Aotearoa at the 2023 Men’s U20 World Cup: Complete Fustigation vs Argentina
There were some hints out there that this Argentina team might not be as scary as you’d expect. For starters they didn’t even qualify for the U20 World Cup initially – they’re only here because they took on the hosting duties at late notice after Indonesia were stripped of them. Worse than that, in a qualifying group with Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru... the Argies only finished fourth hence didn’t even make the final stage. It was literally their worst ever performance at the South American U20s champs.
On top of that, many of their best players in this age group are already playing first team football in Argentina or Europe or beyond... and a large portion of those lads – think Alejandro Garnacho at Manchester United, Nico Paz at Real Madrid, Facundo Buonanotte at Brighton, and a few others – were not released to play this tournament given that it clashed with their ongoing club seasons. Plus they were hardly sparkling in grinding past Uzbekistan 2-1 on the opening day while Guatemala gave them some troubles until a red card opened the game up for the Albiceleste to win 3-0. That meant they’d already qualified for the next round, something that the New Zealand team could have joined them in had they held on for the win against the Uzbeks. Maybe they’d take it easy for game three?
Hahahaha... nope. Nah, what we got instead was Argentina’s U20s spurred on by a raucous home crowd with no pressure whatsoever on their shoulders. What they unleashed upon the poor Aotearoa contingent was vicious carnage. For about ten minutes it seemed okay, like maybe the NZers would be able to get out of there with some dignity. Then two quick goals flew in and the crowd got loud and it was one-way traffic the entire rest of the way. 5-0 was the final score. It could have been double that.
But before we dig any deeper into that game, it has to be said that it did not matter in the end. Four points was always likely to at least put the kiwis into the next round as a top third-placed qualifier. Uzbekistan took care of business with a 2-0 win over Guatemala to ensure that third place was all we could settle for but there’s only been one team since New Zealand started qualifying for these things that has gotten four points and missed out on the knockouts. That was Portugal in 2019. Granted they had a better goal difference than the -4 that NZ was stuck with after this Argentina game but it was still a rarity. Had we gotten a point off Argentina or had Uzbekistan failed to win then that would’ve done it too. However the more likely route was always that third-place avenue.
As it happens, not only did was four points good enough... but the New Zealand team ended up with the second-best record of all the third-placed teams. Nigeria won twice and came third on GD. The other four groups all had a third team with three points. That’s thanks, it must be said, to Colombia’s 90+5’ equaliser against Senegal (the result which officially clinched it for the kiwis) and also Uruguay’s 90+3’ winning penalty against Tunisia. But even if those two results had gone other ways, France’s 3-1 win over Honduras would’ve still seen NZ progress.
And progress for the fourth consecutive time. 2015, 2017, 2019 & 2023... four straight U20s waves and they’ve all made the knockouts. That’s now more times that we’ve made the knockouts at a Men’s U20 World Cup than times we haven’t. There was a 2-1 loss to Portugal in 2015. Two years later they tapped out with a 6-0 hiding by USA. The golden generation in 2019 went out on penalties to Colombia after a 1-1 draw following extra time. This time... they’ll face USA again. A USA team that topped their group with three wins and have not conceded a goal, although they only beat Fiji 3-0 which is the same scoreline we had against them in the Oceania qualifying final.
No expectations on that knockout game. It’s a great achievement to have gotten this far whether it’s for the fourth time in a row of the first time ever. It’ll also pay forward to the next tournament where the seedings should be boosted by past performance (hence we were a second seed for this tournament’s draw). We’ll probably lose against a nation seeking to win a knockout game for the fourth consecutive time. That’s how these things go... but hopefully we’ll give it a good crack and you never know.
Not sure we can say they gave it a good crack against Argentina. As anticipated it was that back three formation again for Darren Bazeley’s team, this time appearing more like a 5-2-3 shape thanks to Argentina’s own shape in build-up with midfielder dropping and fullbacks tucking usually giving them at least three across the back. The NZ top three have been dispersed in different ways within this formation depending on the opponents, in this case they seemed to set up horizontally to cut those passing lanes. And that did initially lead to some decent intent. Working hard off the ball. A couple good strong challenges in there.
Alas, it was all a mirage. This hasn’t been a pressing team at any stage, not in the earlier games and certainly not in qualifying, so their rotations were pretty wonky allowing Argentina to pass through that first line of defence (all it really took was another midfielder dropping in for Argy and there ya go, Diego’s your uncle). One quick turn from there they also had an extra man in midfield and that was begging for trouble. New Zealand couldn’t get out of their own half. Soon enough an element of hesitancy grew into their game. Then it all got ugly.
There’s no point in analysing the mistakes that led to goals because there were mistakes all over the show. Two men going for the same tackle and both getting beaten, passes from the back being intercepted, weak headers, poor clearances, not tracking runners, not holding position... et cetera. Fact is, it was a hiding. Argentina’s blokes all seemed to be able to control the ball under pressure, to win a sprint, to jump highest for a header, and especially to use their bodies to shield possession. The NZ lads have had a physical advantage in the first two games with their size and strengths but Argentina neutralised that and made them look sluggish. Noah Karunaratne, a young master at winning free kicks, couldn’t get a single call his way before he was subbed at the break. Fin Conchie, superb through the first two games, was absolutely overrun here. Vicious carnage.
