Smith's New Zealand Debut Ends in Defeat
Thursday, 4th Mar 2010 08:53

Defender Tommy Smith made his New Zealand international debut overnight but couldn’t prevent his side from losing 2-0 to Mexico at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Despite the loss, coach Ricki Herbert was impressed with his side’s performance in front of a 90,000 crowd.

Herbert said: "We tried to keep it tight and tidy in our first game for five months. We had a lot of key players missing and I thought we were excellent in that first half."

The All Whites coach was pleased to get the chance to integrate Smith and fellow debutant Chad Coombes into the squad which qualified for the World Cup: "It was good to get them into the environment, we didn't even have time to get set plays together — just two training sessions.

"We had an informal chat on the whiteboard and with what they've done and put forward on the pitch they have certainly done no themselves harm in making the 23-man World Cup squad."

Smith, who is currently on loan at Brentford, lined up in a five-man backline and played the full 90 minutes.

Former Town loanee Giovani Dos Santos was in the Mexico side for whom Javier Hernandez and Carlos Vela scored the goals.

Photo: Action Images

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BYRNE_16 added 08:58 - Mar 4 soak it in sunny! 90,000 crowds don't come around to often! Unlucky though!
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jabberjackson added 09:17 - Mar 4 it would be great to have an Ipswich represesntative at the World Cup, go Tommy!
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hampstead_blue added 11:39 - Mar 4 a bit of sun, playing in front of 90,000....what's not to like! Rock on Tommy.
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devontractorboy added 12:04 - Mar 4 always admired Tommy since seeing him play as a schoolboy, lets hope the club keep him and develop him, he has a great future, lets hope RK doesn't think it's with another club like he did with Rhodes! Hope to see you in the world cup Tommy.
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arc added 13:13 - Mar 4 And so begins a career of dashing half way round the World (literally) to play in meaningless or uncompetitive matches (9 out of 10 times). Of course the World Cup Finals will be great, but I wonder how this will affect his overall career.
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