Source: Radio New Zealand
All Whites Eli Just and Kosta Barbarouses. www.photosport.nz
If the All Whites did not have bigger challenges on the horizon a history making win over Chile might have been more than a footnote in the broader plan.
Wanting a statement victory on home soil during a send-off ahead of the Football World Cup, a 4-1 win over a team from a region as strong as South America was a way to do it. Even if the visitors were down to 10 men after 27 minutes.
The All Whites had not beaten a South American team in 19 previous attempts.
New Zealand had not beaten any team in their last eight games.
The last time the All Whites scored more than three goals was a year ago.
While Chile failed to qualify for the World Cup, a win over the world number 55 side is a scalp that Darren Bazeley’s side can take confidence from as they look ahead to a group at the World Cup that includes Iran, Egypt and Belgium.
Immediately after the game at Eden Park, Bazeley had mixed feelings about how the Fifa Series had played out after a disappointing loss to Finland on Friday.
“We wanted to win both games,” Bazeley said.
“We don’t get too carried away with tonight, we didn’t get too carried away with the Finland result. We know these games are what they are and we still know we’ve got a lot of work to do before the World Cup.”
All White Joe Bell wants wins. Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Timing can be everything and winning can be a habit and experienced midfielder Joe Bell believed the All Whites were going to peak at the right moment.
“It takes time changing that mentality when you play against teams like Chile and these top opponents to recognise that it’s beyond an expectation to perform against them and maybe get a draw, it’s the drive to try to get wins and results.
“We’re going to take confidence from it. I think we’ve been building in confidence, and it’s been a long journey that we’re trying to time correctly going into the World Cup, that we’re a little bit more result-focused now than the performance.”
Goal scoring had been one of the All Whites’ challenges in recent times. So to get four different players’ names on the scoresheet – Kosta Barbarouses, Eli Just, Ben Waine and Jesse Randall – was not only good for the individuals who were wanting to make an impression ahead of the naming of the World Cup squad but also for a team playing without their injured captain and leading goalscorer Chris Wood.
“I’m not expecting some magic pill that suddenly we’re going to start scoring four goals every game, but I think we’re going to take a lot from this game,” Bell said.
“I think we can all agree that we looked far more aggressive, we were creating more chances, and that’s been something that we’ve been focused on for a long time now.
“So we’re going to have to stay focused, take the learning points, and just continue it.”
Match referee Michael Oliver shows Dario Osoria of Chile the red card against the All Whites. Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
The memory of the upset win over Chile on a drizzly Monday night in Auckland in front of over 13,000 fans, many of whom were supporting Chile, will be fresh in the players’ minds when they reconvene with the national side in June.
Bazeley points out that whenever the team goes into camp they look at their last performance. Even though he thinks the team will have learnt more from the Finland loss than the Chile result, the win will still get plenty of video review time.
“It’s not easy playing against 10 men. Sometimes that becomes even harder, especially against a South American team that’s probably got the ability to play with 10. So I thought we were pretty comfortable doing that,” Bazeley said.
But not every player who will be part of the review will have played in the victory.
By mid-May Bazeley has to have finalised his 26-man World Cup squad and with six players missing the Fifa Series through injury, some players who were involved in the two games in Auckland will not be at the World Cup.
Bazeley said all players were getting the same message when it came to World Cup selections.
“We’re in contact with the wider group of players that we monitor.
“These guys were here with us but they’re not receiving different messages to players that are not here, including Chris Wood and other players on that long list.
“We’ll be close to confirming our pre-World Cup schedule soon, because we’re close to confirming another [warm up] game.
“Then we’ll get the dates of when the squad needs to be selected by and obviously get that out to the players so everybody knows.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
