All White Libby Cacace facing World Cup selection battle after Italian club relegation

RNZ News

15 hours ago

Libby Cacace has experienced the highs and lows of football within months.
Photo:
Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
All Whites defender Libby Cacace has an uncertain future, after experiencing the highs of international football and the lows of club football within months.
Part of the New Zealand squad that
qualified for next year's Football World Cup
in March, the 24-year-old returned to Italian club side Empoli, who were batting to avoid relegation out of Serie A.
In May, Empoli dropped down to Serie B for next season, putting Cacace in a tough position before the global tournament.
"It wasn't a was a nice feeling, getting relegated, but it was definitely an experience that will help me grow as a player," he said.
"I was hoping that it wouldn't come down to the last match day, like it did. Doing that two seasons in a row takes a toll on you mentally and physically."
Cacace's agent would work behind the scenes, but he was still contracted with Empoli for another season.
All Whites coach Darren Bazeley favoured players who were getting
game time in top competitions
and said Cacace's left-back position, among others, was one with plenty of competition in World Cup squad selection.
"I have no worries that players will get the right environments for themselves and, whilst we want everybody playing every minute of every club game, it's not just on that," Bazeley said.
"We've got players that are really good in our environment and our culture, so there's lots of different reasons for selections for different players. We look at every decision individually, positionally, but it does get tougher."
The All Whites celebrate their World Cup qualification against New Caledonia.
Photo:
Shane Wenzlick / www.photosport.nz
New Zealand play Côte d'Ivoire and Ukraine in the
Canadian Shield
this week, two of the highest-ranked opponents they have faced this year.
With many of their club seasons over, Bazeley said he would have to make use of most of his squad during the games in Toronto.
"I think it's going to be difficult for a lot of players to play 90 minutes, so we'll definitely be looking to use the squad and make changes. We can use six substitutes for this game and I can imagine we'll do that, so we'll get 17 players that get game time and probably pretty good game time."
Despite this, Bazeley would also try to find consistency with players.
"We've got a style of play in and out of possession that we've got agreed with the players that we've been working on for the last year, and we've agreed that we don't keep changing, because we don't get a chance to train that much.
"We get together for an international window and and you can't keep starting again, playing a different formation or trying to do new things. What we need to do is just get better and better at what we do.
"In every game we've played in the last 18 months, two years, we've had moments within games that we've executed things really well. The challenge now is we do that more, we do that more consistently and regularly, and we do it against better teams."
Cacace expected Côte d'Ivoire to offer a different challenge to the Pacific Island teams that the All Whites played to get to the World Cup.
"They'll be very physical and they'll use their physical attributes to try to dominate us, but at the same time, we've got to make sure that we use our strengths to hurt them.
"I think if we do that, we can have a good chance of winning."
New Zealand Football wanted the All Whites to face as many
different playing styles
as possible in preparation for the World Cup.
"That's going to be very important heading into a World Cup, because we're going to be playing three different sides and they're all going to be different, so we're just going to make sure that we adapt the best way possible and use these games to make sure we can adapt," Cacace said.
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