Wellington Phoenix captain Andrew Durante has heaped praise on the New Zealand national team after a brilliant performance against Italy overnight.
The All Whites lead three times against the reigning World Cup champions before surrendering their lead and going down 4-3 in Pretoria.
The result bodes well for the team leading into next week's Confederations Cup and was not lost on Durante who was full of admiration for the players.
"It's fantastic. The boys haven't had a lot of game-time together but they played like a team that has been together a while," Durante said.
"They knocked the ball around well and, even though they were playing Italy, they didn't show any fear and didn't let themselves get caught up in the whole emotion of playing against the world champions."
Despite failing at the final hurdle, Durante said all involved with the national team were proud.
"To be honest I thought that if they could keep Italy to 2-0 that would be a great result. But the boys were fantastic and showed a lot of heart. They backed themselves and to lead the game three times was an amazing effort," he added.
"They tired towards the end and that showed as Italy brought on some of their big name players needing to chase the game. They Kiwis went so close to grabbing the draw and will be rightly disappointed not to have got that or even the win, but this result is still fantastic for New Zealand football."