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Burkina Faso v. Junior All Whites, 28/10/09
Mother Nature Aids New Zealand's World Cup Cause
by Jeremy Ruane
New Zealand's U-17 squad, the Junior All Whites, was party to a bizarre match at the FIFA U-17 (Junior) World Cup Finals on October 28, as they drew 1-1 with Burkina Faso to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the last sixteen of the competition.
A second half deluge forced the match to be suspended for over ninety minutes at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, Nigeria, with the teams eventually returning to play out the remaining twenty-five minutes on the Tigerturf pitch, with the surface water having been swept off it during the enforced break.
The West Africans began like a house on fire, exposing the early nerves of Adam Thomas and Cory Turipa in the Junior All Whites' rearguard inside the first five minutes.
And after the Kiwi goalkeeper had thwarted Abdoulaye Ibrango's eighth minute effort, he got down well to his right to deny a Bertrand Traore drive at the feet of the incoming Fadil Sido, after Ashton Pett had been forced into an error.
Burkina Faso made their early pressure tell in the twelfth minute. New Zealand captain Gordon Murie was caught in possession by Victor Nikiema, who proceeded to plant a thumping twenty-yarder beyond Turipa's despairing dive and into the left-hand corner of the net - 1-0, with the threat of more to come.
Four minutes later, a delightful flowing move by the West Africans culminated in Aboubacar Traore and Ibrango combining to set up a chance for the raiding figure of Sido, only for Turipa to save at his feet.
The 'keeper followed up that vital stop by grabbing Bertrand Traore's teasing twenty-yard curler, after the young flank player - at fifteen, the youngest player on the park - had teased and tormented Pett and Cameron Lindsay following the slick interchange of passes between Adama Haiki and Ousmane Derra down the right.
The move typified the great confidence with which the African team played, passing the ball around accurately as they enjoyed a mortgage on possession in the stifling heat and humidity, neither of which aided New Zealand's cause.
Indeed, it was the game's first water-break which came as merciful relief to the Junior All Whites, and took some of the sting out of the African team's play. They still dominated possession and territory - New Zealand weren't even sighted as an attacking threat throughout the first half - but didn't cause
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quite as much concern for the Kiwis following the arranged stoppage.
A series of probing passes and crosses by Burkina Faso failed to find their intended targets over the course of the next twenty minutes, before Turipa had reason to make some saves of note in the final five minutes of the half.
He grabbed the ball at the second attempt under pressure from Ibrango, after a stinging Nikiema drive had been blocked by the New Zealand defence, and Bertrand Traore had delivered a teasing cross to the near post from the rebound.
Two minutes later, Traore's jinking run inside off the right flank saw him weave past four defenders before unleashing a twenty-yarder straight at Turipa, who gratefully grabbed a Nikiema effort from beneath his crossbar on the stroke of the interval, the midfielder's twenty-five yarder arising from an interchange on the left flank with Ibrango and Aboubacar Traore.
The start of the second half saw Burkina Faso take off the younger Traore, and New Zealand force an early corner, but these incidents were quickly overtaken by the intervention of Mother Nature.
Down came the rain, monsoon-like in its intensity, with spectators scurrying for cover in all directions! There was no hiding from the downpour on the pitch, however, and as play continued, the artificial surface was struggling to cope with the sheer volume of water being dumped on it, rendering quality football something of a lottery.
Before referee Howard Webb was forced to take the unusual action of suspending a match at a FIFA World Cup Finals, however, the change in the elements had contributed to a change on the scoreboard - the Junior All Whites drew level in the 57th minute.
Having failed to fire a shot - literally - in the heat of the first half, the Kiwis were much more at home in the inclement second spell conditions, and drew level when a glancing header from Murie guided Zane Sole's free-kick past goalkeeper Germain Sanou - 1-1.
And that's how it remained for a further eight minutes before referee Webb consulted with his assistant, Darren Cann, and the match commissioner, prior to informing both coaches of his decision to suspend play.
Had this been a grass surface, it would have been necessary to abandon the game and play it the next
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day - indeed, that's what happened with the clash between Turkey and Costa Rica later in the day, when the venue again took on the appearance of a swimming pool and rendered play impossible.
But ninety-odd minutes of toil and sweat in the stifling humidity by the local ground crew enabled the Junior All Whites and Burkina Faso to return to the pitch to conclude their clash some three hours after it had initially commenced.
In the time remaining, "Burkinabe" thrice came close to clinching victory. In the 73rd minute, only a fine tip-over save by Turipa prevented Ibrango from scoring with a spectacular overhead kick, an opportunity created by the first touch of substitute Ibrahim Barry.
Ten minutes later, the West Africans came closer still. Their captain, Dalhata Soro, hoisted the ball forward, his target the darting figure of Sido, who got the better of Thomas before rattling Turipa's right-hand post with a rasping twenty-five yarder. Murie got back in the nick of time to prevent Barry from steering home the rebound.
Burkina Faso were desperate for victory, having lost their opening match to Turkey, and threw everything but the kitchen sink at the New Zealanders in the dying minutes. But Turipa - he kept his team in the contest - and Thomas Spragg blocked close-range efforts from Barry and Ibrango in the shadows of the full-time whistle, which was greeted with relief by the Kiwis, whose World Cup dreams are still alive.
With Turkey's second match having been postponed a day, New Zealand will have the advantage of an extra day's rest and recuperation when they take on the European team in their final group game, which takes place at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar from 7am on Sunday, NZ time.
A win for the Junior All Whites would guarantee their progress into the last sixteen, while a third successive draw would leave them at the mercy of mathematics, both in terms of their own group and with regard to the best four third place-getters from all six groups … a nervous weekend is in prospect.
Burkina Faso: Sanou; Haiki, Zagre, Soro, Ouattara; B. Traore (Ouedraogo, 46 (Barry, 72)), Derra, Sido, Nikiema; A. Traore, Ibrango (booked, 65)
New Zealand: Turipa; Morrison, Murie, Thomas, Pett; Sole (booked, 88), Lindsay (Hobson-McVeigh, 79), Kibby (Pilkington, 64); Built (Esteves, 75), Milne, Spragg
Referee: Howard Webb (England)
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