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Stirring Comeback Sees All Whites Down Dunfermline
by Jeremy Ruane
Three goals in the last fourteen minutes of their second clash with Dunfermline Athletic, at North Harbour Stadium on June 30, has given the All Whites the best possible boost going into the Oceania Nations Cup this week, New Zealand’s national soccer team scoring a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Scottish Premier League outfit.
Played in front of a 3842-strong crowd, the international was an infinitely better spectacle than that which the teams fought out thirty-six hours previously in Wellington, with attack the name of the game right from the first whistle.
Jason Batty was solid in dealing with a Stewart Petrie cross to the near post as Gary Dempsey came charging in in the third minute of play, a raid which stirred the All Whites into the first of numerous good passages of play they enjoyed throughout the game.
Raf de Gregorio sent a header looping into the hands of Dunfermline custodian Derek Stillie in the ninth minute, following fine work on the right between Aaran Lines and the outstanding Gerard Davis, while the goalkeeper smothered a Chris Jackson drive six minutes later, seconds after diving in vain as a thumping twenty-five yard volley from Glenn Collins thundered narrowly past his right-hand post.
Dempsey and David Nicholls both went close to opening the scoring for Athletic soon after, but that honour was New Zealand’s in the nineteenth minute. Davis and Kris Bouckenooghe combined neatly on the right, the latter slipping the ball through for de Gregorio, as he charged into the penalty area.
Nicholls was hard on the heels of the midfielder and had no complaints when referee Derek Rugg pointed to the penalty spot in response to his tackle from behind on the charging de Gregorio. Up stepped Scott Smith, who made no mistake - 1-0, All Whites.
Stillie was certainly getting the work-over Dunfermline’s pre-season tour intended, as efforts from Chris Killen and Bouckenooghe kept him on his toes in the next six minutes, but gradually the visitors reasserted themselves, and began to mount a series of raids which could only have one outcome.
Craig Brewster sent a sizzling twenty yard drive narrowly over the crossbar following a fine advantage played by referee Rugg, who allowed Dunfermline’s raid on the half-hour to carry on unchecked, despite de Gregorio’s shirt-pulling actions.
Brewster turned provider two minutes later, only for Smith to scoop his low cross to safety. The former Hibernian striker then sent a header flashing across the face of goal, following a Crawford cross, before Dunfermline finally got the equaliser they had threatened.
It came in the 36th minute, and was simple in its execution. Barry Nicholson sent a corner to the far post, where captain Scott Thomson came racing in to edge out Killen and Nicholls and power home a header into Batty’s top right-hand corner.
Right on half-time, Stillie was flapping at an inswinging corner from Lines, the most effective set-piece the All Whites could muster in the entire half, despite a number of corners and a penchant for taking them short.
After Jackson had nearly given the All Whites the ideal start to the second half - his thirty-five yard drive sizzled inches over the bar of a startled Stillie, Dunfermline responded by taking the lead.
Colin Nish, a half-time substitute for Brewster, was released by Crawford, and after evading the recovering challenge of Davis, drilled the ball high inside Batty’s near post from twelve yards out on the angle - 2-1 to The Pars.
Unperturbed, the All Whites kept persevering with their cultured, attractive approach play - how
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pleasing it is to both witness this and write about it.
In days gone by, New Zealand’s footballing forte was the gung ho, up and at ‘em, crash-bash-wallop style of play. Not so nowadays, as the benefits of having so many members of the country’s national team playing in foreign league competitions is evident for all to see.
In the 55th minute, Bouckenooghe headed a Davis cross narrowly past the post, while eleven minutes later, another patient build-up culminated in a thirty yard free-kick from Zoricich which Stillie smothered ... after the ball had careered through the hole in the wall caused by a Dunfermline player pushing two All Whites out of the way!!
New Zealand’s captain came closer still three minutes later, crashing a twenty-five yard drive against the crossbar, moments before a poor clearance by Stillie was pounced on by Ivan Vicelich, who, with the goalkeeper scrambling back towards the unguarded goal, was unable to direct his long-range effort on target.
The All Whites didn’t have much longer to wait to get on level terms, however. That they were aided by a double substitution by Dunfermline’s boss, Jimmy Calderwood, cannot be denied.
In keeping with the overall objective of these matches - establishing combinations prior to, in the visitors’ case, the start of the 2002-3 Scottish Premier League season, Athletic’s manager introduced two trialists to the fray, former Football Kingz players Marcus Stergiopoulos and Michael Cartwright, both entering the action in the 74th minute.
Within two minutes, as Dunfermline broke out of defence, the latter was caught in possession by Jackson, who quickly slipped the ball through to Lines galloping down the left. His cross to the far post found Killen completely unmarked, and the Manchester City striker did the rest with his head - 2-2, a goal which prompted All Whites coach, Mick Waitt, to replace his starting strikers with Shane Smeltz and Jeff Campbell.
There was only one team in the game from here on in, and after Vicelich and David Mulligan had both gone close to regaining the lead for the All Whites, Campbell did so, three minutes from time.
It was a cracking goal, too. Again, Cartwright was caught in possession, this time on half-way, by a combination of Smeltz and Jackson. Vicelich - a strong second half showing upon being moved into midfield - picked up the pieces and surged forward, before slipping the ball through for Campbell, who was looming up on the right.
He sent the ball crashing into the bottom right-hand corner of Stillie’s net, much to the delight of the local faithful, who braved the curiosities of Auckland’s weather, not to mention the long haul out to North Harbour Stadium, this despite the live television broadcast of the match.
The All Whites weren’t done with yet, however. Fittingly, Davis was involved in the move which led to the final goal of the game, in the ninetieth minute - he was at ease on either flank, and looks set for a lengthy career in New Zealand’s national team, form and fitness pending.
Looming up on Lines’ left, the overlapping full-back took the pass on in his stride and clipped in a cross for Mark Burton and Smeltz to decide between them who would do it justice. The latter won out, and belted the ball beyond Stillie to round off a fine 4-2 character-building, come-from-behind 4-2 win for the All Whites in some style.
All Whites: Batty; Davis, Zoricich (Taylor, 86), Smith, Vicelich; Lines, Jackson, de Gregorio (Burton, 60), Collins (Mulligan, 70); Killen (Campbell, 77), Bouckenooghe (Smeltz, 76)
Dunfermline: Stillie; MacPherson (Stergiopoulos, 74), Thomson, Petrie (Cartwright, 74); Bullen, Dempsey, Nicholls, Nicholson (Blair, 79), Mason; Crawford (Hampshire, 68), Brewster, (Nish, 46)
Referee: Derek Rugg
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