After that pesky loss against Egypt on Saturday morning NZT, the All Whites knew they’d have a much more achievable mission ahead of them against Tunisia four days later. The kiwis had looked sharp in many areas against Egypt but they were also up against a very accomplished defence which they simply could not figure out a way beyond. As much as that fits into patterns about the All Whites not scoring goals, it also fits into patterns about Egypt not conceding many.

Unfortunately the All Whites made One Dumb Mistake and lost that game 1-0 because of a first half penalty. Against Tunisia, they once again looked sharp in many areas. They were sturdier in defence and didn’t allow anything soft or self-inflicted to breach their blockade. In fact, it was Tunisia who made that One Dumb Mistake when Kosta Barbarouses was chopped down by a trailing leg in the area. Just like that other game, the penalty was not initially awarded but then got given after a VAR check. But whereas Egypt’s Mostafa Mohamed buried his spot kick, Sarpreet Singh missed his. The NZers didn’t take advantage and, following a couple more great saves from Tunisia’s goalkeeper Bechir Ben Said, were left to rue their wastefulness as the game ended in a 0-0 draw.

Of course, being a friendly tournament, they then proceeded to a penalty shootout which further highlighted the psychic hang-ups that this team has over kicking a size five into the back of the net... although not before a genuinely outrageous (if inconsequential) red card controversy. We’ll save those yarns until the end though, because they were secondary to the ninety minutes of the actual match. A match in which the All Whites yet again showed their willingness to take it to higher ranked opponents yet once again forgot to score a goal. Make that five goals in their last 14 international fixtures now. They’ve won just one of those matches, with five draws and eight defeats.

That’s exactly the same goals haul as the Football Ferns over the same amount of games (and they at least won two of the 14). The Fernies and the AWs have an identical problem, it’s just been more obvious for the Ferns because they’ve been playing against top ranked opponents for longer, thus banging their heads against the same ceiling for longer. Neither of NZ’s senior national sides seem to know how to break down good teams – an issue that’s more about the type of players available than coaching or tactics (though every little bit helps), which is thankfully changing with the calibre of attacking players emerging from the youth teams. But it’s an annoyingly slow process. Luckily for the Football Ferns they were able to restore some confidence in front of goal with the Oceania Olympic Qualifiers last month, and luckily for the All Whites their next task will be the Oceania Nations Cup in June.

It’s important to keep in mind that there was lots of good stuff against Tunisia. After a slow start, the lads scored a disallowed goal after nine minutes (Kosta Barbarouses with a tap-in but both Boxall and Bindon had been offside). Then pretty much bossed the rest of the half after Tommy Smith powered a header towards the top corner from a Callum McCowatt corner, drawing an excellent save after fifteen mins. Barbarouses won the penalty and then almost won another five minutes later except it was taken away by VAR – it seemed the ref thought the defender had handballed it, when it was actually Kosta so fair enough. But he kept making great runs. Marko Stamenic was a beast on the high press. Sarpreet Singh was still getting his touches, and still getting fouled at a heavy rate. He took one of those free kicks himself and whipped into the side-netting, close to beating the keeper at his near post.

Those were some fine footballing activities. They couldn’t take advantage like they should have but all signs pointed towards this being a winnable fixture with another 45 minutes remaining. Problem was, Tunisia made a couple of HT subs which altered the course. One of whom was debutant Elias Saad, a 24 year old winger for St Pauli in Germany’s 2.Liga. That’s the same level as Sarpreet Singh plays with Hansa Rostock... except that St Pauli are first and Hansa Rostock are trying not to get relegated, and Saad gets to play all the time whereas Singh hardly gets a crack for his club. Saad came on as a number ten and got into those same dangerous pockets that Singh does. It’s an unhappy parallel.

Tunisia’s second half improvements helped them drag the game further from their goal, although they didn’t create much from that – and certainly nothing the AWs couldn’t handle. Max Crocombe showed a willingness to sweep outside his area and was flawless against the high ball. Tommy Smith showed a surprising burst of pace on multiple occasions. He’s not playing much yet for Macarthur and he joined them because he wasn’t getting games for MK Dons... so it’ll be educational to see what he does next. It’d also be educational to know if Finn Surman would’ve started ahead of him had FS not suffered a cut to his head in training, ruling him out of this match.