Okay, that can happen against the best teams. God knows it’d probably happen to the senior All Whites if they met the Argentina in a tournament scenario so dunno why we should expect other from the respective youth teams. Even discounting the blokes that weren’t available, ARG still had guys from Barcelona (Roman Vega, left back) and Lazio (the spectacular attacking mid Luka Romero) in the starting line-up to go with a myriad of local stars and a couple more Euro-based guys rotated onto the bench.
Baze made rotations too. Finn Linder and Aaryan Raj came into the XI for their first starts (first minutes at all in Linder’s case). Karunaratne hadn’t played the previous game. Colloty swapped back in for Donkers up front. Jackson Manuel, Jackson Jarvie, and Adam Supyk also popped back up. Some of that was undoing the rotation of last time, some was rotating those who hadn’t been rotated already. Intent being to keep everyone fresh – and also protect those on yellow cards with only Manuel in the line-up with the threat of suspension. Kees Sims, Finn Surman, and Fin Conchie are the lone dudes to have started all three games... and Surman was able to have a rest for the last half hour after he was subbed off here.
Actually Linder did quite well. He was the pick of the defenders, the Vancouver Whitecaps prospect. Didn’t necessarily stand out like Surman and Isaac Hughes had in the previous game but, similar to his U22s appearance against China, Linder was calm and reliable with minimal errors. Likely the only bloke who emerged from the game with reputation enhanced – although many others had already accomplished that in the first couple matches, to be fair.
Bazeley mentioned tiredness as a factor post-game. That doesn’t entirely track with having made six changes to the starting line-up though it could explain Conchie and Surman having stumbles. Baze also hyped up the quality of the opponents and talked about this as a “learning experience”. He’s not wrong... but it will be very interesting to see how much he himself has learned because going into this USA game there’s a genuine worry that this team has been thoroughly dominated in two games in a row. They may have grabbed a draw against Uzbekistan but the stats were not flattering. Then it was even worse against Argentina...
Possession and shots are the two to focus on there. Horrendous stuff. Obviously against the hosts there was going to need to be a defensive set-up but the back five just isn’t working for them because the wing-backs aren’t positionally strong enough. They’re fullbacks being asked to play a more expansive role (O’Leary a little less so but he’s had trouble defensively). That’s fine, they’re still good players, the point is that the formation isn’t suiting them. An extra midfielder would have been more useful than an extra defender against Argy. Meet them on the battlefield rather than waiting for the siege to begin.
There was a 22 minute period in the first game, after Norman Garbett and Ben Wallace were subbed on until Aaryan Raj was subbed on to revert things, in which they used a 4-2-3-1 shape. It was during that spell that they scored their goal. They also started that way against Uzbekistan before switching back to the five defenders at half-time... with a 2-0 lead. Now, what happened might have happened regardless. Can’t necessarily say the formation was the decisive factor. But we can say that in 67 minutes of back four football the Aotearoa lads have scored three goals and conceded zero. In 203 minutes (plus all of the second half stoppage times) with a back five they have scored zero goals and conceded seven. That is a massive disparity right there.
In that case, the USA might be a convenient opponent because they’re only averaging two goals per game (meanwhile group rivals Ecuador scored nine in one game against Fiji) with defence clearly being the main priority in that camp. That should give Bazeley’s Boys more leeway to recalibrate their balance between going forward and hanging back. A close game is a good game because even if it’s skewing the wrong way, Jay Herdman might simply pop one in the top corner from out of nothing and change the headlines.
Against Argentina it felt like they were beaten before the game even kicked off. Admittedly it was the most difficult fixture on the cards and they had already put points on the board in the other games which loosened things up. But the overly defensive approach only invited pressure that a rotated backline was not capable of withstanding. You can have a learning experience from trying to play footy against better teams too, as opposed to just watching them – can’t forget this is a development tournament too.
Ah but thankfully this game that didn’t matter. It was a freebie. No worries. The hope was that’d cause Argentina to take it easy, instead it seemed to be the other way around... but if ever a dunny was there to be flushed it’s this one. Lessons learned, a couple days of rest, and then on Wednesday morning at 5.30am there’s the chance to do something that no kiwi men’s team at any level has ever done at a FIFA tournament: win a knockout game. They’re better than they showed against Argentina and fortunately they’ve gone one more game to prove it.
NZ U20s vs Argentina:
Starting XI: Kees Sims, Jackson Jarvie, Finn Linder, Finn Surman (Everton O’Leary 57’), Aaryan Raj, Adam Supyk, Jackson Manuel, Fin Conchie, Norman Garbett (Oliver Fay 71’), Noah Karunaratne (Jay Herdman 46’), Oliver Colloty (Kian Donkers 71’)
Yellow cards for Ray & Herdman
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