The OlyWhites person made a cleanable commencement to their Tokyo Olympics campaign.
Striker Chris Wood scored successful the 70th infinitesimal to clinch an invaluable 1-0 triumph implicit Asian champions South Korea astatine Ibaraki Kashima Stadium connected Thursday night.
The extremity secured New Zealand's first-ever triumph successful men's shot astatine the Olympics, aft erstwhile draws successful Beijing successful 2008 and London successful 2012.
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Wood was initially flagged for offside aft the incisive walk from midfielder Joe Bell struck a South Korean defender and fell into the Burnley forward's path, but the marginal determination was correctly overturned by the video adjunct referee.
Setting up successful a 3-4-3 formation, New Zealand were disjointed and cagey successful the archetypal fractional and relied connected 2 important saves from goalkeeper Michael Woud to support Group B favourites South Korea astatine bay.
Changhoon Kwon looked apt to unfastened the scoring midway done the archetypal fractional aft controlling a unsafe transverse from Yoonseong Kang with his thorax but Woud made himself large and came up with the captious involution arsenic Kwon pulled the trigger.
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Despite their cautious start, going 66 minutes earlier registering a azygous changeable connected target, the OlyWhites grew successful assurance successful the 2nd fractional and successful the extremity were deserving of their constrictive victory, with Wood's onslaught proving to beryllium the match-winner.
With Honduras and Romania to come, Thursday's triumph has fixed the OlyWhites an fantabulous accidental of progressing retired of Group B and reaching the knockout stages.
New Zealand 1 (Chris Wood 70') South Korea 0 HT: 0-0
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