Where did that come from?

By Benji Crossley

I’ve organized a tipping competition in my office for the World Cup. One of the categories is goals New Zealand would score. I predicted we’d score two. We scored two yesterday.

If someone had asked me how many shots on target we’d have across the tournament, realistically I would have said five. If I was being optimistic, maybe seven. Yesterday, we had eight.

If you had asked me where our goals were going to come from (if we got any), I would have predicted them coming from set piece. Good delivery into Chris Wood or one of our centre backs. Yesterday we scored goals via smart movement, by passing and moving, by flicks and tricks, by interplay between our attacking talent.

Quite simply, I did not see yesterday coming.

Should I have?

Part of me says yes, we have known for a long time that this group of players has talent.  That if we can get them all on the same field at the same time with decent preparation under their belt, a team that could play was hidden in there somewhere. But then the other part of my brain says that I have been thinking the above for four or five years now, and every chance this group has had to show something they simply haven’t. Finland, Haiti, Australia on more than one occasion – when presented with the opportunity to show they were the real deal they simply didn’t.

After watching the Socceroos stun Turkey on Sunday I kept thinking back to a comment I made in a group chat whilst watching us wilt against them at Mount Smart late last year. Man for man, player for player, on paper we are a match for the Socceroos but we simply don’t play like it. Yesterday, the team that could compete with the Socceroos was on display.

Joe Bell and Marko Stamenic providing a platform at the base of midfield have had All Whites fans salivating for a long time. But they seldom put it together at the same time. An attacking trio including the Elijah Just that Motherwell have seen, the Sarpreet Singh that lit up the A-League and impressed early at Bayern Munich supporting our genuine star…. That was an exciting prospect. Throw in a fit again Ryan Thomas, a marauding Liberato Cacace, Ben Old with the ball at his feet and defenders to run at. Well that’s even more exciting. Put all of that in front of the rapidly improving Finn Surman and Tyler Bindon, supported by the experience of Michael Boxall. Now we’re talking. There is an 11 in there that can do something. But so often they just didn’t.

Yesterday they did. They played with freedom, with a style, with a joy that you so seldom see. On the stage where playing exactly the opposite would have been so easy. For all the joy we took from 2010, that was some grim watching. This wasn’t, this was fun. At one point I marvelled at the sound of the ball pinging around our midfield, because it’s a sound I just can’t remember hearing before. More than one pundit has pointed out that if Spain had scored the second goal we scored, it would have had the football world purring. It was passing, it was movement, it was incisive, it just was so un-All White.

I saw Tommy Smith say something on Between Two Goals, this is a better football team than 2010. I said something similar to friends last week, football wise this is a better team. That team had grit, courage, character etc. All the intangibles that you can’t coach. That was a team whose collective personality carried it. This team can play, they’re better technical players for the most part but the question was always about the mental state. Could they really show up when it mattered? Well, yes. Yes they can and they did.

I set out at the top how my expectations for this team were low, so frankly even if they lose their next two games I won’t be hugely disappointed because my expectations have already been exceeded. But excitedly I think, the players could not have been clearer that they’re in the tournament for more. They’ve got goals to achieve and they will need at least two more points to achieve that. Forty-eight hours ago, I’d have suggested they were dreaming. But right now, maybe. Because now I can see it coming.