All Whites at the ACUD Cup: A Typical Narrow Defeat vs Egypt
There’s something increasingly familiar about an All Whites game in which the lads play some really silky football, passing smoothly through the midfield, battling hard at the back, bringing all of the energy, only to still lose anyway. Usually by a small margin. Usually because, for all of their promise, they didn’t actually create hardly anything worthy of a goal.
It happened most notoriously in that World Cup playoff against Costa Rica, where they couldn’t overturn an early concession despite a dominant performance. It happened against Peru just before that, also a 1-0 defeat but this time due to a goalkeeping mistake. In the past two years there have been 1-0, 2-0, and 2-0 defeats against Australia. Fortunately a late penalty avoided the same fate against DR Congo... but we were definitely humming that same old tune against Egypt on Saturday morning.
These encouraging defeats were alright at first but unless there are actual wins to balance them out then it stops feeling like steps along a path and starts feeling like a dead end. Unfortunately, winning is a habit that the All Whites haven’t yet figured out, even if we are seeing fantastic progress in other areas of the pitch. On the whole, this was a very strong performance against a very good Egyptian team. They had the better of large portions of the play and can be pretty proud of how they went overall. They effort was there. But there’s still this brick wall that they keep running up against.
The All Whites have only scored five goals in their past 13 fixtures, having been kept scoreless in nine of them, including three of the past four. Chris Wood has played in 8/13 games (and three of those five goals were scored when he was absent) so that doesn’t explain it – even though they did massively miss their target man striker against Egypt. Five goals is exactly what the Football Ferns have managed in their past 13 games, by the way, so for those people that seem to revel in Fernies negativity: literally the same criticism applies to the blokes. In fact, the Ferns have more wins (2) and clean sheets (4) than the All Whites across the same span of games so technically they have a better record. Both are in severe need of improvement though, obviously.
For all the quality they showed against Egypt, it is clearly not good enough for the All Whites to only muster up six total shots (and that depends where you look – other sources claim only four). Sarpreet Singh did hit the crossbar from a free kick, that was as close as they got. Libby Cacace swung in a few dangerous crosses. Max Mata forced a good close-out save. He also missed the target with a header, as did Nando Pijnaker. But nowhere near enough moments. The midfield was running the show, constantly able to recycle possession, yet as soon as they engaged the Egyptian backline that ball was repelled and the reset button was hit. That’s credit to a very strong display from Egypt, who avoided the One Dumb Error that cost the New Zealand side when Nando Pijnaker conceded a penalty midway through the first half. It’s also an indictment on the lack of cutting edge within that Aotearoa team... with the exception of Sarpreet Singh who pretty much just got fouled whenever he got into a dangerous area.
That was the other overwhelming theme of this game: fouls. Singh was fouled four times and Matt Garbett three times. There were 17 total shot attempts in this match according to the broadcast... and 34 fouls. Double the number. 20 fouls by Egypt, 14 by New Zealand. Only three yellow cards were issued so the chippy stoppages continued throughout the contest. Naturally, it was a foul that led to the decisive penalty. Those stoppages affected the All Whites more than they did the counter-attacking Egyptians, so you’ve probably got to call it solid tactics on their part.
The absences of Chris Wood, Joe Bell, and Tim Payne were also critical for the NZers - three starting eleven players who had to withdraw with injuries. Only a handful of nations in the world can handle that without an issue and we’re not one of them. Max Mata has been in resurgent form for Sligo Rovers in Ireland but he’s not Chris Wood. Dane Ingham won Newcastle Jets’ player of the year last season but Tim Payne is still a stronger and more well-rounded player. Clayton Lewis is a regular squad member but Joe Bell is on another level. Not to mention that Wood is the captain and Bell the vice-captain. There might have even been a case for Payne to have been the third-choice in their absence (Liberato Cacace instead got the armband, slightly surprisingly ahead of Michael Boxall but probably a nod towards the future). Not only is the football damaged but the leadership group was gutted by their absences as well. This is another Football Ferns parallel: key players being unavailable has to mean lower expectations.
