Football: Former All Whites react to defeat by Peru

Ricki Herbert has given his views on the All Whites 2-0 loss to Peru in Lima. Photo / Photosport

From the fireworks and fighter planes around the hotel to hex-issuing witchdoctors to two Peruvian goals, we now know the All Whites won't be marching to next year's World Cup in Russia.

What did those who have worn the New Zealand strip make of the World Cup qualification tie in Lima?

Ricki Herbert (All Whites player 1980-89, All Whites coach 2005-13) speaking to Radio Sport:

"You have to look at the home fixture. I think the national team needed a winning result to take to Lima.

"From a Peruvian point of view, they were probably quite happy to get home on that charter flight. They probably felt they had the confidence, firepower and quality to beat New Zealand at home.

"That tie was crucial and I don't think we fired enough bullets. The chances were few and far between, apart from a late Ryan Thomas opportunity.

"I would've started Chris Wood in Lima [Wood was suffering hamstring tightness]. That's my gut feeling. Even in the New Zealand tie, he got off the bench and the first thing he did was strike a ball from 30m.

"Going to Lima we needed one goal because were they going to be good enough to hold out a far more attack-minded side? Were Peru going to score? I think they probably were.

"The attack without Chris gets lost. You've got to have some presence in the game.

Fred De Jong (All Whites player 1984-93) speaking to Radio Sport.

"The better team over the two legs won. They held the initiative for most of the 180 minutes, you can't dispute they were better and deserved to go [to Russia].

"We didn't show enough going forward to deserve to go the World Cup. We threw caution to the wind towards the end, but it was pretty obvious the idea was to ride out the storm that he [coach Anthony Hudson] knew was coming.

"It showed with the Peruvians, who changed their tactics. They were a lot more aggressive, got their fullbacks well forward and put the All Whites under a heap of pressure. Eventually that told and they scored a great first-half goal. Once the second goal went in they could sit back and manage the game.

"In the end we didn't do enough with the ball to upset a team like Peru. We don't construct a beautiful goal coming from back to front. We score goals by knocking it up front, grabbing the second phase ball then, after one or two passes, we'll try to score.

"Looking ahead, that's the lesson from this. When we play these sides we need to do more with the ball and I think we've got the players to do that.

"We saw the passion of Peru at home. They were going to come out of the blocks so was it better to have Chris Wood on once the game settled down or when Peru were bombing on? My view was the hamstring could go at any time so you get out of him what you can, but I can see both sides."

Ben Sigmund (All Whites 2000-2014) speaking to the Herald.

"As much as you hear about the fireworks and the airforce going over I don't think it would have affected those guys. If you can't get up for that match, there's something wrong.

"As much as people might want to blame everything and get angry at them for not getting through, those guys did us proud.

"I got a yellow card within the first three minutes [in the 1-0 World Cup qualifying win in 2009] against Bahrain. I remember thinking, I can't let these guys down and get sent off. In a way that calmed me and I knew I couldn't make any more silly tackles or fouls so it probably worked in my favour.

"But we were winning, and in Lima it ended up being the reverse where you start asking yourself 'where's this goal coming from?' and make mistakes.

"With Chris Wood, he must be injured and they were presumably told they'd wouldn't get 90 minutes out of him. I can't think of any other reason why you wouldn't play him."