Should mention that there were four changes made to the eleven. Tyler Bindon came in for Dane Ingham at right back. Tommy Smith for Nando Pijnaker at centre-back. Alex Rufer replaced Clayton Lewis in midfield. Kosta Barbarouses swapped in for Max Mata up front. Otherwise it was the same formation and same blokes as played against Egypt... and Darren Bazeley wasn’t keen on changing things from there either. Tunisia made that HT double sub, then they made another double before Baze finally brought on Elijah Just with 15 minutes remaining. Taking off his best player, Sarpreet Singh, in the process. Singh was probably bruised and exhausted but with a lot of guys playing their second game in four days it was notable how long Bazeley rode with his first choicers. Ben Waine and Ben Old also came on for the last ten and that was all for the substitutions.

The All Whites didn’t control the second half as they had done the first but they still created some good chances. The best of those was a sumptuous dink over the top by Singh for Matt Garbett, who didn’t get great contact reaching out for the dropping ball but still put it to where an outstanding leg save was required to deny it. Almost as good as the save that the referee made when he stepped in front of a great look for Marko Stamenic from outside the area. Not dissimilar to the range he scored from in the abandoned Qatar game... he struck it well but the referee spoiled it with the block. Just a little bit of luck would be great, you know?

Matt Garbett moved to the middle when Singh took his rest and didn’t really affect anything. Mostly because the All Whites struggled to sustain attacks in those latter stages. Garbett did some nice stuff and some bizarre stuff (like switching the ball to an empty sideline). After these two games plus his NAC Breda season, it seems safe to say that he’s way more effective through the middle than out wide. Callum McCowatt did have a much more impactful game this time, although it would have been nice to see Elijah Just and Ben Old given more of a run in both matches. It’s also going to be a huge boost to Liberato Cacace’s career when he figures out how to put a consistently good cross into the area. He’s so good at so much else but that final ball tends to escape him.

So it was that the game kinda dribbled out into a nil-all draw. A positive result for the All Whites this time, rather than another of those pesky encouraging defeats, even if it wasn’t the result they wanted. They did at least keep a solid clean sheet though - their first clean sheet since Bazeley’s first game as interim boss in the 0-0 draw against China in Auckland a year ago. Achieved with a right-back who has only just turned 19, and a CB pairing with a combined age of 68 years. Had Chris Wood been playing then they’d have had one of the best penalty takers on the planet to score that spot kick and 0-0 would have been 1-0 and we’d all be chuffed. But Chris Wood wasn’t there and Sarpreet Singh left his effort at what the commentators always refer to as “a good height for the goalkeeper”.

That brings us to the shenanigans at the end. Starting with a curious substitution made by Tunisia: swapping out goalkeeper Bachir Ben Said late in stoppage time to throw on Aymen Dahmen. That was obviously done with the impending shootout in mind. It seems baffling considering that Ben Said had already saved a penalty during the match, but clearly they’d already decided that Dahmen’s the superior keeper in that situation so it’s credit to them for having the courage of their convictions and not being swayed by one good save. For context, Tunisia had gone to penalties against Croatia (also after a 0-0 draw) in the previous game and had made the exact same substitution: Dahmen on, Ben Said off. Dahmen proceeded to make two saves in the shootout (albeit they still lost 5-4 overall after seven attempts each).

That sub showed that Tunisia were prepared for this outcome in a way that the All Whites obviously were not. Which, to be fair, isn’t such a big deal. The All Whites surely do their due diligence with penalties but they have more important things to focus on first and foremost. Like scoring goals during regular time, for example. Not too fussed about them bottling the shootout... but they definitely bottled the shootout.

For one thing, Bazeley should have made the same substitution. Starting with his time in the English National League back in 2014-15 all the way through to the game against Egypt the other day, Max Crocombe has only saved 3/25 penalties in his career (as recorded by Transfermarkt). He’s 0/4 this season with Burton Albion. Oli Sail doesn’t have a good record against spot kicks either, as Phoenix fans will recall, but Wellington Phoenix fans also know that Alex Paulsen is outstanding in those situations. It would have been a wild way for the fella to make his debut but he’d have given the AWs a better hope in the shootout.

