Juliana Taiwo
5 November 2009
Abuja — New Zealand Coach, Stephen Cain confessed last night that his boys were up against world-class team who outclassed them in style of play, pace and ball possession. Speaking at a post match conference after Nigeria whitewash his team 5-0 Cain admitted that his game-plan of frustrating the Nigerian side in the first half did not work and the early goals he conceded totally demoralized his boys. "There is no way we could have match-up tonight."
According to the Coach, "we were up against a world-class team. It was difficult when we were 11 but when we were down to 10 men, it became more difficult. We were given a lesson in class and pace tonight which we will work on. I am proud of my players, they have worked very, very hard in the last two weeks and I am happy with their performance".
On why his boys conceded more goals in this match against the previous ones, he noted: "in the first game our players did well but in tonight's game they were out played and our players are very inexperienced, these are school boys but the movement and the share pace of the Nigerians you could never tell from what flank they were coming from, we couldn't quiet tighten the defence quickly enough and that was how the first goal came about," he noted.
Asked if he was satisfied with the score line, Cain replied: "of course not, absolutely not. We thought if we kept it tight in the first half we could frustrate the Nigerians and possibly take the storm but the early goals prove too much for us and we couldn't sit back any more. To be honest, we have shown great resolve from coming back from one goal down in two of our previous three games but then a man was sent off and it became too difficult for us. With 11 men maybe we would have fought more but we still would have lost," he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
