Steven Holloway: Shy-kid striker now a killer-instinct captain

Chris Wood's rapid rise in the All Whites has been on the back of an innate ability to read the game and score goals but leading the team from the front will be a challenge. Photo / Brett Phibbs

I can still clearly remember the first time I had to mark Chris Wood.

It was 2008 and our Waikato FC team were destined to finish fifth in the national league. Wood, despite being a 15-year old man-child with impressive pedigree, never made a start and was always on the bench.

So at set piece training on Thursday night I was tasked with picking up the 1.9m schoolboy, who was representing our upcoming opponents' biggest aerial threat.

Three corners were swung in and each time Wood brushed me off, easily predicting the flight path of the ball before out-jumping our defence to score three consecutive headers. It raised an immediate and passionate inquisition. Could I not be trusted with defensive duties or was this powerful, shy freak of schoolboy football some sort of goal-scoring savant? The answer to both questions, as it turns out, was yes.

Wood scored goals for fun. A year earlier he won the golden boot at both the national secondary schools tournament and the national U-19 club tournament in Napier. There were always concerns about his knees and mobility, he could at times be lazy off the ball, but boy, he could score goals.

I watched him play once for St Paul's Collegiate against a top team in the Hamilton schools competition and he didn't have a particularly good game, but he scored four goals.

All were scrappy, all were created by an innate sense of timing and reading of the game, good body position and a killer instinct.

That is Wood's game. He is Mr Right Place Right Time and his uncanny ability to know where the ball will land, and his precision in then putting that ball in the net, have now earned him millions of dollars.

Last week Wood reached the pinnacle of the Kiwi game when he was named All Whites captain. The quiet, well-mannered kid from Hamilton has transformed, in just five years, into the nation's (temporary) football leader. But is he really captain material?

Probably not, by virtue of his position. The All Whites haven't had a striker as captain since Michael McGarry more than 20 years ago. In-game, they have too much else to think about and play a lot of the game with their back to goal.

But what does a captain do other than toss a coin? In Roy Keane's latest book he talks about how Eric Cantona captained Manchester United successfully with just his presence and charisma, leading by example but rarely saying a word.

Wood may not have Cantona's charisma but he sure can lead by example. The half chance he turned into a goal on Saturday morning changed the All Whites' outlook from one of disappointment to optimism, hope and encouragement.

With a diminutive back-up cast of Marco Rojas, Kosta Barbarouses and Ryan Thomas, Wood is our attacking leader. They provide the flare and creativity (for a combined three goals in 42 games), and he provides the goals (13 in 39).

As a Premier League footballer, he will also automatically have the respect of the squad, the same way Winston Reid does. But it would be nice to have someone a bit more eloquent off the field too.

We were spoiled with Ryan Nelsen, but it's always a bonus when the public face for the team speaks in something beyond platitudes and glib sports phraseology.

I've watched Wood transform from a shy kid who wouldn't say boo, to a cocky international striker who pulled his pants down after scoring a goal, to the youngest captain in All Whites history.

What's next? When Reid and Glen Moss return to the squad will he slip back to a tier-two leader? Or will this experience stir him to much greater things? I'm just glad it's no longer my job to pick him up at set pieces.

3 thoughts on All Whites

Hudson's selections
Great to see Anthony Hudson pluck an 18-year-old from our national league and give him a start for the All Whites. Deklan Wynne impressed on his debut at left back, and set up the equaliser.

Marco needs to play
Marco Rojas is too good to be wasting time on the bench of the Bundesliga second division. We saw glimpses of what he can do against China, but a match-sharp Rojas is capable of so much more.

Smith was superb
The All Whites back four had some defensive issues on Saturday, but Tommy Smith was a rock. We need him on board to have any chance of reaching Russia.