A few years ago, Andy Boyens was a Kavanagh College pupil and passionate Liverpool fan with a football dream. Yesterday, he played in a game to remember - and made a mistake he would love to forget.
First things first, as they say.
Andy Boyens doesn't even wait for the question to be asked as he launches into a grim analysis of possibly the worst mistake he's made in his footballing career, or certainly the most visible.
Boyens (25), the old boy of Kavanagh College and former Otago United and Dunedin Technical defender, earned his ninth New Zealand cap yesterday in the 5-0 loss to Spain in the opening round of the Confederations Cup.
Spain, the European champion and world No 1, was predictably far too strong, romping to a 4-0 lead inside 25 minutes.
For Boyens, who prides himself on his effort in the centre of defence, that was bad enough.
But his night was to get much worse.
Just three minutes after half-time, a simple cross was sent into New Zealand's goal area.
Boyens was in good position, sized up the bouncing ball. . . and completely flubbed his kick, striking air instead of leather.
Striker David Villa was on hand to tap in for the fifth and final goal.
"Obviously, I was completely responsible for that goal, and that's not a very nice feeling," Boyens told the Otago Daily Times from Rustenburg.
"I'm personally very disappointed with what happened.
"It's never nice for something like that to happen to you.
"I've got to put my hand up.
"The ground was a little bit slippery but I can't offer any excuses.
"I missed the ball.
"The one thing is that at least it wasn't in the 90th minute of a game where we were leading 1-0 or something."
Boyens got consolation after the game in the form of a Spanish souvenir: Villa's No 7 jersey.
Villa, for the uninitiated, is one of the world's deadliest strikers and is soon expected to transfer from Valencia to Real Madrid to become another multimillion-dollar Galactico.
Boyens, who plays for the New York Red Bulls in Major League Football, said the pace of the Spanish was too much for the All Whites.
But he denied the New Zealand players had been over-awed by their glamorous counterparts.
"We're all very disappointed we didn't play better," Boyens said.
"It wasn't about being over-awed at all.
"But maybe we just gave them too much respect in the first half, and four goals later they had got away from us."
Boyens is a lifelong Liverpool fan and said the opportunity to mark the English club's gifted striker, hat trick scorer Fernando Torres, was memorable.
"It doesn't get much better than Torres.
"I mean, he's just unbelievably quick and skilled and he knows how to find the goal.
"It's pretty special to play against someone who's excelling at the top level."
Boyens said it was vital the All Whites did not linger too long on the Spanish defeat with games against South Africa (Thursday) and Iraq (Sunday) to come.
"We have to approach those games thinking we can win both of them.
"They're two good teams but they are beatable.
"I know we can perform a lot better if we play with confidence."
