Herald on Sunday reporter Michael Brown is in South Africa following the All Whites’ Confederations Cup campaign.
The All Whites are still confident of getting something out of their next two matches despite being on the wrong end of a 5-0 thrashing by Spain this morning (NZT).
New Zealand went into the tournament hoping to create a slice of history for themselves by picking up the first point by the senior men's team at a world tournament.
And while a number of players looked shell-shocked and out of their depth against the European champions and world's No 1 side, especially in the opening 25 minutes when the Spaniards rattled in four goals, they have taken a pragmatic approach to the result.
After all, better teams than New Zealand have suffered a hiding at the hands of a team now on an unbeaten run of 33 matches.
"It's very difficult, they are that good," skipper Tim Brown said. "We have to put things in perspective. We are playing against the best players in the world.
"We gave them too much space but the first goal... you give [Fernando] Torres two yards and he puts it in the top corner. That's the level we're playing against. We are not going to get down about it. We have to take our medicine and learn from it.
"I don't think we should forget everything from this game. We need to learn from the mistakes we just made and take some positives from the second half.
"I still feel we have something to contribute to this tournament and I still think there's an opportunity against South Africa and Iraq and that's our focus. We can play better. The Italian game showed that."
The first place to start will be shoring up the right side. Jeremy Brockie and David Mulligan were badly exposed in that opening onslaught and Brockie paid the price by being substituted for Jeremy Christie after the fourth goal went in.
The All Whites looked more solid after that and had small periods when they looked good but by then the Spanish had taken their foot off the gas.
"We came down in the second half to a lower rhythm to save energy for the later matches," Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque confirmed.
He was able to ring the changes early, including man-of-the-match Torres, who scored the quickest hat-trick in Confederations Cup history with three goals inside 17 minutes.
They were of the highest quality in not only the finishing but also the buildup and even the Liverpool striker recognised that.
"It's not ever happened to me and it's nice to have achieved that with the national team and even better when you score three goals like that," Torres said of his blindingly-quick hat-trick. "I owe it to my teammates."
Herbert would love to be able to call on players of that quality in his two remaining games, starting with South Africa on Thursday morning, but he remained philosophical in defeat.
"We didn't really back up [from the Italy game] and the first 25 minutes was very, very tentative," he said. "On the world stage again against the best team in the world we got punished for a lot of things.
"There was a little bit of stagefright from one or two. We never pressed like we intended to and it gave the Spanish side, who don't need any invitation, room to move. They had a lot of freedom in areas of the park that can cause you problems.
"Spain are the favourites and I think they will go on and win the tournament. They have a fantastic side - Champions League winners, European title holders and No 1 team in the world.
"We have two big games to go against South Africa and Iraq and the earlier result today [when they drew 0-0] hasn't done a lot of damage to the group yet. We face another tough task against the hosts who, after today's result, will be looking for a victory as well."
