The New Zealand men’s football team found the United States a tough proposition in Marseille today.
After their opening 2-1 victory over Guinea, the New Zealanders hoped to make some progress against the US, but found themselves on the back foot for much of the match.
The Americans scored three goals in the first half-hour – a penalty after eight minutes to Djordje Mihalovic and goals to Walker Zimmerman and Gianluca Busio – and that fairly much put the match out of reach for New Zealand.
Things were more even in the second half. The Americans went ahead 4-0 when Paxten Aaronson scored after 58 minutes and 20 minutes later Jesse Randall got one back for New Zealand.
The match statistics didn’t favour New Zealand. The Americans had 17 shots at goal to New Zealand’s eight and eight corners to three.
New Zealand’s final pool match is a challenging one, against home country France.