he not gotten injured).

The Starting XI

MDD also gets to join the frustrating trend of NZ Football teams suffering injuries on tour. The Football Ferns are horrendous for this, the All Whites aren’t much better. Travel is surely a factor but this tour was in Europe featuring mostly Euro-based players and still there were problems - including several players who were already injured when selected. When the squad was announced, James McGarry had just been subbed off hurt for Aberdeen. He was soon ruled out for six weeks with a bung hammy for Aberdeen and had to be replaced by Dalton Wilkins in the NZ squad. MDD was ruled out too late to be replaced (Corban Piper and Ollie Whyte would be the two prime midfield candidates over in Europe at the moment).

Bill Tuiloma had only been an unused sub for Charlotte FC since more than a month on the physio table. Matt Garbett had only made two subs appearances for NAC Breda since missing a month. Tommy Smith had also missed time, then got recalled to MK Dons as they suffered an injury crisis in defence. He’ll be back with the team for the Aussie game as will Max Crocombe whom it was arranged would stay with his club team for their game prior to joining the national team. Mixed bags there, by the way. Crocombe was excellent in a 1-0 Burton win vs Lincoln. Smithy got ninety for MKD but they conceded twice in stoppage time to draw 2-2 with Barrow.

This was already a squad without any A-League players. Joe Bell missed this tour for personal reasons. Ryan Thomas is out injured still. No Marco Rojas who remains without a club. Sarpreet Singh and Chris Wood were making their first All Whites appearances since January 2022 and September 2022 respectively. Niko Kirwan is in the same bag. Joey Champness had a whole year out of football before returning to Turkey this season. This was a compromised tour with lots of lads unavailable for a variety of reasons, several blokes potentially be on restricted minutes, and this is the eleven that Baze selected:

Nik Tzanev

Niko Kirwan – Michael Boxall – Nando Pijnaker – Liberato Cacace

Marko Stamenic

Callum McCowatt – Sarpreet Singh

Ben Waine – Chris Wood – Elijah Just

That’s... still really good? Goes to show there’s enough depth these days that the All Whites can handle players being absent. They can handle injuries on tour (although still not comfortable with that trend). Naturally the very best players are irreplaceable for any team but there are adequate enough All Whites backups that the team can still compete. Because this hypothetical team of players who weren’t involved against Congo isn’t so shabby either (granted, they wouldn’t score any goals)...

Max Crocombe

Callan Elliot – Tim Payne – Tommy Smith – James McGarry

Joe Bell

Ryan Thomas – Matt Dibley-Dias

Marco Rojas – Andre De Jong – Kosta Barbarouses

The Game Itself

It’s always hard to know what to expect from any unfamiliar international opponent. The Democratic Republic of Congo began pretty sharply, keeping the All Whites stuck deep in their half. Kirwan and Pijnaker both had early giveaways. It was looking kinda dodgy at that stage but then the kiwis settled into the game and were never under that kind of pressure again at any stage.

That’s not to say that the NZers dominated because Congo’s centre-backs Dylan Batubinsika and Chancel Mbemba had excellent games, matching Chris Wood for physicality and largely preventing the big man from getting his touches. Mbemba is a Marseille player, previously of Newcastle and Porto. Probably the most well-known dude in that DRC team. Batubinsika is a French-born lad currently at Saint-Étienne having come up in the PSG academy (though never playing for the first team there). Lots of pedigree there and it’s the same across the rest of their team with guys like Cedric Bakambu (Galatasaray) and Silas Katompa (Stuttgart) also impressing.

But the All Whites had more moments. They moved the ball quite well, with Marko Stamenic’s switched over to the left wing standing out, and most importantly there were plenty of touches for Sarpreet Singh. Singh’s importance to this team runs deep but if you want a simple explanation try this one: Singh gets the ball to The Woodsman. He’s good enough to find him in a variety of ways and he openly searches for those chances to get Woodsy involved. There weren’t a huge amount of open shooting opportunities for the All Whites but most of what they did create had Sarpreet Singh involved. He’s not been getting many minutes for Hansa Rostock lately so it was a pleasant surprise to see him looking so sharp.

It was all even at the half with the AWs having grown nicely into the game. Then they had a shambolic mess of a start to the second spell conceding after just 21 seconds. It was miscommunication to blame as Cacace headed back to Tzanev who wasn’t alert enough to the pass and Cedric Bakambu snuck in, took it around the keeper, and slotted home for 1-0. Pijnaker was in the vicinity too and didn’t check the run. It’s the kind of soft concession that still happens too often for the All Whites and as they huffed and puffed and struggled to find an equaliser it looked increasingly like that lone lapse would cost them the result.

Chris Wood did get the ball into the net twice but both were disallowed. One was offside, for the other Eli Just hadn’t been able to keep the ball in play before his cross. The offside one had come from an early low cross from Bill Tuiloma who’d been subbed on at right back after an hour. There were a couple of intriguing hints of Tui getting involved in attacks... he’s got a genuine shot at that right back spot. Let’s see more of it, please. Also giving some zip off the bench was Joey Champness with all his stepovers. Every team needs a bloke who can do stepovers. His selection was a bit of a surprise given his weird club situation over the last two years but, against a strong defensive unit, JOWIC’s dribbling helped get the All Whites going in the right direction down the stretch.

Leading to the penalty. Won by Chris Wood as he shielded the ball in the area, drawing contact, but credit also needs to go to Matt Garbett, another impactful sub, for his clever thinking in taking a quick free kick from a position where many wouldn’t have taken the risk of wasting an ohterwise guaranteed dead ball attempt. Well, 12 yards is a better shooting opportunity than 25 yards. And all regular Niche Cache readers will know that Chris Wood is one of the world’s great penalty takers. Every time he scores one, we get to add to the stat. Across his entire professional career he has scored 29/32 for club and country. He’s now on a streak of 20 penalty successes in a row - which rises up to 27 in a row if you include shootouts. He last missed a penalty in April 2016 when playing for Leeds in the English Championship in a 2-2 draw against Hull City. He’s 5/5 in the Premier League. He’s 4/4 for the All Whites.

Speaking of great records, if you include the three interim results (which feels like the correct approach) then Darren Bazeley’s tenure now reads one win, two draws, and one defeat... with an abandoned game (in which they were winning 1-0 at half-time). The win was against China. The draws against China and Congo. The loss to Sweden. Qatar were the opponents in the abandoned game (you will no doubt be shocked to hear that FIFA chose not to pursue the Qatar racism stuff due to ‘a lack of evidence’). That’s a pretty tidy record that he’s starting to thread together. Let’s see what it looks like after we add Australia, Greece, and Ireland to the list.

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