Blues centre-half Tommy Smith believes he and his All Whites team-mates showed Mexico too much respect during their 5-1 World Cup play-off first leg defeat at the Estadio Azteca last night.

Smith, who captained the side in the absence of West Ham’s Winston Reid, said: “We showed them too much respect and invited a lot of pressure in that first half and even though we held strong for the opening 30 minutes, it’s tough to soak up that pressure for extended periods.

“Conceding goals always changes games and when they scored it really boosted them and they were able to get a lot of 2 v 1s in wide areas and we struggled to deal with that.”

The 23-year-old felt his team improved after the break as they got used to the difficult conditions, the game was played at 7,200 feet above sea level, in front of a hostile home crowd at the 105,000 capacity stadium and having spent a lot of time travelling over the last few days.

“We’re used to all the travel and although we felt the altitude in the warm-up, we got used to it as the game went on,” he added. “Once we started pressing higher up the pitch we made it harder for them to pick out passes.”

The All Whites face an almost impossible task in next Wednesday’s second leg in Wellington but Smith says they haven’t given up all hope of reaching Brazil 2014: “We will look to press higher and make them make more mistakes. There’s still 90 minutes to go, we’ll be positive and anything can happen in football.”

With Smith not due back at the club until next Friday, boss Mick McCarthy has already said that he is a doubt for the home game against Leicester a week on Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

lloyditfc96 added 10:18 - Nov 14 Chin up tommy, would of been a wonderful achievement if they got a result last night safe journey back to Ipswich, focus on the job of getting us in those play of positions COYB
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BroskiBeen added 12:04 - Nov 14 Bit of a stupid rule anyway, New Zealand are from Oceania and won their group, yet they play Mexico from CONCAF, last time they played an Asian team , lot less traveling and won and got to the WC. Oh well Tommy can still proudly say he has an unbeaten record at the World cup, played 3, drawn 3 .
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ericclacton added 12:36 - Nov 14 That's what I thought BroskiBeen Mental fixture.
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TJS added 13:08 - Nov 14 Are you seriously suggesting they should qualify directly for the World Cup Finals when the best teams they have played are New Caledonia, Tahiti and the Solomon Isles ???
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Special_A added 13:24 - Nov 14 Tough place to go and get a result. It would have been great to see Tommy in Brazil. I have to say a couple of years ago I doubted if Tommy should be at the club but over the last year he has really grown as a player and fair play to him for that! At only 23 I hope he has a long career at Portman Road
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bluepirate added 13:35 - Nov 14 They absololutly should qualify from their region. Oz somehow get to play in a different region, but the World Cup is about bringing the game to everyone, or so FIFA would have us believe. And isn't the beauty of it, or on a national scale, the FA cup, the opportunity for everyone, no matter the size. I love watching nations like NZ bring larger nations down to size. Look how well they did 3 years ago. Watched the game yesterday, Tommy didn't mention the three goals that came from very poor marking, especially the second, although only once by him. The first, very questionable, he was offside by a ants manhood.

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Letchworth_Blue added 14:59 - Nov 14 They should definitely qualify from their region. They cannot help where they are geographically, and as this is the 'World' cup, should have representatives from across each region if the world.
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Radlett_blue added 15:01 - Nov 14 Oceania group is a joke,; quite right that that they face a play-off. Of course, you could always go along with Uncle Sepp & have a 64-team tournament, whereby everyone qualifies.
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brian_a_mul added 16:07 - Nov 14 Its ridiculas! Its very unfair to the team playing away in the first leg in this format. A neutral venue half way between the two would have been alot fairer. All that traveling a few days before the game while home team can rest and fully prepare. Then NZ must travel all the back again for the second leg within a few days! They will be absolutely shattered while the mexs will be full of beans. It really is an unfair format and it heavily favors the home team in first leg.

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TJS added 17:21 - Nov 14 Now that Australia have joined Asia I think it would be far better if the Oceania zone was scrapped and fully merged with Asia. At the moment it is a complete one-team 'tournament' as NZ won all their games in the final qualifying group with a massive goal difference. New Zealand would then have regular challenging games and then have a real chance of progress.
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runningout added 22:11 - Nov 14 oh dear Tommy Smith.... you should know by now you never show respect to your opponents during a game, and got that across to your teammates......
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