New Zealand’s Westlake Boys High have been beaten by a strong German team after a penalty shootout at the ISF Secondary Schools World Cup in China.
After making the top 16 at the ISF World Cup, the New Zealand team faced Germany whose squad featured a large contingent of players from Werder Bremen’s academy, who brought a high-quality passing and positional game.
Main photo: The Westlake Boys High squad … pushed Germany all the way at the tournament.
The game started with the Germans dominating possession.
After 13 minutes, the Germans took a 1-0 lead after a break down the right side, a quality cross to the far post and a good headed finish.
New Zealand had several chances on the counter attack but couldn’t capitalise.
As the first half went on, the New Zealanders fought their way back in and kept the Germans at bay to come in at halftime only 1-0 down.
As the second half got underway, the Kiwis continued to show real fight, breaking the game up and threatening around the German penalty area.
Some clever individual play from Jayden Kim, Troy Putt, Charlie Taylor and Damion Kim led to several well-earned free kicks as the New Zealand team gained some ascendency.
As time ticked on, the Germans continued to pass the ball with real quality but the Kiwis hung tough and showed resilience, grit and determination in defence, led by captain Jack Young and young right-sided centre back, Kai Barratt.
As the German team became more frustrated by the stoic Kiwis and the clock wound down, the game went into injury time.
With seconds left on the clock, Conall McLean set up one last set piece — a long throw from the left side of the penalty area.
McLean threw the ball over 30 metres to the near post where it cleared the German defenders, was flicked on by Cam Deamer and found Troy Putt who smashed a volley home into the side netting making it 1-1 with the final kick of the game.
Into the penalty shoot out and while Kiwi ‘keeper James Lee picked correctly he couldn’t quite stop the clinical Germans.
It went down to the wire, but it wasn’t the Kiwis day, with the Germans coming home 5-4 in the shoot out for a 6-5 win.
While today the team narrowly missed out on an historical upset win, the players have demonstrated they fear no one, will run through pain for each other and that belief, connection, good coaching and implementation of a clear game plan can take you anywhere.
Acknowledgement
We thank Westlake Boys High for providing this match report.
Result
Game played on Friday May 24, 2024
New Zealand (Westlake Boys High) 1 (Troy Putt 90′)
Germany 1
*Germany won 6-5 after penalty shoot-out
More football stories
