In front of over 15,000 fans on a wet and cold evening, the United States side proved too strong, creating regular chances with Arsenal playmaker Gedion Zelalem at the heart of the effort.
The New Zealand side’s best moments came in transition as they counter attacked at pace but regular scoring chances were hard to come by until the final 15 minutes where the home side went close on several occasions without hitting the back of the USA net.
Coach Darren Bazeley said Tuesday’s effort was a let-down for his side against another strong opponent after Saturday’s increasingly energetic display against the Ukraine to open the tournament.
“It’s a disappointing evening for us,” Bazeley said, “we had high hopes going into this game. We’d done a lot of planning on the USA and we felt the team was ready to go and put on a good performance.
“We started quite quickly and had a good chance and then we conceded from a set piece and suddenly we’re 1-0 down.
“Against a team like the USA, once they go 1-0 up, they’ve got some very good players and that made it very hard for us to get into the game and it gradually went away from us with the USA putting on a very good performance.”
Bazeley added that with the likes of Zelalem leading the effort against his team, lapses in concentration were always going to be punished.
“What we’ve got to remember is the challenge we’re facing here. We’ve come up against a very good USA team with top players – the lad Zelalem has played for Arsenal.
“We conceded poor goals [and] made mistakes. If we’re going to compete at this level we need to go through a game mistake-free. On Saturday against Ukraine we didn’t make mistakes and we came out of it with a clean sheet.”
The United States took a sixth minute lead when Rubio Rubin volleyed in the rebound after an Emerson Hyndman corner was headed against the post by Cameron Carter-Vickers. Seconds earlier, New Zealand goalkeeper Oliver Sail had punched over a fierce 25 yard drive from Paul Arriola.
The Americans when 2-0 up in the 33rd minute as a long clearance downfield by USA goalkeeper Zackary Steffen was flicked into the New Zealand area where Sail, under pressure from Rubio, parried the ball into the path of Hyndman and the USA skipper made no mistake in burying his chance from the edge of the box.
The United States went 3-0 ahead just before the hour, Arriola receiving between defenders from Zelalem before turning and firing in off the post out of the reach of a diving Sail.
The New Zealand side’s best chances of the match came in the final stages; first as substitute Monty Patterson cut the ball back from the byline for Noah Billingsley who found Bill Tuiloma – but the captain’s low drive flew just wide.
Tuiloma followed that up soon after with a header from a corner which was just over and then Billingsley hit an excellent effort from distance which Steffen expertly saved low to his left.
Rubin then added the fourth for the United States, prodding home from close range after nipping in between defenders on the end of a deflected cross.
Bazeley says despite the disappointment after Tuesday’s defeat, the group will remain focussed on achieving what they set out to do – win a game at the event and qualify for the next round.
“When I look back at everything I’ve said we’re going to try and do, it was about winning games and qualifying out of our group. We’ve still got a massive opportunity to do that. We have put ourselves in a position where we can win our last game and probably go through to the knockout phases.
“Our job now is to pick the players up, understand what happened, move forward and get the players ready to give it one big push to get ourselves over the line in this game on Friday.”
New Zealand will need at least a draw – and likely a win – in their final group match against Myanmar in Wellington to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the knockout stage of the tournament.
FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015 – Match 13
Tuesday 2 June
New Zealand 0-4 United States (half: 0-2)
NZL:
USA: Bradford Jamieson IV 6’, 83’, Emerson Hyndman 33’, Paul Arriola 58’
New Zealand: 1. Oliver Sail (GK), 2. Jesse Edge, 3. Deklan Wynne, 4. Sam Brotherton, 5. Adam Mitchell, 6. Bill Tuiloma (capt), 7. Joel Stevens (17. Andrew Blake 63’), 8. Moses Dyer, 10. Clayton Lewis, 11. Matthew Ridenton (15. Monty Patterson 46’), 20. Noah Billingsley (19. Stuart Holthusen 82’)
Substitutes not used: 9. Alex Rufer, 12. Nik Tzanev (GK), 13. Brock Messenger, 14. Cory Brown, 16. Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, 18. Andre de Jong, 21. Damian Hirst (GK)
Coach: Darren Bazeley
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