It’s an Under-20 World Cup, right? Things need to be kept in context and the Young All Whites had already exceeded expectations – or at least met them – in making their way into the knockouts. There was nothing to lose as the lads strolled out from the tunnel alongside the Young Americans (They just pulled in behind the bridge…).

But having said all that, losing 6-0 was pretty damn terrible.

It wasn’t a terrible ninety minute performance, it was a terrible last half hour or so. Like, unacceptably bad. The kiwi side didn’t start nearly as well as they did against France the other day but they were steadier. Logan Rogerson stayed in, slightly unexpectedly, to replace Clayton Lewis (via Sarpreet Singh) in midfield and he was full of energy with a few slinky touches to go with it. The whole team was working really hard off the ball, from Billingsley and Bevan up top to the chaps at the back. Positive start. Nice and scrappy.

Then a sloppy goal had New Zealand down 1-0. A corner from the right was hacked at but not cleared by Moses Dyer and Justen Glad was able to take about three awkward touches before he drilled it into Josh Sargent and the ball deflected past Michael Woud in goal. Let’s be honest here, the NZers needed to keep this at 0-0 for as long as they could. It doesn’t matter that the Americans were without three key guys through suspension, and another with injury, or a whole bunch more because they went largely with US-based fellas over European-based fellas (thankful that Christian Pulisic wasn’t out there in the second half, jeez). Nah if we were gonna claim something here then we needed to frustrate them for as long as possible. And we didn’t.

Which is not to say that the kiwis didn’t have a few chances. Now and then they were able to build up a half-decent attack and they kept the rhythm defensively to take that 1-0 deficit into the break. For the most part, NZ had been able to keep the Americans from turning their extra possession into genuine chances.

While it was at 1-0 it still felt like New Zealand could snatch something. They started sharply after the half and then Darren Bazeley made a pretty gutsy decision: off came Noah Billingsley and on came Henry Cameron with the team switching from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1 with Bevan up front alone and Jack-Henry Sinclair sitting into defensive midfield alongside Joe Bell. Almost immediately there was a move down the left, Bell and Sinclair linking up with some work in there from Rogerson too and Sinclair cut it back to… here.

Where Moses Dyer was gunning into space in the box. But Captain Moses put it wide. Achingly, agonisingly, comfortably wide. Note Myer Bevan there on the edge of the box practically begging for it (like a good striker). Can’t ever blame Dyer for not leaving it from this position but, just quietly, Bevan from the edge of the box might be a better shot than Dyer from here. Either way it’s not an easy chance so we can’t be calling it a major turning point or anything.

It only feels that way because it was the last decent attack that the Aotearoa folks could muster and ten minutes later Jeremy Ebobisse (a youth teamer with Jake Gleeson’s Portland Timbers) took a gasp-inducing first touch while holding off Sean Liddicoat and his shot was pure thunder for 2-0. Brooks Lennon then beat James McGarry down NZ’s left almost straight away from the kickoff and he slotted his finish into the far corner.

You’d imagine that’d do it there but in between the two goals Bazeley had subbed off Hunter Ashworth (centre back) for Sarpreet Singh (attacking midfielder) and New Zealand were left with 25 more minutes to play with all these attacking options out there (Bevan, Rogerson, Cameron & Singh with Dyer back in the middle) against a USA team suddenly starting to run rampant. At times it looked like a 5-0-5 formation and we got annihilated for it. New Zealand half-heartedly pressed for a consolation goal and America punished us in return. Not once but three more times to make it 6-0 before the final whistle ended the misery.

A collapse like that from the proper All Whites and there’d be chaos on the streets but with the U20s all it means is the end of their campaign. Next time we see a NZ U20 side out there, it’ll have 80% different players and bugger all continuity so we can’t be too dramatic. This is tournament football. Which is why the blame for how it ended really needs to go on the shoulders of Darren Bazeley (who’ll probably say the same himself).

