New Zealand Men's U-17s

We played a back 5, with none showing the ability to bring the ball out or pass it out (apart from Naicker when he moved to the left side). This meant that one of the 3 midfielders had to drop in to play forward. 2 of the three midfielders showed limited distribution ability. 

5 back and one dropping in left us with no way to open the field and play good balls forward. All of which meant we gave the ball away a whole lot. In this formation, the wing backs need to be much higher when we have the ball and at least one central defender needs to be able to pass out.

Delivery up front was slow. When play became broken, we showed a desire to tidy it up and slow it down instead of transitioning forward quickly. When our forwards received good ball, they looked pretty good.

Stamenic is great to watch

Couldn't say, because you haven't named anybody. 

So name some players and who you think they are better than.

I don't really watch this age group much so can't comment myself on the merits of selection, but what I saw was generally less than I was expecting.

One player who has impressed me that was not selected was Hayden Aisch( spelling?) who has played senior football for Waitakere NL and Springs in Auckland. 

If you aren't with Nix or Ole, you have little chance of making the teams

Fixed

Thought the 2 1 loss was quite flattering to NZ as Angola had 24 shots to 3. NZ players never gave up and I thought completed well for the 90 minutes. Alex in goal was solid bar his poor early kicking out from the back. I’m sure the front two players in Van Hatten and Garbet are better than they looked if only they had some quality service. Playing a CB/ holding midfielder in Stamic as the creative mid fielder was a flop, he’s good at breaking play up but not up to scratch in the attacking third. Like to see the midfield changed for the next game and try and play some positive football. 

I'll just leave this here.

Not sure about this comment when Marko was far and away the most creative player. Jose has him there because there is no better option in the squad.

feel for the boys, what a strange way to set up. There is undoubted quality up top and across the park, but received poor service. Top shelf keeper too, hope he gets a chance and is picked up, consistent performer 
but can I just express my frustration that we keep going back to the well that has served us so poorly, any coach NOT from NZ and connections to the nix, and any player connected to the academy or ole. Obviously both have talented players that deserve their place, but’s it’s time to review the way these teams are put together. All of course in my humble opinion. I wish the team all the best for their remaining games, just encouraging NZ football to think differently. 

The academy players from ole and phoenix seemed to posess the qualities required to compete at the earlier u20 campaign . I was certainly hoping for more of the same  competitiveness and style from this u17 squad to boost my hopes we are on the cusp of something special in youth development in nz. tbh i didnt care if they were mostly coming out of 2 wgtn academies, as long as they were raising the bar on the pitch 

However lately I have seen some exciting youth talent in my hometown  (tauranga) , and am  now wondering if these pockets of  talent that  are emerging  around the country are  being overlooked because the coaches are going with what they see week in and week out in their own backyard.  How hard are they really looking outside of wellington?

By what metric? 13 forward passes in 97 minutes? 4 of which came after he dropped back to CDM

Against Angola we had plenty of passes, plenty of possession, but until last 10 minutes it was mostly in our own half. We needed someone who could give quality early ball through to the forward line.

Marko should undoubtedly be on the park, but he is not a creative playmaker; or at least not the most creative playmaker in the squad.

Palau is dead right. Marko is most effective at CDM. 

Why? Have you run out of room on your photo drive?

Great stats... but equally horrible, only 13 forward passes. What kind of mentality is that for someone tasked with being a creative link?

Relative to your comment about "any coach not from NZ" Im not sure if you are aware of how long Jose has been in NZ and where the vast majority of coaching education has come from. He is basically a Kiwi, he came here as a 19 year old and worked his way through the coaching ranks from coaching kids to youth to seniors. He is married to a Kiwi and followed her to NYC when she got a job in a law firm which is how he ended up at Red Bulls.  I fully understand the problem with non Kiwi coaches arriving and being employed in the top jobs but in this case Jose doesnt fit that narrative.  Again, he is a Kiwi, has been here for nearly half his life and did  the ground work to get to where he is within the NZ coaching system, he is a product of our football scene.

ok you make excellent points and i withdraw that particular comment,I  shouldnt have generalised. i still have concerns with the lack of separation between NZF and the 2 academies with what looks like an assumption that these best identify and/or capture NZ talent. 

I'd be very concerned if Olé and the Nix weren't providing almost the entire squad.

I'm sure the Nix and Ole are doing a good job and representation in the U17 team points to that.

Elite academies certainly have there place. My only concern is that because NZ football's population is so small comparatively, if we are reducing our junior selections to academy players we are really minimising our talent pool.

Not everyone can send there kids to academies, often for financial and geographic reasons. I don't want to see national team selection become limited to the elite and rich acadamy kids. If elite acadamies are seen by other kids as the only path way to get selected. It will turn alot of promising young players off the sport, and we could lose alot of potential.

There are other pathways. FTC and NAGT. I just hope that NZF continue to give these other pathways alot of weight and allow young talented kids to see that these pathways can also lead to national selection.

What is the relevance of this photo. Western Suburbs won the u17 tournament. I’m not even convinced our NAGT is the best basis of selection but this is not a tournament that should be used and should hold any more relevance than just another opportunity to scout. 

