Chile dished out a bit of a footballing lesson to a languid, lethargic New Zealand combination at the Estadio El Teniente in Rancagua on Anzac Day, the host nation coming from behind to win this friendly encounter 4-1 going away. The Chileans were far too good for the visitors, showing them up in numerous facets of the game, particularly technically and defensively, an aspect of the game in which the All Whites' play was decidedly ordinary, to put it mildly. Yet things could have been so different for the visitors, had they not opted to sit on a fourteenth minute lead. After central defenders Sebastian Roco and Danny Hay had exchanged early efforts on goal, and a well-timed Che Bunce tackle had thwarted Chilean danger-man Jorge Valdivia in the act of shooting, the All Whites took the lead with a splendidly conceived and executed goal. A Glen Moss clearance was flicked on by Raf de Gregorio into the path of Noah Hickey, who flicked the ball past fullback Roberto Cereceda and scooted after it. With a yard's advantage, Hickey looked up and spotted Shane Smeltz arriving in the middle, and duly delivered a pinpoint cross into his stride. The striker swept the ball first time past the diving Claudio Bravo to stun the 8000-strong crowd into silence - 1-0 All Whites. Bizarrely, the visitors sat back on that hard-earned advantage straight away, and the Chileans didn't need a second invitation to start making all the running. Breaking down the massed ranks of black-socked All Whites proved a little challenging initially, with just three opportunities of note carved out in the next twenty minutes. The first of these saw Valdivia catch de Gregorio in possession and slip the ball in behind Bunce for Manuel Itarra to race onto. Moss raced off his line swiftly to thwart this twentieth minute opportunity, but was beaten all ends up five minutes later by a peach of a twenty-five yard free-kick from Valdivia, which arced round the wall and bounced just in front of the diving goalkeeper, the ball cannoning to safety off the post. Seconds later, the Chilean who was pulling the strings throughout the first half, Matias Fernandez, skipped past an opponent on the right then flighted a delicious cross into the near post area. It neatly bisected the gap between the incoming Juan Lorca and the flailing figure of Moss, the absence of any Chilean presence on the far post leaving the  'keeper sporting a look of undisguised relief on this occasion. The look he was sporting in the 36th minute was of the "Oh no!" variety, for this was the moment Chile drew level. Gonzalo Jara and Mauricio Zenteno teamed up to give Valdivia the ball, and he played Fernandez in on the left. The playmaker stood Bunce up superbly after getting to the by-line, and picked out Humberto Sauzo with his measured cross. The striker steered his shot across Moss into the bottom far corner. Within three minutes, 1-1 had become 2-1 in the home team's favour, much to the delight of the locals, who were to play their part in New Zealand's demise by endorsing numerous accurate Chilean passes with a resounding "Ole!" - suffice to say, there were plenty of those to be heard! This goal, however, was cleverly crafted, and bore the trickery of Fernandez throughout its creation. The number ten must have touched the ball five times in the entire move as he picked the lock on the All Whites' back-line, the key moment coming when he overlapped Itarra on the right then back-heeled the ball to the wide midfielder before darting inside for a return pass. It duly arrived, finding Fernandez on the edge of the area, Chile's flame instantly attracting three moths. The trio of All White defenders were swatted aside with contempt as the playmaker deftly dragged the ball back then, in one movement, stroked the ball forward into the path of the charging Itarra, whose low cross arrowed into the goalmouth, behind its intended target, Lorca. Fortunately for Chile - not so for New Zealand, Jeremy Christie was racing back to cover the danger, but could do nothing to prevent the ball cannoning off him into the net to give the locals the lead. The second spell saw Fernandez hand the magic wand over to Valdivia, who proceeded to lead New Zealand a merry dance throughout the half. The pair combined to present Lorca with a chance three minutes in, but Moss was alert to the danger. The goalkeeper was poorly served by his defenders, none of whom emerged from this game with credit. Steven Old, for instance, after being turned inside out once too often by Valdivia, looked to get his bearings by passing the ball back to Moss at every opportunity, and no matter what pressure it put his team-mate under. The recent lack of match-play both Bunce and Hay have enjoyed left them gasping long before the final whistle, with the captain resorting to foul means to curtail the progress of Sauzo in the 52nd minute. Like Tim Brown eight minutes later, his efforts earned him a yellow card from referee Jorge Osorio.