There’s no replacing guys like that, hence it’s doubtful that any selection shuffles would have made a difference, though there were some funky ones. Max Mata over Ben Waine was one. Waine’s in a tougher division and is the more established international player, although Mata’s been in better recent form. Waine’s getting 5-10 minutes per game at Plymouth Argyle whereas Mata is a key player for Sligo Rovers. Doesn’t mean it’s not a debatable point, but that’s why Darren Bazeley leant that way. The squads have begun to be picked with more of an emphasis on form so that was always going to spill into the starting teams. Waine’s probably a good shout to start against Tunisia in the second match though.
Dane Ingham at right back... he was the only specialist available without Tim Payne, even if Tyler Bindon could easily have done a job there. And did do a job there after being subbed on for the last ten minutes. Bindon was able to swing more crosses over than Ingham did despite playing a fraction of the time, so that’s something to think about ahead of game two. Ingham’s got great speed but his decisions were behind the rest of them... granted, Sarpreet Singh and Matt Garbett alternated as his right winger and both of them, as you know, are prone to roaming. Curious that the first half saw most things built down the left wing with Cacace, but then the right edge was far more prominent in the second half. Cacace had his moments but it’s not a great sign when his nutmegs aren’t working – those little chop-ins are a fundamental part of the Liberation. All of which is to say that Ingham struggled but it’s hard to blame him for that.
Clayton Lewis got the nod in midfield in place of Bellinho. Alex Rufer, a late call-up, was the other candidate. That’s keeping due respect to the initial hierarchy of the squad... and Lewis was great. Slotted in beautifully alongside Marko Stamenic in a different midfield shape than usual. Instead of Bell holding and the two others pushing forward, here we saw a double pivot of Stamenic and Lewis with Singh/Garbett ahead. Lewis didn’t do as much defensive work as Stamenic but he got more touches and competed 60/64 passes.
That all worked well, as did Max Crocombe getting the nod ahead of Alex Paulsen. Again, don’t be surprised if Paulsen plays the second game... but Crocs has also been in superb club form and is the incumbent. Couldn’t save the penalty but otherwise he didn’t put a foot wrong, even finding a teammate with two-thirds of his long balls which has been the one issue with him at Burton Albion. Apparently that’s more of a Burton issue than a Crocombe issue.
This is all a healthy reminder that, for all the burgeoning depth around this All Whites set-up, we still rely massively on our best players. Chris Wood doesn’t always get the service he ought to for the national team – partly because other teams target him as the danger man – but he’d have made a huge difference here, if only to take some of the defensive focus away from others. Still, we did have Sarpreet Singh. His club career remains luckless, yet every time that Singh kits up for the national team these days he makes those club situations look inexplicable. He’s so sharp, so slippery, so skilful. Out there linking up with everyone, nobody had more touches than Singh, he was the one bloke who seemed capable of making stuff happen.
Problem was, he had to instigate as well as create so he was often too deep for his mahi to lead to shots. Somebody else needed to help him out (his combo with Cacace in the first half was nice, they needed to get back to that in the second half)... either that or his free kick could have simply nestled into the top corner. He won that free kick himself so it really would have been Sarpreet doing all the work if that one had worked out. Quiet games from Callum McCowatt and Matt Garbett here, while Elijah Just was left surprisingly late as a substitute.
As for the one moment back the other way, it looked like a blatant penalty in real time. Nando Pijnaker was late and desperate and made a rash decision. The referee, shockingly, allowed things to continue but there was a long break as Emam Ashour was stretchered off after what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder from the fall. Not sure why the stretcher when it was his shoulder that got damaged, though it was buzzy how the camera followed the stretched literally down the tunnel and into the ambulance (which they showed during half-time).
