Uninspired New Zealand is defeated by African debutants

Today New Zealand started their campaing at the 2019 U17 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and Estádio Bezerrão did not see a good performance by the Young All Whites – surely the coach Jose Figueira is not happy from what he has seem from his team.

New Zealand faced Angola at their opener – the first tournament the African team play at this level. Before having a promising free-kick upfront in the early minutes, the Kiwis left a gap in their right side and that allowed a decent cross that ended up in a header of striker Zini – that Alex Paulsen could not stop. The Angolans were 1-0 ahead very early in the match, exactly at the 6th minute of play.

New Zealand was denied a penalty at the early twenty minutes of the game after Angolan goalkeeper pushed a New Zealand offensive player in a corner inside area. The Chinese referee of the match was called to the VAR but decided to not give the penalty to the OFC U16 Champions.

The New Zealanders not created much in the first half and Angola had the best opportunities to increase their lead. In the second half the Kiwi side seemed much more lively and the midfielder Marko Stamenic was the responsible for the creation of various important chances.

After a superb play at the 54th minute, Matthew Garbett nutmegged the defender and after battiling for the ball, it deflects and go to the right side of the Angolan goalkeeper to equalize the match.

The New Zealand side got morale boost for finaly equalizing the match and seemed to be more comfortable with the ball. Unfortunately for them, after a corner accidentaly the full back Harry Bark sent the ball to his own nets to give to the vibrant Angola their lead back.

Jose Figueira tried to introduce new players to the pitch but New Zealand never seemed to be the same. The players lost concentration and could not keep the possesion. Angola had plenty of chances to increase their goal advantage but were denied by the best New Zealand player of the game: the goalkeeper and captain Alex Paulsen. The goalkeeper was safe during the entire match – just could not stop the two balls the went to his nets, both of them which he could not do anything to avoid the goal.

The Young All Whites had a clear chance to finish the game with at least one point in the injury time, in a 1v1 situation the New Zealand striker was stopped by the Angolan goalkeeper that saved his side to suffer the equalizer.

The New Zealand side will have a very tough match on the next Wednesday at 12am NZT against the home side Brazil that today defeated Canada by 4-1 margin at the other Group A match.