Then again, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. There’s research that suggests that penalty takers who wait longer after the whistle to shoot are much more successful. Something about controlling the moment, not rushing things, et cetera. Waine took his merry time after the whistle... then dragged his effort wide anyway. Kosta Barbarouses was able to score down the middle but then Elijah Just pulled his kick onto the post after a very slow run-up. Alex Rufer scored his, looking very confident although we’ve gotta admit his attempt went very close to the same spot where Singh’s was saved. Only difference was the goalie dove the wrong way, though maybe that was down to Rufer’s confidence versus Singh telegraphing it, who knows.

Meanwhile, Tunisia scored all four and Crocombe didn’t get a hand on any of them. They had the same first three takers who’d all scored against Croatia and they each repeated the dose. The guy who missed their fourth against the Croats had already been subbed while one of the other missers didn’t play and the third did but was overtaken in the pecking order by one of their subs who hadn’t played the previous match. They knew what they were doing.

Just to reiterate for the compatriots who get emotionally swayed by these things: the shootout isn’t very important. Nobody cares if we finished third or fourth in a four-team competition (by the way, Croatia won 4-2 against Egypt in the ‘final’). But the act of taking a penalty is less of a lottery than people like to claim, it’s the purpose of football boiled down to its most essential act: kicking the ball in the goal. The All Whites can’t score goals normally so they weren’t likely to score them this way either... and they didn’t. This is an extension of that problem. Chris Wood remains one of the best penalty takers in the business, there is still that, but it’s a damning thing that as it became clear the VAR was about to award Aotearoa that penalty in the first half it was hard to come up with confident candidates to take it in Wood’s absence. When that’s the case for one penalty taker, it’s going to be amplified for five in a shootout.

The last time the All Whites had a penalty shootout was against Papua New Guinea back in the 2016 Nations Cup final. That time when Anthony Hudson decided that the safest way to combat Oceania opponents was to park the bus. The lads won the shootout that day, though only Michael Boxall and Kosta Barbarouses played both that game and this and neither took penalties in 2016. However the two best age grade performances since then have both ended with shootout defeats and many of these same players were involved in one or both of them.

There was the 2019 U20s who were beaten by Colombia and the 2021 Olympic team who went out against hosts Japan. Michael Woud was in goal for both. Callum McCowatt scored in both. Libby Cacace scored for the U20s but missed for the U23s. Joe Bell missed for the U20s then didn’t take one for the U23s (maybe he’d have taken the fifth, which they never got to). Just and Waine both missed against Tunisia and both played those other two games but neither took pens those days. Waine had already been subbed both times. Just scored the actual goal against Colombia but was subbed in extra time. He was available for the shootout against Japan but didn’t take one of the four attempts that day.

Are there any lessons to be learned from that? Maybe that McCowatt should have taken the penalty instead of Singh... but you can’t really blame them for giving it to their best player. Singh deserved the goal, he just didn’t score it. That’s how it goes sometimes.

It probably didn’t help that there was a long delay even after the kick was awarded, almost two full minutes, during which the Tunisian bench got given a yellow card for having an assistant rush out and show their keeper some yarns on an iPad. In theory they were showing him Singh’s penalty tendencies... but good bloody luck trying to find that data. He did score one for the Bayern Reserves a couple of years ago. He also scored a preseason spottie for Bayern’s first team in the 2019 Audi Cup against Tottenham. Plus he scored going first for that U20s team in the shootout. If Tunisia’s scouts found something valuable from those three instances then they deserve a pay-rise. More likely it was a way of propping up the keeper’s confidence and wasting time while Singh stood around waiting... sort of like when NFL coaches call a timeout as a kicker lines up a crucial field goal attempt, just trying to ice him out. Well, it worked.

That wasn’t the weirdest card given this game, though. Tunisia were trying to counter attack when the final whistle blew about ten seconds early. Elias Achouri had the ball and was furious not to have that opportunity and was promptly given a red card by the referee. That might have been a tad excessive, although we don’t know what he said. It was a straight red though – and he’d have gotten another one for his subsequent antics if that was possible. Crazy thing was, Cacace said something to him on his way off (“on your bike, son”) and Achouri stepped over and leaned his forehead into him... for which Cacace was inexplicably given two yellow cards and thus a red.

He was definitely shown a yellow before the red. He had not been booked during the game. Perhaps the referee mistakenly thought he had been? Perhaps the referee thought that backing away from a guy trying to headbutt him was a bookable offence on top of whatever he might have said to Achouri? Regardless, it was a bonkers decision and it arguably took away one of the All Whites’ preferred penalty takers... not that it would have made a difference.

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