It turned out that they had access to VAR so, during that pause in proceedings, further replays ensued and the penalty was awarded. There was one angle that appeared to show Pijnaker getting his sprigs on the ball before he caught the player... but that ‘he got the ball’ idea automatically equating to No Foul is one of those modern myths of football. He lightly scraped the ball, which the attacker still would’ve had possession of, with a shot incoming, if not for the follow-through. It was a penalty. Correct call. Dunno why we’re bothering with VAR for glorified friendlies but can’t complain about the decision. Pijnaker had an otherwise strong game but he’s not yet at the place where he’s giving ninety minutes without a silly error. There had been ponderings about whether he’d leave Sligo Rovers a few months back, only for it to turn out he had another year under contract. Games like this make you hope his agent’s on the case because that next step for him does kinda require moving to a higher level of competition.
Two further notes about this Egypt side. One is that this was the first game under new manager Hossam Hassan, a legend of Egyptian football having scored a record 68 goals in 176 international caps (those numbers differ depending on the source due to FIFA and the Egypt FA having differing views on the status of certain fixtures through the years). He was only announced last month following the sacking of his Portuguese predecessor Rui Vitoria, who lost his job due to Egypt’s disappointing round of sixteen exit at the African Cup of Nations. Mo Salah is fast coming for Hassan’s goals record though he was unavailable for this series because Liverpool negotiated his absence on account of only recently returning from injury. Hassan has been a successful club manager in his homeland, and has long believed himself worthy of the national team job, though questions about his temperament have apparently been a factor in him being overlooked until now.
That AFCON performance was a troubling one for Egypt. They’d been runners-up in 2021, losing on penalties to Senegal, so an early knockout exit was not what they’d planned. It was actually DR Congo that beat them, winning 8-7 on pens after a 1-1 draw. The All Whites drew with Congo last October and DRC went on to finish fourth at AFCON. Egypt didn’t win a single game at that AFCON having made it through their group with three straight 2-2 draws. They didn’t win many at the previous edition either, with two 1-0 wins and a 1-0 loss seeing them past the group stage. Then came a penalty shootout win over Ivory Coast after a nil-all, then a 2-1 extra-time win against Morocco, then a penalty shootout win over hosts Cameroon after a nil-all, then that penalty shootout loss to Senegal after a nil-all.
All four knockout games were draws and three of them went to penalties, all three of those being scoreless 120 minute draws. They also failed to qualify for the last World Cup. Mo Salah may be the attacking superstar of Egyptian football but recent heritage, for better and for worse, has this Egypt team as a pretty conservative team that’s tough to break down but which struggles to find the balance between attack and defence. You know, just like we saw against New Zealand. They’re a bit boring but they imposed their boringess upon this game and the All Whites could not do anything about it.
The other note is that they played this game at the brand new Misr Stadium in the New Administrative Capital outside of Cairo (a new city built to ease the congestion in Cairo by moving much of the business/political activities away). Wasn’t sure if it was going to be ready in time for this hastily reorganised tournament but it was and it was spectacular, seating nearly 94,000 folks at full capacity (which obviously this game was not). Egypt have trained there before but this was the first proper match at the venue. However, it looks like the second game will be at Cairo International Stadium, which hosted the other match in this mini-tourney.
As always, we’ll have a better idea of what’s been achieved during this window after the second game. We now know that’ll be against Tunisia after they were defeated by Croatia a day after this match. Good news for the All Whites, as Tunisia are the lower-ranked side thus preferable opponents for a team still trying to learn how to score goals and win games. It was only a penalty shootout loss after a 0-0 draw though, so don’t get carried away with expectations. It will help that Tunisia get one less day of recovery. Might see a bit of rotation with the AWs, possibly with an Alex Paulsen debut, but expect a similar spine as they target a victory. Tunisia have been kept scoreless in 4/6 games this year and didn’t progress through the AFCON group stages. They did beat Egypt 3-1 in a friendly last year though. That game is on Wednesday at 9am. Fingers crossed that the kiwis can score a goal or two this time.
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