Football Ferns coach Andreas Heraf has offered an apology of sorts for the gameplan he instilled in Sunday's international friendly against Japan but says people aren't seeing the whole picture.
Heraf came under fire following Sunday's 3-1 loss to Japan in Wellington - their first match in the capital since 1991 - where the Austrian manager employed ultra-defensive tactics throughout the match, leading critics to believe he never even gave the home team a chance to win.
Heraf says he understands the criticism.
"I have this certain understanding that overall, the people expected more attacking football," he said.
"I can't regret it. I apologise maybe for that comment of not being able to compete with the best teams, it was a misunderstanding, but we are on our way to the World Cup and we have to work on all these areas to be ready."
In front of a record crowd, the Football Ferns played out a woeful 3-1 loss in Wellington yesterday.
Heraf said post-match that New Zealand will "never have that quality to compete with Japan" but he told 1 NEWS today he got his wording wrong.
"There was one big misunderstanding - I meant that maybe we'll never have the technical skills like Japan or Brazil which is not a shame but I'm still convinced we can beat these teams on the world stage."
Katie Duncan spoke to 1 NEWS about the dreadful tactics employed by Andreas Heraf yesterday.
Heraf opted to run five defenders and only one forward, looking to limit the damage Japan were capable of inflicting rather than playing any sort of entertaining match.
He said he was forced into that game plan due to injuries and personnel changes.
"We wanted to press high normally - that's our style. We did it in the training sessions but we had a few new players in the team because some of them were injured and it didn't work out.
"We had to make a decision to say 'okay, we have to step down from our idea to press high, focus on defending... and setting our focus on counter-attacking."
Heraf says the team has set the goal of winning their first World Cup match next year in France and he using every opportunity he can to make sure they are best prepared to reach that goal.
"We have 360 days to go until our first game and we have to work on all these different areas to be ready.
"That was only one step on our way but the people, of course, they haven't seen the whole process, they've seen one game so they're disappointed and upset - I feel sorry for that - but it's a part of our process and we have to go that way."
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