Had the Chileans a commanding presence in their attack - a striker of the ilk of Ivan Zamorano or Marcelo Salas, they could have scored a hatful, such was the wealth of chances they spurned in the second half. But before they found the net for the first time in the spell, the All Whites mustered a rare opening just before the hour mark. Leo Bertos picked up a loose ball and turned it into de Gregorio's path, the midfielder thrashing a twenty-five yarder across the face of goal. Chile's response was to extend their advantage in the 62nd minute. Jara and Valdivia linked on the right, with the latter unable to make progress. He laid the ball back to the fullback, whose first-time cross picked out the unmarked figure of Roco ten yards out from goal. The defender sent his downward header arrowing wide of Moss, as three All Whites stood rooted to the spot in disbelief. This goal brought about a couple of substitutions, and if New Zealand thought things couldn't possibly get worse, the entrance to the fray of the fleet-footed box of tricks that is Eduardo Rubio suggested their problems were only just beginning. Sure enough, the substitute caused mayhem aplenty within three minutes of coming on. Hay went across to cover the newcomer as he gathered possession on the left-hand edge of New Zealand's penalty area, only to be two-stepped, tangoed and rumbaed as Rubio romped round his opponent before setting up Valdivia. His effort lacked the power to beat Moss, so Rubio wasted little time in demonstrating the art of finishing with finesse to all present. A mere sixty seconds had elapsed when Lorca pounced on a Bunce blunder and threaded a first-time ball through for the substitute on the right-hand side of the penalty area. Rubio raced into the penalty area and deftly drilled the ball through the legs of Moss to make it 4-1 to Chile. Six minutes later, Rubio exploited another error by Bunce, then swept past Hay before setting up Valdivia. He checked inside two more opponents before blazing wide, nearly making amends for that miss four minutes later with a stunning run through the heart of New Zealand's midfield, none of whom even threatened to challenge Chile's chief tormentor. From twenty yards, Valdivia let fly, and hit the post for the second time in the match. Valdivia and Rubio were running the show by now, and in the last ten minutes, the pair threatened to run riot, ably aided by Fernandez. After Moss had parried a Roco header to safety - the defender was picked out by Valdivia's cross, the supplier of that opportunity sparked another move which saw Fernandez carve open the All Whites' defence once more with a gem of a reverse pass. Itarra was the beneficiary of this crafty piece of play, the winger looking to pick out Rubio with his cross. The retreating figure of Old thwarted the danger on this occasion, while from the resulting corner, Moss smothered Itarra's low drive at the foot of his right-hand post. Still Chile pressed, Rubio linking with Lorca and the unmarked Valdivia, who rewarded Rubio's run into the danger zone with a made-to-measure pass. The substitute failed to connect on this occasion, allowing New Zealand to scramble clear. The All Whites were afforded another rare sighting of Chile's goal six minutes from time, when a poor Bravo clearance was pounced on by Christie, who lobbed the ball into Paul Urlovic's path. The goalkeeper redeemed himself by blocking at the feet of the substitute, an opportunity which New Zealand looked to build on soon afterwards via a couple of set-piece opportunities. These came to nought, and left the visitors wide open to the counter-attack. Sure enough, Lorca - an excellent game in the target man role for the home team - wasted little time in releasing Rubio through the offside trap in the 85th minute, and had it not been for a timely challenge by James Pritchett, Valdivia would surely have been celebrating the goal his display deserved. Four minutes later, Chile's star turn led another counter-attacking raid, this time picking out Lorca, whose shot from the edge of the penalty area took a deflection, allowing Moss to smother the ball. Soon afterwards, referee Osorio sounded the final whistle on the first match of this two-game series, one in which the depleted New Zealand squad will look to produce a much more competitive display than was witnessed in this encounter, the 4-1 scoreline of which rather flatters the visitors. Chile:          Bravo (booked, 52); Jara, Zenteno, Roco, Cereceda (Contreras, 57); Sanhueza, Valdivia, Itarra, Fernandez; Sauzo (Rubio, 63), Lorca (booked, 37) New Zealand:     Moss; Old, Bunce (Pritchett, 75), Hay (booked, 52), Lochhead; Christie, Brown (booked, 60) (Bouckenooghe, 63), de Gregorio; Hickey (Banks, 71), Bertos (Urlovic, 71), Smeltz Referee:     Jorge Osorio