Dmitry Baga’s header from a corner that eluded the punch of goalkeeper Michael O’Keeffe was a cruel sucker punch for the Oly Whites, who not only dominated the first half but did so with a fluid and entertaining possession-based brand of attacking football.
Led by a typically impassable Ryan Nelsen, the Oly Whites still had the doggedness and defensive solidity that has come to characterise New Zealand teams – typified by a Michael McGlinchey block on Sergei Kornilenko midway through the first half and an Ian Hogg goal line clearance late in the second.
But it was the sight of crisp interplay between a front five of Shane Smeltz, Chris Wood, Kosta Barbarouses, Michael McGlinchey and Marco Rojas – ably supported by Tim Payne in a lone holding midfield role – that really caught the eye.
“We’re disappointed with the result but in terms of performance I was happy with the way we played, especially in the first half,” Emblen said.
“We were brave in possession, we created chances but we couldn’t get that goal. All of a sudden the game has changed because Belarus have something to hang on to and they were a bit better in the second half,” he added.
“When you play well and your game plan goes well but you don’t get the result that is sickening. We have to dust ourselves off and get ready for Egypt.”
Wood’s 14th-minute header, well saved by Aleksandr Gutor, was the first real chance of the match but other opportunitities followed as Wood capped some slick passing between he and Smeltz by forcing another save before Rojas did the same with a dipping shot from distance.
In the 67th minute, Rojas set Wood free on goal but the West Brom striker blazed his shot over the bar when bearing down on goal.
Belarus began to stretch New Zealand’s defence as the Kiwis pushed more numbers forward but O’Keeffe responded with a string of fine saves to keep his side in the game.
“Belarus are an extremely good team and the boys came out with a lot of confidence, played the ball around and stuck to the game plan that Neil wanted us to play,” Nelsen said.
“To be able to be that brave on this kind of stage is commendable to those young players. Unfortunately you can get caught up in the romanticism of beautiful passing football and creating chances but generally it’s the basics that costs you games at this level and unfortunately it was a basic error that cost us.
“We take a lot of confidence from this game. The boys will be disappointed because when you play that well you expect to get something out of games but football is a cruel game. We’ll learn that if we can stay a bit sharper and cut out the basic errors we can get something from Egypt.”
New Zealand continue on Sunday with a match against Egypt who fought back from 3-0 down before losing 3-2 to Brazil. Kickoff is at 11pm (NZT).
Olympic football takes a break tomorrow for the opening ceremony but resumes on Saturday with the women’s tournament including the Football Ferns’ match against Brazil.
Men’s Olympic Football Tournament
Belarus: 1 (Dmitry BAGA 45+1’)
New Zealand: 0
Halftime: 0-1
City of Coventry Stadium, Coventry
July 26, 2012
Belarus: 1-Aleksandr GUTOR (GK), 2-Stanislav DRAGUN (captain), 3-Igor KUZMENOK, 4-Sergei POLITEVICH, 5-Dmitry BAGA, 8-Sergei KORNILENKO (14-Egor ZUBOVICH 90’), 10-Renan BARDINI BRESSAN (11-Andrei VORONKOV 80’), 12-Aleksei KOZLOV, 15-Artem SOLOVEI (13-Ilya ALEKSIEVICH 53’), 16-Mikhail GORDEICHUK, 17-Denis POLYAKOV.
Substitutes not used: 6-Aleksei GAVRILOVICH, 7-Maksim VITUS, 9-Vladimir KHVASHCHINSKY, 18-Andrei SHCHERBAKOV (RGK).
Coach: Georgy KONDRATYEV
New Zealand: 18-Michael O’KEEFFE (GK), 2-Tim PAYNE, 3-Ian HOGG, 5-Tommy SMITH, 6-Ryan NELSEN (captain), 7-Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8-Michael McGLINCHEY, 9-Shane SMELTZ, 10-Chris WOOD, 11-Marco ROJAS (15-Cameron HOWIESON 73’), 12-Adam THOMAS (17-Adam MCGEORGE 77’).
Substitutes not used: 1-Jake GLEESON (RGK), 4-Tim MYERS, 13-Alex FENERIDIS, 14-James MUSA, 16-Dakota LUCAS.
Coach: Neil EMBLEN
For all schedule and results visit www.london2012.com
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz

Share