KEY POINTS:
Sloppy defending and another slow start at the under-17 soccer World Cup has left Youth All Whites coach Colin Tuaa struggling for answers as his team went down 5-0 to England in Jeju, Korea on Tuesday (NZT).
Manchester United's Daniel Welbeck notched up the Young Lions' first goal
in a shade under three minutes, followed by Crystal Palace playmaker Victor Moses in the seventh minute.
Welbeck and Moses each added another goal before half hour was up as England exploited the huge gap between New Zealand's midfield and the back four.
Ahead 4-0 at halftime, England added a fifth unanswered goal to secure a place in the last 16.
Tuaa afterwards described his team's performance as "gutting".
"We've had a good build-up, played a lot of good sides and gone close, so to concede that number of goals in two matches is just devastating," he said.
"To be on the world stage and perform the way we have defensively is very disappointing, gutting."
New Zealand's third and final Group B match is against North Korea in Ulsan on Friday (NZT). Although they still have a theoretical chance of qualifying as one of four out of six best third place finishers in their group, Tuaa said that would not be a factor in their preparation.
"Mathematically we have a chance but that's probably the furthest thing from our minds at the moment - we're still trying to get over this one," he said.
"I think for us we need to get some pride out of this tournament and that won't be easy because North Korea don't look inferior to either England or Brazil - the boys are going to have to stand up for the next one for sure."
The Youth All Whites' first match against Brazil on Saturday (NZT) started disastrously when they conceded a goal in the first nine seconds, ending in a 7-0 thrashing.
New Zealand captain Costa Barbarouses said his team had just given English playmakers such as Chelsea's Michael Wood and Nana Ofori-Twumasi too much space.
"It was just the start again. We've done the exact opposite of what we had to do; we had to come out with all guns blazing and we didn't," he said.
"It was sloppy defending all round, a lack of concentration at times. We were better in the second half but they'd taken their foot off the gas by then."
New Zealand needed a strong start backed up by a consistent 90-minute effort, Barbarouses said " not a good 30 minute spell here and a good 10 minutes there".
Tim Myers, the only surviving defender from Saturday's match against Brazil, will miss New Zealand's final game against North Korea after a second yellow card yesterday.
- NZPA