New Zealand Lose First World Cup Match Since 1982: 5 Takeaways

As we touched on in our report from the opening game, the All Whites defence struggled massively against the vibrant Iranian attack.

While Wood, Just and co. looked accomplished going forward, the goalkeeper and back line looked worryingly shaky, perhaps overawed by the size of the occasion.

Against Egypt, though, it was a different story for the first half.

Perhaps buoyed by Surman’s towering header, the defence threw themselves at everything, keeping Marmoush and Salah largely quiet.

Then the second half started.

Egypt punished New Zealand with wave after wave attack in the final 45, rewarded for their efforts with two goals.

The first came from a completely free header, before Salah had acres of space to calmly slot the second into the bottom corner. Trezeguet scored the third, again from a header, after terrible marking at a corner.

The last man in defence, goalkeeper Max Crocombe, remains a major issue for the All Whites — he doesn’t inspire confidence in those around him. Should Michael Woud or Alex Paulsen replace him against Belgium?

As former England goalkeeper Joe Hart noted in coverage of the England and Croatia match, keepers at this World Cup have seemingly struggled to deal with the ball coming at them.

“I honestly feel like this ball is coming onto the goalkeepers a lot faster than they feel it is off the foot,” Hart said about Croatia’s first goal against England.

“Now, what you notice with this is Jordan Pickford flies at this ball, and he just doesn’t. You’ll ask, ‘Why has he gone with his thumb rather than his hand?’

“It just feels like it is on him.”

Crocombe spilled a number of tame balls that came his way, as did Thibaut Courtois in the earlier match against Iran. Is this the most chaotic World Cup ball since the infamous Jabulani in South Africa in 2010? Perhaps the All Whites should shoot from far and wide against Belgium…

It was very evident that fatigue affected New Zealand more than Egypt in the second half.

Egypt’s attackers, led by the dangerous Marmoush and Salah, increasingly found pockets of space surging forward, with the All Whites defence struggling to hold them back.

Were the All Whites players simply tired after their incredible exertions in the first half? Did Egypt have better conditioning? Who knows, but the Kiwis will have to do better for the full 90 against Belgium.

This is certainly related to our previous point on New Zealand’s fatigue levels, because the simple fact is that Bazeley waited too long to make substitutions in the second half.

Ben Old was the first change around the 65-minute mark, but the tiring All Whites needed an injection of energy long before that point, with the midfield and defence being overpowered by Egypt.

New Zealand will have to throw everything at Belgoum in the final group game, and in order to do so, Bazeley will need to be wiser with his game management.