The performance on Sunday was shocking. If Angola could actually shoot properly it could have been 10. A formation in which some of the players looked so totally foreign to you would wonder if they had picked their positions out of a hat. The right centre back # 3 gave the ball away for fun. The 10 was very busy but was seemingly doing 16 & 14’s job because they were doing stuff all. 14 put more effort into challenging referee decisions than actually providing options to receive a pass. The goal scorer had some moments but no way he has the discipline to hold up the ball and look for support..........and tomorrow they play Brazil ?? ?. 

The coach seems very proficient at talking nice fluffy stuff about process, principles, personality. Would be far happier if he was picking the right players and preparing them for putting a performance on the pitch that they could be proud of. 

you have to admire someone prepared to call it as they see it 

Could something similar be said for Strong?  Every-time I have seen him for Eastern Suburbs in Handa and NRFL, he has been in midfield, now here as he was for qualifiers, playing in the backline

Also where do you see the individual stats?  

The photo above includes a couple of players eligible for this Under-17 World Cup, who are not there, but who were key members of the Central League-winning Western Suburbs side this year. Their omission is a source of frustration for some people, who have seen players who played, for the most part, Capital 1 this winter, get selected ahead of them. I assume that is why it was posted.

Solomon Islands were crushed by Italy 5-0, so we didn't lose that bad. Brazil next up is going to test the team for sure - it could be a slaughter but I expect a much better effort this time.  

I see our favourite referee Mr Waldron kept up his form by sending off a player and controversially disallowing a second Tajikistan goal vs Cameroon. ??

I think you will find that those stats are confidential stats held within the camp. A parent must have the players login and has decided to leak onto social media to rip a players so called “poor performance”. Very Poor Form from that parent!!

Hi Terry, Nik here.

Morning everyone, for those of us at work, is the game live on radio or anywhere esle? thanks in advance

SkyGo or a dodgy stream probably your only options.

I found the first game pretty soul destroying and this has the potential to be a blood bath. Not sure if I'll watch.

@ClubOranje

Grow up.

@Ranix

Please don't assume everyone who goes to academies is rich. It's very far from the truth. For three years we paid more for our daughter to play college netball, train twice a week and be coached by a parent than we did for our son to be at Ole training five times a week with professional coaches. We aren't rich, we make what we consider the necessary sacrifices for him to try to achieve his goal of being a professional footballer and have a two hour round trip to every session.

@Marley

The photo shows eight players who were all part of Western Suburbs Central League winning team and are all eligable for this world cup. They are not winners of some tin-pot NAGT U17 tournament. Only three of them are in Brazil, the others couldn't buy a ticket to an ID camp. There are another 3/4 in the Western Suburbs Cap Prem team who fit the same criteria.

If you were to add Matt Garbett to those eight and two fullbacks from the Cap Prem team I'd put money on them beating the NZU17's.

Just my opinion.

@reubee

You raise a valid point re positions. The 5-3-2 we're playing does not put the players in their best positions and is a formation I've never seen at either WPA or Ole. I've also never seen Campbell playing on the left of a back three and the three in midfield didn't seem to know who is to be the 6 and who are the 8's. If they even are supposed to be 6 and 8's.

All this means is we have the vast majority of the team behind the ball when/if we do turn it over in midfield with little to no options to make forward passes or even attacking runs if there is no support.

The coaching staff talked about wanting the team to be more attacking and braver than they were against Angola. Well that starts from the top by not using a defensive formation in the first place and selecting players to play in their preferred positions.

Too many square pegs in round holes for my liking.

@Waterside For Ever

Couldn't agrere more.

@Niko S

Well said Nik, good luck to Marko this afternoon.

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Lets be honest, although the Angola game finished 2-1, it could have been 2-2 had Jesse nabbed his chance at the end but it could so easily have been 5 or 6-1 and we could have had no complaints.

I don't want to go to World Cups at age grade level to just get out of the group. We should be aiming to qualify for the knockout stages on our own merit and then to make it past the first knockout round.

Anyway, I should be watching the next game.

Down 1-0 after 40 min but Brazil down to 10 men for a the RB standing on an NZ player. Not sold it was a red, looked unintentional - didn't look at the player, but definitely knew he was there. 

The Brazilian defender looks really angry about that decision. Here's an idea for the young fella ... don't stamp on a player prone on the ground. Awful.

We constantly over hit our passes.

Here is Brazil goal as well https://streamja.com/NmQj

Van Hattum goes close! Feel we are going to get more chances just need to keep them out and we could snatch a draw here...

I'm really enjoying this game, we're swarming them in MF really well

Ouch, ugly way to concede.

Ouch x2

That's a bit embarrassing 

Firstly, I really feel for Paulsen, being a Dad of a sweeper keeper with the #goalkeeperunion and all that. It was a poor back pass, to his weaker foot, which put him under unnecessary pressure. Lots of people don't understand the benefits to having a keeper who can play with his feet and will think that's why you shouldn't do it.

As for the game, I'm gutted.

I just don't think we showed enough belief or ambition when Brazil went down to 10. Why would you go to three CH's to mark one player, removing the 6 (no surprise Strong was playing well in his preferred position) and giving up numbers in midfield ?

The wing backs were nowhere near high enough and we never looked to get in behind them. Our main tactic appeared to be low percentage shots from distance.

We should have been overloading them in the attacking third simply by standing on the field, but instead we withdrew our numerical advantage.

That really was a massive opportunity to get points we weren't expecting.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/117025289/fifa-under17-world-cup-10man-brazil-hold-off-new-zealands-challenge

https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/83730