All Whites 2-0 Fiji: Business Over Pleasure, No Worries There
In the old days New Zealand went to play in Fiji and we probably wouldn’t know the score until the paper came out the next morning. Maybe an update on the radio so long as the wires are all working. But in 2017 the world is a modern place and when the All Whites travel to Lautoka we get to watch them live on telly, replete with local commentary, in not-entirely-HD splendour.
It might have been better not to have watched it. There wasn’t a lot to be gained and it was hardly the smoothest experience. Compared to the Nations Cup approach it was magical but compared to what this team should be capable of this was a strictly business-first approach. As Anthony Hudson has tended to encourage in these OFC games.
You can usually tell from watching when a team has been told to play it safe. Hence the All Whites would put a couple nice passes together and then cop out with a hopeful cross into the box for Chris Wood. Now, crossing it in to Woody isn’t a silly strategy at all… however it’d help if any of these dudes knew how to lob one in with any accuracy. Man, it got annoying.
Again though, it was much better than the Nations Cup’s lump and leer. Back then they didn’t even try hold the ball, it was like nails on the chalkboard for ninety minutes, but in Fiji we saw an All Whites team that dominated possession. We even saw an All Whites team that created enough chances to win this game 5-0. We saw them defend (mostly) with composure and comfort. Occasionally with desperation. In short it was actually a pretty solid performance and a very important result… so why did it feel so frustrating?
That lack of ambition was part of it. They could have won this by three times the score they did yet the team seemed to have settled for 1-0 or 2-0 before kick-off. Just a little intensity missing in the performance. But then… it was an afternoon game in Fiji, not as hot as it could’ve been with the rain but still pretty unendurable, you’d imagine. Through that lens you look at the effort that Woody, Wee Mac, Rojas and the likes expended and all you can do is applaud.
These games are always scrappy. That’s how you compete with a team with more resources, you make it as tricky as possible for them. Expecting the All Whites to just run riot over Fiji is frankly pretty dismissive of a Fijian team that’s quite strong these days. They have Roy Krishna, who is arguably outperforming any of the kiwi players at the Wellington Phoenix this season and they sent a team to the Olympics last year too.
And, most of all, they’re playing again on Tuesday night in Wellington and all New Zealand need is a draw to clinch a spot in the final of OFC qualification. Win that game nice and handily and nobody will remember this performance. It’ll be a footnote in history – the games that we’ll judge this team’s potential on are the ones against nations much stronger than Aotearoa.
With all that out on the table, it doesn’t really matter that the All Whites scored two sloppy as hell goals for a 2-0 win in Fiji – hey, they drew 0-0 away to New Caledonia. They probably could’ve been more optimistic in how they played but to be fair they opened things up after taking the lead. A shame then that the opener didn’t come until the second half, right? The last half an hour of that game was so thoroughly controlled by the All White, enough to bury a lot of what had preceded it even without the extra goals to show for it.
Tommy Smith and Ryan Thomas started the game on the bench. That was the initial drama but it wasn’t as controversial as it sounded. Smith’s been out injured for months now since damaging his back - he’s only in the last few weeks gotten back on the park for Ipswich and is yet to play 90 minutes. Mick McCarthy, his boss, has encouraged this international expedition as a handy chance to get some footy under his belt but with two games in four days there’s no reason to drive him into the ground. Smith got a couple of minutes at the end off the bench and should be in line for a start next match. Probably not a full game but maybe an hour or so.
As for Thommo his PEC Zwolle team played on a Sunday in Holland, their last game before the international break, which meant Monday morning in NZ time. By the time he’d flown out to meet the squad it was Wednesday night in New Zealand. They played within three days of that, he was always a stretch to start this one despite some decent form for club. He won a penalty in that Zwolle game. Also he’s been playing a lot of central attacking midfield which is the role that Clayton Lewis played. Seems fairly straight forward (although Lewis has been on fire for Auckland City and didn’t do a lot wrong here either). Thomas was the first man off the bench, replacing Bill Tuiloma on 66 minutes.
On that note, what’s looked like a forward pointing midfield triangle in the past looked more like a backwards one here… which is more attacking than the parlance makes it seem. Two guys ahead of one holding lad. The back three with the wingbacks pushing up makes that a valuable tweak there, Tuiloma’s not got as far to patrol and if that extra midfielder is getting forward then bingo. A sneakily aggressive tactical thing that took more clarity as the game progressed.
Other than those blokes, it was business as usual. Marinovic in goal, Colvey and Wynne as wingbacks, Themi, Dura and Boxall in the middle. Tui and Wee Mac. Clayton. Rojas and Woody. Nothing really to argue with there. The biggest question was, supposing they kept the 5-3-2 formation that Hudson has used in almost every game he’s taken charge of in the Islands (which he did), who would partner Woody up top. Kosta Barbarouses, Rory Fallon, Jeremy Brockie and Monty Patterson were the last four guys not named Wood to start as strikers for NZ, going all the way back to late 2015, and literally none of that quartet was with the squad in Fiji. Shane Smeltz would’ve been a strong chance but Marco Rojas as a quicker and more skilful option was the better alternative. Smeltz got a dozen mins off the bench later on, his first appearance for NZ since we drew with Myanmar in September 2015.
One major reason for the first half disjointedness was, hate to say it, Bill Tuiloma. He just didn’t have a great game. His club situation is difficult at the moment as a recent takeover has left Marseille as a club that’d rather be transfer players than academy players and he’s a little stranded for opportunities now (despite turning down a loan offer in January), left plugging away in the reserve team which is struggling for form themselves (despite being stacked with professionals in the same situation as Tui).
He’s not playing that bad personally, but the whole thing is less than ideal. Anyway he was a bit rubbish here. There was a heavy touch that gifted the ball to Fiji in good position, there were a couple avoidable fouls. One time he stepped up to win an interception beautifully and then crossed it way too deep for anyone to touch and at other times his passing just wasn’t as crisp as it should’ve been. With Tui, you get the feeling that a touch more energy would make such a difference. This was one of those games, he looked flat and it was no surprise he was the first man subbed.
Then again, what Tuiloma did do well was he set that screen in front of the defence and with Fiji playing it deep at 0-0, it allowed Mike McGlinchey to press forward to good effect. No player has played more under Anthony Hudson than the one known as Wee Mac and he’s consistently been one of our best in that time too. Also, when Tuiloma went off McGlinchey dropped deeper into his role, allowing both Thomas and Lewis (until Lewis was replaced by Smeltz and Rojas dropped deeper) to get on the attack.
So the first half was painful and the All Whites continually ruined decent moves by settling for hopeful crosses. Get those near Woody’s head and it’s not such a bad idea. Don’t and it is. Having said that they could easily have been 2-0 at the break. Clayton Lewis absolutely pummelled one off his strong left boot having taking down a defensive clearance on his chest and it took a superb save from Beniamino Mateinaqara to keep it outta the top corner. On top of that, Marco Rojas scored a goal that got denied by the linesman’s flag.
Mike Boxall did some cool stuff, slipped it in for Clayton, who had the ball taken off him by a defender only it ended up with Rojas who buried it. It seems the lino called it based on the touch that deflected it to Rojas but since that came off a defender that shouldn’t have mattered. Woody and Lewis obviously said as much to the ref but to no avail. Rojas was onside when Boxall passed it to Lewis though he might’ve been off when Clay touched it. Seems odd to call it based on a poor touch going in the opposite direction… this is where the rule gets complicated. Dunno, make up your own mind…
It would’ve been a different game had NZ taken the lead back then. Instead the game spluttered towards the break. Then, without hardly doing anything to earn it, the kiwi side were in front. Long ball from Durante in his own half and it’s taken down on the arm by Peniame Drova. Nobody near him, just a strange error. Chris Wood doesn’t tend to miss these.
Tell Kip not to time the run into the box better, he’s a little quick off the mark there.
Then seven minutes later it was 2-0 after Rojas picked off Mateinaqara for a simple finish. The kind of finish that gets commentators talking about ‘the easiest goal he’ll ever score’. Antonio Valencia scored one like that the other day for Manchester United and they same things were said, but Valencia literally sprinted like 80 metres to pressure Victor Valdes and win that ball. Rojas didn’t quite run that far but you have to give some credit to the closing down… even if Mateinaqara inexplicably didn’t see him coming. The backing away there is just suicidal.
Rightio, that was the end of the goal scoring. It didn’t have to be, Wood hit the post with a great header almost straight after he scored his goal. McGlinchey had a powerful driving shot blocked by Taniela Waqa. Deklan Wynne played really well getting forward in the first half and Kip Colvey did similar in the second. Marco Rojas benefited whenever he got some space to run at. Some more linking up down the middle woulda been nice but Fiji got a lot of players back, they defended quite well.
It was 2-0 and both goals were pretty fortuitous. But they did enough to be worth a couple of goals and football isn’t always so generous to let you have that. Take it and run.
At the other end, Marinovic only had a couple of saves to make and he made them. One diving low and parrying in the first half was probably the pick of them. He almost got caught out trying to punch a cross that drifted away from him in the air but he got a big fist to it, if not cleanly. As for the defensive trio they all looked sharp enough. Themi made one fantastic sliding block from a shot. Colvey got beaten once or twice down the line but he’s young and there was always cover around him.
Meanwhile none of the Fijian efforts fell cheekily to Roy Krishna. Krishna is the star so he draws more defensive pressure than anyone else, he’s got a gravitational pull with the ball at his feet. What that means is there must be space for teammates elsewhere and that’s what Krishna does well: he gets his teammates involved. Credit to him for doing the hard yards without much reward.
And that’s about that for this one. Hudson’s Heroes did what they had to do and now we move on to the next game. One game at a time, taking care of business, etc.