On one hand you have to applaud him for being brave enough to make a couple attacking subs. On the other hand you have to be very critical for the way he made them. Like, good intentions are one thing but there’s a fine line between optimism and crippling naivety. The first sub was made too soon. Even if we’d grabbed that equaliser with half an hour to go, that’s still half an hour left to defend with lessened numbers at the back – we wouldn’t have been able to hold it anyway. Frankly we weren’t good enough to take advantage of the extra attacking numbers, which meant all we were doing was weakening the defence, and doubling down on all that at 2-0 with another attacking sub only opened the floodgates. Love the willingness to make a positive change or two but… come on, man.

The subs themselves weren’t the issue but once you play that card, you can’t take it back. Bazeley effectively told his team that they were going all out on attack for the last 35 minutes of the game and they got absolutely rolled for it. The result doesn’t matter in the long term, however it’s fairly embarrassing right now… especially losing to the Americans who are a) obnoxious about ‘sahccer’ and b) an English speaking nation whose jubilant response is accessible and comprehensible to kiwi fans. That’s two U20 World Cups in a row we’ve played the Septics and those 180 minutes make for a 10-0 aggregate loss. Yikes.

Does anyone really believe that Darren Bazeley is some tactical mastermind though? Seems more like he’s a bloke who’s happy to follow Anthony Hudson’s orders, which is probably better for the All Whites so whatever. If we’re gonna put emphasis on the results here then Bazeley ought to cop it. If we’re mostly looking to develop players with a little extra international exposure then that’s job done regardless, no worries.

Because we have seen several… if not quite star making performances then at least enough promising ones to think there’ll be several of these lads that go on to have genuine professional careers. Michael Woud has arguably been the player of the tournament for New Zealand, although, in the continued interest of keeping it real, gotta admit that he was well off it against the Americans. A couple stunning saves as is the usual with that dude but he conceded six goals and if you want to get really picky then you can make the debate that he could have saved all of them.

It’s obviously too much to expect him to actually make all them saves but the first one deflected under him, the second was a bolt of lightning but it was within his reach if he’d been quicker (harsh, sure), the third was put in from a tight angle past him, the fourth a header that it looked like he’d made a great stop from but it pitched and spun back inside the post like a Shane Warne stockie, the fifth went through his fingertips (the utter lack of marking was the real drama there) and the last one… okay the last one he had no chance with. As already mentioned, Woud was NZ’s best in Korea and he has a great future. Just keeping it a-hunnid is all.

Myer Bevan was the next best but he was feeding on scraps a lot of this contest. Still looks a step above the rest of the outfielders, especially the way he’s able to do more with one touch than most can with two plus as he gets older and stronger he’ll be better at holding off defenders and all that. Will be super fun to see how he goes with the Vancouver Whitecaps… and how soon it is before he’s playing for the All Whites. Tell you what, there are real shades of Shane Smeltz about him.

Pleasant to see the Welly Nix boys fitting in amongst the overseas dudes too. Shows what a good job the Nix are doing of identifying talent out there in Aotearoa. James McGarry had a rough one against America but was otherwise great while Logan Rogerson saved his best for last. Sarpreet Singh didn’t get a huge amount of opportunities, probably because he’s a little slender, but showed some sumptuous touches when he did and Jack-Henry Sinclair filled in well for Dane Ingham. Joe Bell too, a former Nix lad before he went to America.

There’s a little bit of what-if about losing Clayton Lewis and Dane Ingham. It seems like Ingham’s best attribute is how well he gets forward but as a natural fullback he’d also probably have been a little more positionally disciplined on defence compared to Sinclair and McGarry (the latter being a converted midfielder - which is all the rage at the Nix, apparently). They did alright though, at least until the tornado hit (and Sinclair was mixed around from wingback to midfield to fullback). Really it was Clayton Lewis that they missed most. His physical midfield play and international experience would have done plenty to keep that game respectable.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Memorise a few names, keep an eye on them in the ol’ transfer market, tell whoever the new Wellington Phoenix manager is to play a couple of them and witness how Uncle Tony incorporates this U20 class into the senior ranks. And try not to worry about a pretty terrible exit.

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