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| Picture from FIFA.com |
New Zealand were not
particularly fancied, understandably, but the tournament offered
Crocombe a great opportunity to test himself against high standard
opposition and he was certainly kept busy as New Zealand struggled to
match the pace of their opponents throughout the tournament. Crocombe
got off to the worst possible start, when less than 15 minutes into
their opening match against Uzbekistan he gifted their opponents an
opening goal with a suicidal pass to an Uzbek attacker. He saved the
initial attempt but Abbosbek Makhstaliev was on hand to tap in the
rebound.
To be fair to Crocombe, he
kept the Kiwis in the game shortly after with some good saves but
with little protection from his defence it always looked unlikely
that he would be able to prevent Uzbekistan from breaching his goal
again. They doubled their lead when Igor Sergeev was played in and
although Crocombe should probably be disappointed that he was beaten
at his near post, he had been left in a difficult position by his
defence's failure to cover the run. And there was little he could do
about Uzbekistan's third shortly after, a sublime strike from
Diyorjon Turapov.
Following the match,
Crocombe took to Twitter to apologise for the first goal:
I let the boys and the country down today, made it so difficult for them to control the game, but.....
— Max Crocombe (@Meeiix) June 23, 2013
.... That's behind us now. Resilience got me here in the first place, that's what will get us out of the group.
— Max Crocombe (@Meeiix) June 23, 2013
He was dropped for the
Kiwis' second match but the change did little to reverse New
Zealand's fortunes as they lost 2-0 to Uruguay, with goalkeeper Scott
Basalaj suffering a similar embarrassment as he was lobbed from a
free-kick just four minutes in.
Crocombe returned for New
Zealand's final match, a 2-1 defeat to group winners Croatia and put
in a decent shift – particularly in the first half – though he
still suffered a few moments to forget. He got caught out of position
for Croatia's opener, coming out to collect a cross and finding
himself in no-man's-land as Stipe Perica headed home. An unstoppable
shot from the impressive Ante Rebic sealed the win for the Croats but
it could have been a lot worse for the Kiwis if not for Crocombe, who
made several important saves to keep New Zealand in the match.
New Zealand exited the
tournament ignominiously, finishing bottom
of Group F but their chances in this tournament were always
remote. Hopefully Crocombe will reflect on it in a positive light,
rather than allowing it to dent his confidence. There are definitely
areas of his game that have been highlighted as needing improvement
(he seemed uncomfortable with the ball at his feet and his
positioning was not always perfect), but there should be plenty of
opportunities for him to iron out those problems in the new
development squad this season.
Not many products of
League Two youth academies get the opportunity to play in tournaments
like this and hopefully the opportunity to play against an impressive
standard of opposition has whetted Crocombe's appetite for first-team
football this coming season.
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