The All Whites survived the 63rd minute dismissal of captain Tommy Smith - on the occasion of his fiftieth "A" international - to hold China to a creditable scoreless draw in front of 12,049 fans at Mt Smart Stadium on March 23, the first of two internationals between the countries in three days. The charges chosen by interim All Whites coach Darren Bazeley began in spritely fashion, no one more so than Matt Garbett. He saw his third minute header deflected through to Chinese goalkeeper Junling Yan, following a Liberato Cacace free-kick to the far post, then swooped on a stray Chinese pass two minutes later before cutting in off the left and, from an acute angle, thundering a shot across the face of goal and just past the far post. Three minutes later, China mustered their first attack of the game, Linpeng Zhang sending Lei Wu down the right, where he got the better of Nando Pijnaker before firing in a cross which arced beyond Long Tan, his untimely stumble thwarting his bid to head home on the far post. The All Whites made light of that threat and continued to hold sway, stringing passes together with gay abandon and forcing China deeper into their own half - Oli Sail was the only Kiwi in his half of the field at times, so dominant were his white-clad colleagues, who threatened again on the quarter hour. Tim Payne's corner was cleared to Garbett, who touched the ball back into the stride of Marko Stamenic. His miscued twenty-yarder fizzed through the legs of Pijnaker and past the far post, the same upright which the All Whites targeted in the eighteenth minute, Garbett's delivery towards same targeting Costa Barbarouses, only for Chinese captain Xi Wu to step in at the vital moment and avert the danger. Sail's first contribution to proceedings came in the 21st minute, the goalkeeper forced to scramble an under-hit back-pass towards him to Smith with fast-closing Chinese striker Lei Wu giving him more than enough reason to hurry the process. After Stamenic had seen his twenty-five yarder saved by Yan - Cacace's enterprising run down the left the source of this opportunity, China responded instantly, Yang Liu racing down the left before seeing his cross flicked on by Tan to Lei Wu, whose improvised volley narrowly cleared the crossbar. Further Chinese pressure followed in the 32nd minute, Garbett undoing all his early good work by earning a booking for a crude foul on Lei Wu. Shihao Wei sent the resulting twenty-five yard free-kick narrowly over the bar. From the subsequent goal kick, Tim Payne picked out the run of Costa Barbarouses through the inside right channel into the area, from he directed a lovely volley on the turn across the face of goal - the technical quality of the execution deserved better reward. Yan's goal came under further threat three minutes later, this time from friendly fire. A searching far post cross from Cacace was the cause of the chaos, debutant Callan Elliot - All White #634 - the intended target. Yang Liu had other ideas, however, but his clearing header gave Yan cause aplenty for concern as he watched it narrowly clear the crossbar. The game by now had developed a distinctive pattern, driven by the visitors, who would funnel back smartly to form a defensive red wall whenever the All Whites were in possession, then spring forward on the counter-attack whenever the opportunity availed itself. Such as in the 43rd minute, when Linpeng Zhang surged down the right to the by-line, from where he fired in a cross which was missed  by Lei Wu. Shihao Wei was following up, and saw his ten yard drive turned round the post by Sail. The final act of the half saw Cacace career past two opponents after cutting in off the left, only for the flying fullback to thrash his twenty-yarder into the midriff of Yan, who had far less to deal with in the second spell. This was in part due to the strong start made by China, who spurned a great chance to break the deadlock in the 48th minute. Half-time substitute Pu Chen combined with captain Xi Wu to spark a counter-attack which sent Lei Wu surging through. Nando Pijnaker closed him down, but the striker

checked inside before letting fly, a shot which flew wide when scoring seemed the easier option mere seconds earlier. After Yan had dealt with a Payne free-kick, Chenjie Zhu and Xin Xu teamed up with captain Xi Wu, the skipper's clever lob over the top inviting Lei Wu to unleash a volley on the turn. Sail solidly blocked the effort, and greedily grabbed a header from Xi Wu in the 58th minute, the captain having been picked out by Zhang's angled ball. On the hour, freshly introduced substitutes Eli Just and Joe Bell combined with Barbarouses to create an opening from which Bell drew a save from Yan with a curling twenty-five yard effort, the last shot struck before the structure of the game was irreversibly altered. A back-pass from Pijnaker in the 63rd minute had game-changing consequences. Smith thought Sail was coming to deal with it, while the goalkeeper considered his captain had the situation in hand. Lei Wu, lurking on Smith's blindside, said "Thankyou very much", prompting the defender to take one for the team. As the last defender, Smith's foul had Thailand referee Sivakorn Pu-Udom reaching for his back pocket. Out came the red card, and off trudged New Zealand's captain - certainly not the way in which anyone envisaged the conclusion of his fiftieth appearance in a full international. Yang Liu fired the resulting twenty-five yard free-kick straight at Sail, who sparked an instant counter-attack which culminated in Max Mata going down in the area under Zhen Wei's lunging challenge. Referee Pu-Udom waved play on, indicating the defender had got the ball, but the angle of the tackle suggested the All Whites' penalty appeals were made with good reason aplenty. With the home team now numerically challenged, China assumed the ascendancy, but hadn't reckoned on a solid rearguard action from the men in white, who initially switched to a 4-4-1 formation before a Christmas tree set-up minus the top of the tree - someone had given it the chop! This combination of tactics and tenacity meant very few Chinese attacks achieved their intended objective, and on the occasions they did breach the All Whites' defences, they still had to find a way past Sail, who produced his very best form in just the fifth All Whites international played in the City of Sails during the last decade. In the 69th minute, he produced a superb block to prevent Chinese substitute Hanwen Deng from opening the scoring, Yang Liu and Xi Wu having combined to create an opportunity which had Liu Wu as its intended outlet, only for the striker to over-run the cross. After Bell, Cacace and Alex Greive had engineered an opening for Elliot, whose 75th minute cross zoomed across the goalmouth, China piled on the pressure in the last ten minutes, but couldn't find a way past New Zealand's last line of defence. A glorious chance to do so was spurned ten minutes from time. Zhang's superbly flighted delivery found substitute Liangming Lin flying in unchecked at the far post, from where he directed a diving header across the face of goal. Five minutes later, Sail smothered a twenty-five yard free-kick from Pengfei Xie, then turned a Xin Xu volley round the post after Deng's 88th minute shot had been blocked. The resulting corner saw Michael Boxall head clear to the edge of the area, where Shangyuan Wang was lurking with intent. His drive through a crowded goalmouth was smothered by Sail, his last contribution to an absorbing contest from which the All Whites emerged with a creditable draw, particularly given they were numerically challenged throughout the last half-hour of play. All Whites:     Sail; Payne (Boxall, 82), Smith (sent off, 63), Pijnaker; Elliot (Ingham, 82), Rufer, Stamenic (Bell, 57), Cacace; Barbarouses (Greive, 72), Mata (Lewis, 72), Garbett (booked, 31) (Just, 57) China:          Yan; L. Zhang (booked, 51), Zhu, Z. Wei, Y. Liu; X. Wu, Xu (Wang, 78); B. Liu (Deng, 65), L. Wu (Xie, 78), S. Wei (Lin, 65); Tan (booked, 10) (Chen, 46) Referee:     Sivakorn Pu-Udom (Thailand)