New Zealand are still seeking a breakthrough performance to take them to the next level, after stumbling to a 2-0 defeat against Greece in a friendly international at Athens.
Sitting 50 spots below their rivals on world rankings, the All Whites kept the former European champions scoreless through the second half, but were unable to exert enough pressure to rally from their halftime deficit.
"Throughout the game, we tried to play a certain style of football and we're very close to being a very good team," insisted coach Darren Bazeley. "We've worked a lot on getting into good attacking areas and it's coming.
"We're a team that likes to have a lot of possession, and try and move the ball, and get into good areas. The next step for us is actually scoring goals and winning games."
Scoring goals - or an inability to do that - seems a recurring theme for NZ international teams at this level, with the Football Ferns women also struggling in that regard.
The men had their best moment, when skipper Chris Wood was brought down in the penalty area, but had a confident shout turned down. Within seconds, Greece went ahead through a harmless-looking cross that created indecision in the All Whites defence and eventually curled, untouched and almost in slow motion, inside the far past.
They conceded another from a corner, when keeper Michael Woud blocked a header into the path of a Greek striker.
After the break, Ben Waine replaced Wood and had an opportunity in front of goal, only to see his pointblank shot squirt over the crossbar.
"It's the hardest thing in football, scoring goals, but we are getting close to getting into better areas more often," reflected Bazeley. "We need people to have that moment - we need better moments with our final ball and our finish.
"Part of it is maybe we need to have more belief that we can score goals at this level and we can win games against teams like this. Greece are a very good team and they're highly ranked for a reason - they've got some good players.
"Throughout the game, we competed well in and out of possession, and at times we played some really nice football - but we need to get to that level where we're actually winning games."
Next up, New Zealand face Republic of Ireland, also ranked 50 spots higher, on Wednesday (NZ time).
"It gets easier, eh," chuckled Bazeley. "Another tough game for us, but these are great games for us.
"We want to win games, but these games against good teams, good players and highly ranked opposition are really good for what's coming in the future.
"We're going to be a really good team, we're moving towards becoming that team and all these challenge we're having are going to help us.
"We just need that little bit of belief that we're good enough to win games at this level."
