There was hope in the eyes amongst the fans of the All Whites (ranked 86th) for a moment of glory after beating reigning Africa Cup Champions, Ivory Coast (Ranked 41st) one goal to nil.
Just two hours beforehand, Canada had won an upset of their own against competition favourites Ukraine, in a four-two result. There was a chance that the Kiwi Men could win their first international tournament in 26 years, outside of their ever-dominant OFC Nations cup performances.
Two matches would need to fall into place, the Ivory Coast would need to hold off the Canadians, and the New Zealanders needed to pull off an even bigger upset, A victory over Ukraine.
Yesterdays match was the first ever meeting between the two nations in men’s football. In fact, this whole tournament had been firsts, including their game against the Ivory Coast. Perhaps a slight edge for the men wearing the silver fern, given these European and African powerhouses were unlikely to have had diligently reserarched their opposition ranked so far behind.
New Zealand’s veterans goal scorers Chris Wood and Kosta Barborouses found themselves on the bench for the most insurmountable matchup in the Canadian Shield. Young Wellington Phoenix turned Plymouth Argyle & Mansfield Town striker Ben Waine was given the start. Perhaps New Zealand football saw something in the coaching ability of Plymouth’s Wayne Rooney the rest of the UK and all their professional analysts and scouts couldnt see.
Ukraine’s squad reflected confidence with third choice keeper Andriy Lunin in the net, though that might have happened against any side given Anatoliy Trubin’s four goal capitulation against the Canadians just days prior. The Ukrainian attack was a quiet mix of local league players, while on-form striker, Olympiaco’s Roman Yaremchuk also stood ready in reserve.
The player to watch was rising star and captain Illia Zabarnyi of the Premier League’s Bournemouth. The most recent encounter betwen the young defender and New Zealand’s Nottingham Forest Star Chris Wood resulted in a 5-0 capitulation in favour of the Ukrainian.
Perhaps the only thing going strongly in New Zealand’s favour was the previous match record, with huge results against the Pacifc in their OFC world cup qualifiers, and the momentum of their triumph over the Ivory coast, meanwhile, Ukraine had been battered by Belgium in their last match on European soil before limping through their match against Canada.
The GO Trains arrived, street vendors sold flags and hats on the corners of Exhibition Station. Thousands of fans poured into the stadium, perdominantly wearing blue and yellow. The stage was set for a clash to remember.
As the game kicked off, the already strong Ukrainian diaspora in Ontario, further reinforced by a recent influx of refugees, bellowed out chants like a church chior doing a one-off metal concert. A mix of well-rehearsed expatriots, alongside confused Canadian-born Ukrainians, made for a noise that might have sounded melodic had there not been such a large contingent of locals without knowledge of their mother tounge in the crowd.
The first twenty minutes of the game were defined by the defensive work of the All Whites, despite only holding a fraction of the possession, the few moments with the ball saw them roar up the field straight into attacking position, unfortunately unable to link up with Ben Waine’s boot. Sarpreet Singh made a strong argument for a return to Bayern Munich with excellent distributing and was the key link between getting the ball from the New Zealand defence upfield.
While New Zealand spent most of the first half shooting deperately, and often off target, Ukraine’s Yehor Nazaryna and Oleksiy Hutsulyak were considerably more accurate, only narrowly being stopped by the calm and collected Max Crocombe, at Goalkeeper for New Zealand.
The party of New Zealand supporters, numbering about thirty in the 28,000 seater stadium, responded to the Ukrainian onslaught with two impassioned yet also fleeting chants of Tutira Mai throughout the full course of the game. The only thing not suffocating the fans was the fortunate thousands of empty Canadian-red seats dotted throughout the patches of Ukrainians.
Starting the second half the Ukrainians came out firing with another run of accurate shots on goal. At this point, the number of shots had been noticeable swinging in favour of the Eastern Europeans, and their fans were completely behind them.
“Who’s not jumping is Russian” was one of the many chants that would come up, and the confused New Zealanders, alerted by haphazard translation from one of the Kiwi supporters, saught Ukrainian insight on the translation and got a startling explanation.
While the separation of sport and politics is seen as noble and important to many, the New Zealanders were, in fact, not Russians, and that was enough to get them to jump along to the Ukrainian chants. The only red white and blue out in the stands that day was that of the Union Jack and the Southern Cross!
The first goal of the night was scored by Ukraine’s Oleksiy Hutsulyak 54 minutes in, beautifully assited by a monstrous diagonal crossfield kick from captian Illia Zabarnyi to Oleksandr Pikhalyonok, who crossed Hutsalyak straight into the box and the lighting quick, yet simple shot, breezed into the net.
The All Whites had not faught tooth-and-nail only to collapse now, and redemption was quickly achieved through Samoan-Serbian Marko Stamenić, as he used his forehead to nudge in the well executed equaliser for the all whites, a confident Ukraine crowd had a moment to waver.
Unfortunately for the Kiwis, Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko put the game away, with a cross that looked like a textbook copy to their first goal. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For the last fifteen minutes, New Zealand hunted for the equaliser, and even got a good attempt in, but as the sea of red, white, and the maple leaf filled the empty seats of the stadium, resignation was the only emotion on the faces of New Zealand’s fans, both locals from Kia Ora Canada, and those from the Flying Kiwis that made the intrepid trip to the 6ix.
While tournament glory fell away for the New Zealanders, The Ivory Coast had managed to beat the Canadians on penalty goals. leaving the Kiwis with the consulation of second place. In a tournament where we were ranked over forty places behind the nearest ranked team, it’s not a result to complain about.
Match Information
Canadian Shield Tournament
New Zealand (1) v Ukraine (2), Toronto, 10th June 5.00pm
Goalscorers: (NZL), (UKR), (UKR)