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.