New Zealand under-20 women's soccer team were well beaten 4-0 by world champions the United States in the second of two internationals in Los Angeles. Despite a much stronger showing following Friday's 2-0 defeat, a late flurry of goals gave the scoreline its emphatic look.
The All Whites found themselves a goal down at the interval and ended the game hitting the woodwork three times.
The USA doubled their advantage midway through the second half and added two more late efforts.
With July's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Germany to look forward to and pool games against heavyweight trio Brazil, North Korea and Sweden to navigate, two matches in three days against the reigning under-20 champion was tough but valuable preparation in the eyes of New Zealand coach Tony Readings.
"We've learned that we can match it against the world's best teams but we can't do it for 90 minutes," Readings said.
"In and out of possession we have enough in our locker to hurt teams, but we have a lot of work to do on our fitness because on the world stage the best teams will get stronger at the end of games."