All Whites ‘slightly deflated’
All Whites coach Anthony Hudson admitted to being ‘‘slightly deflated’’ after his side were convincingly outplayed in going down 2-0 to host nation Russia in the Confederations Cup opener.
World No 95 New Zealand had been very hopeful of springing an upset against the 63rd-ranked Russian side in St Petersburg yesterday.
But, having come into the contest under significant pressure to start well in front of a 50,000-strong home crowd, the hosts responded superbly.
Instead it was their Kiwi opponents who spent the large majority of the 90 minutes under the pump, Russia scoring once in each half and creating numerous other opportunities as the All Whites were forced to continuously scramble in defence and survive on scraps in attack.
Hudson said his team had ‘‘obviously’’ wanted a better result but was doing his best to remain upbeat ahead of their game against Mexico in Sochi in four days.
‘‘We are slightly deflated,’’ the Englishman said.
‘‘However, we were playing against a very strong Russian team. I thought they were good tonight, they were very positive and caused us problems.
‘‘[But] overall we showed plenty of spirit and there are certainly plenty of positives to take into the next game.’’
Clearly motivated by their vocal legion of fans in the space-age new stadium, a slick Russian did not need long to establish their dominance.
They twice had shots cleared off the line before eventually taking the lead on the half-hour mark, a sloppy pass out of defence leading to what was eventually judged a Michael Boxall own-goal.
Already well on top and looking comfortable, that relaxed the home team further and as they pressed forward it seemed inevitable an equaliser was coming.
The All Whites survived until halftime but the largely one-sided nature of the match continued after the restart and in the 68th minute a slick buildup resulted in an easy finish for striker Fedor Smolov at the back post when the Kiwi defence was again unable to clear a dangerous ball into the box.
New Zealand did their best to push for a goal and were narrowly denied twice with a little more than 10 minutes to play but bright moments were rare for the visitors as Russia remained on top in the closing stages.
Asked if his team could have been more aggressive, Hudson’s response was emphatic.
‘‘Absolutely. When you lose 2-0 there is going to be parts where you wanted to be more physical, done your jobs better and competed a bit more.
‘‘We wanted to stay in the game as long as possible, and certainly the first goal was preventable, we gave the ball away in a really bad area. The second goal we could have done a lot better winning the ball higher up the pitch, we dropped off at the wrong time.
‘‘They caused us problems but the goals were quite disappointing ... ultimately we got beat by a very good team.’’
Having hoped to make history by being the first senior New Zealand team to make it to the knockout stages of a major Fifa tournament, the All Whites now faced a very stiff task to achieve that.
It would mean they would almost certainly need to get at least a draw against world No 17 Mexico, and probably a win given their last group match was against European champions Portugal.
But Hudson, who said they would take a lot out of what had been an ‘‘unbelievable experience’’, was looking forward with as much optimism as possible.
‘‘We have to be incredibly singleminded, mentally tough and we have to recover very quickly,’’ Hudson said.