NZ forces draw against China but still eliminated

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This article was published 15/06/2015 (4067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

China is through to the Group of 16 and New Zealand is surprisingly out after the sides drew 2-2 at Investors Group Field in Monday night’s final Group A match of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

China needed only a draw to be sure of advancing along with first-place Canada, while New Zealand, which wound up fourth in the group, required the full three points from a win and fell just short.

But all of that math took a back seat to an appalling lack of sportsmanship shown by Chinese coach Hao Wei late in the match, and the controversies that followed.

Hao was off his bench and knocked the ball away from an opponent, then bumped her when she tried to make a throw-in.

Referee Katalin Kulcsar of Hungary, who had trouble controlling the match as it was, had already had a few words for the Chinese bench. After that incident, she sent Hao off the pitch and on his way out, he waved to the crowd like a hero.

Following the draw, New Zealand coach Tony Readings refused to shake hands with Hao or the Chinese side.

“I’ve always got on very well with the Chinese coach,” Readings said. “He’s a very good coach. Just felt — he obviously got sent to the stands for deliberately stopping our player from taking a quick throw-in, just something I don’t agree with.

“I would never go out of my way to do that to an opposition player. You’ve just got to let the players on the pitch do their business.

“We should always be backstage, not onstage. I’m sure we’ll meet again because we always play China a lot. I’m sure we’ll get on again and there will be no problems at all.”

Readings said the gamesmanship is all part of the spectacle but he was sure the opposing coach’s moves were deliberate, that the Chinese were very determined to waste as much time as possible to preserve their valuable point.

“It looked like it from we were,” Readings said, adding compliments and a wish of luck forward for his opposition. “There was no intention to get out of the way.

“It’s all part of the gamesmanship.”

Hao was not permitted to speak to reporters after his ejection. The Chinese sent an assistant coach instead, Zhonghua Huang.

“Both teams wanted hard to win,” he said. “And we only need a draw to progress to the next stage but we always play to win. We didn’t play for a draw. Both teams did their best.”

He was asked to address his head coach’s poor sportmanship.

“I think our players always behave very well,” Zhonghua said. “We play attention to our behaviour and our manners and we’re in no position to comment on New Zealand’s players.

“The New Zealand head coach did not shake hands with us. It’s understandable. As coaches we have a strong desire to win the game. No problem at all. We’re not concerned about this. Our coach Hao Wei was just doing his job. Maybe he overdid it. We’ll pay more attention in the future.”

New Zealand opened the scoring with a goal from Rebekah Stott, but that was offset when Kulcsar awarded China a penalty on an alleged handball and Wang Lisi converted. Wang Shanshan put the Chinese ahead with a sublime header in the second half but New Zealand equalized within four minutes on a goal by Hannah Wilkinson.

In the second half, as well as wasting time, China got away with a handball in the box.

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Wilkinson agreed with her coach that the team had experience numerous “incorrect” calls during this World Cup.

“Yeah, those kinds of decisions change games completely, change the progression of teams,” Wilkinson said. “It’s calls like that that change it. It’s got to be looked at, I think. I agree that it wasn’t a great decision if we’re talking about the penalty goal. They may need some review, I think.

“We had a sole focus, to get the three points. I didn’t think any … referee decision and such, well, we didn’t muck around. We got to it. China were time-wasting.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t get the three points. It’s an immense level of disappointment. I think we were the better team.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca