so this, we go into the olympics having destroyed everyone, then we meet some quality and struggle.
We will also have a stronger team for the Olympics as well though, with players who have played together in the senior team.
The likes of Waine, Garbett, Stamenic will be coming in, along with some over age players.
There’s also the chance of snagging Matt Dibley-Dias and Tyler Bindon.
My ideal squad for the Olympics looks like this, but I also think an argument to include Bell or Boxall over Singh could be made: IMG_5516.jpeg441.7 KB
That midfield is absolutely class. Gaping hole at RB, so much so that I wonder if we stick Cacace there/think of bringing someone like Tuiloma as an OA in lieu of Singh. Though, Bazeley does really seem to rate Wynne and he was great against China
Yeah there’s a real dearth of RBs regardless of age grade. Hoping Elliot can find a club and kick on for the senior side but outside of Kirwan and Roux there’s no dedicated RBs playing at a decent level.
Dalton Wilkins has been playing at RB/RWB over in Denmark for his club side Kolding, picking up and quite successfully playing as an inverted fullback since the end of last season.
He'll be a good shout to get a call-up over the next couple of international windows. Match fit, and fits the progressive type of system/way that we want to play + good utility value covering down the left hand side as well.
Yeah I reckon Wilkins and Kirwan are our best options at the moment. I like Roux as well but his form has been up and down over the years and doesn’t seem too favoured by Baze.
Tuiloma started RB against Qatar, then started a few MLS games for Charlotte post that FIFA window. So he's another possibility, though I think he's better from a dead ball, than actual in game passing or crossing.
Been one of those guys that's popped up in Football Manager for the past five or so years due to someone having marked him as eligible for NZ. Really cool to see diaspora come here to have a crack, just like Joe Jeremiah coming from Gloucester
Nice work YH. Never die wondering, and good on him having a crack. Very long shot for Paris.
You imagine Bazeley will go with Wood (o/a) and Waine as his strikers. That might be enough in an 18 man squad. Bidois, Randall and OVH should all also go close to making the squad, though Bidois the only other out & out striker?? Younger options Colloty & Donkers.
Looks like 22 yr old Faulds was with Hudiksvall last year in Division 2 (4th tier of Swedish football) which has 6 regional leagues. As a guide Declan's Torslanda FC were in the 4th tier last year also (got promoted). Hudiksvall were 8th in their regional league last year. He may have been with another 4th tier club IFK Luleå before that in 2022.
And, the 22-year-old Swedish-born football player hopes one day he will earn a football shirt bearing a silver fern to go with the large motif he has tattooed on his body.
“That’s kind of one of the reasons I wanted to come here . . . to show New Zealand Football who I am,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve been playing at a level where a lot of people have who have [made the Under-23 team]. I wanted to come out and show who I am.
“I’ve never actually played in New Zealand. I thought why not come here, raise my profile, and hopefully fight for a place in the Under-23s . . . it will be hard because it is a short time [before the Olympics] but I wanted to come and try.”
Oscar Faulds on the training pitch under the watchful eye of head coach Bill Robertson. Photo / Neil Reid
Faulds has played at various levels in Sweden, including for Second Division club Hudiksvalls FF. As a teenager, he played in the Junior Allsvenskan; the top-tier of Under-19 club football in Sweden.
“He asked me if I wanted to come over and play. It was just out of nowhere,” Faulds said.
“I thought it was a good opportunity. I thought, ‘Why not go ahead and raise my New Zealand profile?’.”
Faulds has a New Zealand passport.
His father was born in Dunedin and later travelled to England for work.
He later travelled to Sweden, meeting Faulds’ mother.
Faulds describes himself as a “proud Kiwi” while proudly showing off the sizeable silver fern tattoo on his left arm. Oscar Faulds has impressed in training and pre-season matches to date for his new club Napier City Rovers. Photo / Neil Reid
He was inked up about three and a half years ago.
This is the second time he has been to New Zealand, having travelled here with his parents when he was a toddler.
Given his young age, he has no memory of that trip.
But memories of his arrival in the peak heat of a Hawke’s Bay summer for pre-season training are likely to stick with him for a long time. Napier City Rovers players Max Chretien, left, and Oscar Faulds after completing the brutal Bronco running challenge during the club's Central League pre-season campaign. Photo / Neil Reid
When Faulds flew out of Sweden, he left temperatures of around –10C.
Temperatures exceeding 30C welcomed him to his new home and pre-season training sessions with Napier City Rovers.
In just the second week of pre-season training, Faulds and his fellow teammates were put through the gruelling Bronco fitness and conditioning test; an unforgiving running test where those taking part have to complete shuttle runs over 60m, 40m and 20m for five sets.
“It was a 40-degree difference which was quite an interesting experience,” he said.
Vi gratulerar spelare och ledare i IFK Luleås herrlag till cupvinsten! Målen görs av Nils Nilsson och Oscar Faulds. William Tönning håller nollan. För IFK Luleå blir Nils Nilsson Matchens lirare.
The pair have been friends for several years and have a track record of winning silverware together; something Napier City Rovers fans hope they can replicate here.
In 2022 they combined at IFK Lulea to win Sweden’s Stora Coop Norrbotten Cup. Faulds scored one of his side’s goals in the final, while Tonning pulled over several telling saves.
“It’s good to have a friend here after moving across the globe,” he said. “I have no [close] family here.” Danish goalkeeper William Tonning is one of the new signings Napier City Rovers have made for the upcoming 2024 Central League season. New Zealand Herald photograph by Neil Reid
Faulds has some distant relations in Auckland and Wellington.
Given his size, determination in training and skill on the ball, Faulds shapes up to be one of the players to watch in New Zealand Football’s domestic leagues in 2024.
And there’s no mistaking what he wants to do in Napier City Rovers kit this year.
“There’s nothing better than scoring a goal,” he said. “It just gives you such euphoria.”
Was at Stofors AIK last season - same tier, although they ended up getting relegated in the end. Still ended up with 13 goals in 12 appearances though, and he's already scored 7 in his first 2 appearances in pre-season down here too. So he's in a hurry!
As Mrsmiis said, it's exactly how it happened 😂.
But I don't have any shame so I just reach out to players and chat. Some of them are bloody good sorts. Others you hear nothing back. That's life.
Given the form the Nix are in, you'd have to think half of the starting XI in Paris will be Wellington based. A few bolters too such as Hughes as a starter. Likely no need for Libby either unless he can play RB.
Feeling like this could be a great potential squad/starting XI for the Olympics.
IMG_6386.jpeg452.43 KB Could swap Strong for Toomey (if he even still plays midfield?) or Jesse Randall if you want a more attacking player there.
Could also swap Lobo for a CB and play LKH on the left.
Picked Sheridan over Wynne and Zoricich just because I haven’t seen much of those two as of late.
Is there anyone I’m missing who should be there?
If Dibley-Dias doesn’t join then move Stamenic to DM, play Old in the midfield 3 with Singh in front and Wood and Waine up top together.
4 travelling reserves likes of OVH, Randall, Lobo, plus 3rd keeper.
2nd keeper a toss up between Kees Sims & Henry Gray. Could well be Gray as he's starting and doing well, if at a low level in the English 6th tier. Sims or Scott Morris at Stoke City to be the travellling reserve, 3rd GK.
Singh likely a question mark already. Even if Hana Rostock don't get relegated to Liga 3, can see him moving on. He's barely played the last few years. It must be getting frustrating. So strong chance it's a new club pre season (perhaps it's time to leave Germany), somewhere in August. But he missed Tokyo 2021, so might just say fudge it, I want to have some fun with me Kiwi brethern plus the challenge of playing at an Olympics. If he's not available I guess you go with Libby for the 3rd O/A spot.
But looks yes a potentially exciting squad. Will be some good Nix combinations in defence, and also in midfield/attack, with most of the players being around the AWs the last few years.
Looks like CONCACAF used their 2022 U20 tourney, as not only their qualifying tourney for last year's (2023) U20 WC, but also the 2024 Olympics.
So maybe a lot of that USA U20 team that thrashed us 4-0 last year in Argentina, will be heading to Paris. They won that CONCACAF 2022 U20 tourney (Honduras), impressively, without conceding a goal from the Round of 16 onwards. Including 6-0 in the final verus Dominican Republic.
France obviously qualify automatically as hosts.And yeah as per the Stuff article, likely all of their team will be at big European clubs.
Still the Olympics team with likely additions of Wood, Singh, Payne or Libby, Paulsen, Bindon, Sutton, Stamenic, Dibley-Dias, Garbett, Old, Waine - should be quite a step up from last year's U20 side. In fact from last year's U20s only Surman & LK-H will likely be starters. Even Herdman & Conchie will probably be forced to the pine. The Americans especially may underestimate us, thinking about last year's easy U20 WC win.
Target a win against Guinea/AFC team, win/draw against USA, park the bus against France to keep score down - and who knows may sneak through as 2nd in the pool, into the quarters.
Israel must have a bit of a golden generation of young talent at the moment. Made the semi finals of last year's U20 WC (losing only 1-0 to champions Uruguay), and now qualified through Europe for the Olympics. I imagine the security around them is going to be massive, given what's happening in Gaza, and plenty of terrorist (or is it freedom fighter) networks in Europe.
Thank god they ain't in our pool. Will get political tricky if the 4th team in their Paris pool (a AFC qualifier) is a heaviuly Muslim country like Indonesia or whoever. I imagine being in the same pool as Mali will already be causing issues at FIFA/IOC HQs.
That 2022 U20 CONCACAF qualifying was possibly the dumbest qualifying format we’ve ever had at any age level and that’s saying something. 16 teams were seeded and entered the tournament without qualifying and then everyone else played off to qualify four more teams. The 16 seeded teams were placed in four groups of four with the top three in each group advancing after playing three matches in five days. Everyone tried to rotate their squads, but there was only so much you could do. Meanwhile the “other four” were waiting having not played at all after winning their qualifying tournaments seven months earlier. They joined the tournament in the round of 16 for the knockouts… so the Dominican Republic used their fresh legs to beat El Salvador (who had topped their group) 5-4 in the round of 16. With small squads, fixture congestion, top players unavailable and 40 matches being played on four pitches during Honduras’ rainy season… it was a mess of a tournament and I hope CONCACAF is embarrassed by how the Dominican Republic does. No offence to them, it was a nice story to see them reach the final, but I don’t think they could have done a poorer job of determining who the actual top teams in the competition were.
The U.S. should have a pretty good side. I don’t know how many of the U23s will play in the Copa America instead of the Olympics (and that may also impact which over-age players they have available since I can’t see (m)any players doing both since the Olympics start two weeks after Copa ends. Certainly players based in North America won't be gone from their clubs for 6-7 weeks in the middle of the season.).
I think Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest) and some of the forwards – at least Folarin Balogun (Monaco) – will be with the full team for the Copa America (though Reyna has struggled for club minutes all year), while more fringe guys like Gianluca Busio (Venezia), Ricardo Pepi (PSV) and Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis) may focus on the Olympics.
I think their best XI for the Olympics would be Gaga Slonina in goal (in Belgium on loan from Chelsea), Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach) and Kristoffer Lund (Palermo) at fullback, on paper the central defenders are weak (maybe Max Dietz from the 2 Bundesliga and Jalen Neal from LA Galaxy), but I think two of the overages will likely be central defenders, but again that's not a huge area of strength for the senior squad and I don't see them playing both, but even a Cameron Carter-Vickers from Celtic and Mark McKenzie from Genk wouldn't likely play if they made the Copa America side and would be upgrades to the Olympic team. Cardoso, Busio and Paxten Aaronson (Vitesse Arnhem) make a good midfield trio and they have Morris (Columbus), Paredes (Wolfsburg), Booth (Utrecht) as options too. Malik Tilman from PSV could be in the mix too, but like Cardoso he might be at the Copa America.
Up front they have Balogun, Pepi, Duncan McGuire (who was sold to Blackburn for US$6.5M at the transfer deadline but Blackburn didn’t get the paperwork in on time), Cade Cowell (Chivas), 19-year-old Esmir Bajratarevic who might be too young, but looks really good. At the moment Pepi, Balogun, Tillman and Reyna are all with the senior team in Nations League (as are Cardoso and Musah), and not having any of that quartet of players would make a significant difference for the Olympic team – as deep as they are.
Slonina, Paredes and Cowell were on the last US U20 team that you saw in the knockout round. There are a few others from that squad that could push for a place, but the Americans definitely have some interesting decisions to make this summer.
Thank you our Canadian correspondent. So like NZ, sounds as if the US Olympics squad will definitely be an upgrade from their U20s. Still I think we have a better chance of getting something off them in Paris, compared to the 4-0 whipping at the U20 WC in Argentina last year.
3 O/A players from Wood, Singh, Libby, Payne etc will add some steel & experience for starters. But likely the AFC/CAF team will be a must win game, and minimum draw needed against the USA, to progress to quarters. France will just be too tough at home, and with their quality - they will have their very best available you'd think.
Realistically the Olywhites will be longshots to get out of their pool this time. Tokyo with South Korea , Romania & Honduras was definitely easier. With us 2nd in the pool to the Koreans.
And yes that CONCACAF tourney sounds OFC level basketcase organisation. See that the the only points & only goals the champion Americans conceded in 7 games was a 2-2 draw with Canada (same pool). So rough for the Canadians to see Dominicia get a soft draw, and get to the final (lost to 6-0 to USA) but lock in an Olympics spot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_CONCACAF_U-20_Championship
I imagine a bit like the Islands verus NZ, the smaller Latino countries in CONCACAF do their damnest to rig these tourney formats against big boy gringo nations US & Canada.
Watched most of this game and it finished 2-2 after the USA scored two goals in the last ten minutes. Both sides looked really strong with contrasting styles. The USA looked very fit and athletic and played a physical game . They pressed the French team very high up the pitch and largely succeeded in suffocating the French game. As you would expect the French side is stacked with quality technically skilled players who tended to counter attack at pace. I think the NZ team would really struggle against both teams. Especially when you consider the long list of quality players the French will draft into their side. Griezmann is most likely. Mpappe has said he definitely wants to play but it depends if he can get a release from Madrid. Even without him they have an amazing depth in talent. I think being at home the French team will probably will be in the medals.
For me it's gotta be Singh, Wood and Rufer or Bell.
Others have said Payne as the 3rd, but I think we are all good at the back.
Midfield is by far our strongest U23 area, and not much need for Rufer/Bell when Stamenic is better. I think it's definitely Wood, Singh, Cacace and those who say differently are overthinking it a bit
For me it's gotta be Singh, Wood and Rufer or Bell.
Others have said Payne as the 3rd, but I think we are all good at the back.
Midfield is by far our strongest U23 area, and not much need for Rufer/Bell when Stamenic is better. I think it's definitely Wood, Singh, Cacace and those who say differently are overthinking it a bit
Agree with Stamenic, Conchie, Dibley-Dias, Garbett, Old, Herdman - don't need an o/a player in midfield. That's not counting Singh as a midfielder, who alongside Wood is a definite pick (if available)
But who would you have play RB/RWB?
And do they play with a back 4 or back 3/5? Presumably with Hughes as the 3rd CB option.
Edit - And as I've mentioned in other threads, don't 100% assume Sarpreet & Libby will be available, if they are moving to new clubs in the Euro summer. The Olympics clashes with Euro club pre seasons, and Empoli maybe relegated from Serie A.
For me it's gotta be Singh, Wood and Rufer or Bell.
Others have said Payne as the 3rd, but I think we are all good at the back.
Midfield is by far our strongest U23 area, and not much need for Rufer/Bell when Stamenic is better. I think it's definitely Wood, Singh, Cacace and those who say differently are overthinking it a bit
100 x this.
Wood & Cacace being our two highest profile players who both play in top 5 leagues is a no brainer. And add Singh because even though he's out of form and out of the limelight at club level as it stands, he's still by far one of the best attacking outlets we've ever produced out of NZ.
For me it's gotta be Singh, Wood and Rufer or Bell.
Others have said Payne as the 3rd, but I think we are all good at the back.
Midfield is by far our strongest U23 area, and not much need for Rufer/Bell when Stamenic is better. I think it's definitely Wood, Singh, Cacace and those who say differently are overthinking it a bit
Agree with Stamenic, Conchie, Dibley-Dias, Garbett, Old, Herdman - don't need an o/a player in midfield.
But who would you have play RB/RWB?
And do they play with a back 4 or back 3/5? Presumably with Hughes as the 3rd CB option.
Wood, Libby and Payne. First two are our best two footballers, then after that it's a needs must scenario where an experienced Payne can help out in CB or even RB.
Our midfield is stacked with quality and this tournament is a great opportunity to get Old/Herdman confident in the national team fold.
I can see Bazeley going with 3 CBs against France who will have a stacked team, and maybe even the USA. So that gives a bit more scope for someone like OVH to bomb forward up & down.
Might all be moot if one of Singh or Libby is unavailable. We will probably get a hint by what players are rested from the AWs at OFC Nations Cup in June. Any Euro clubs may say you can't play in both that & the Olympics. Wood is getting married in June so likely missing the Nations Cup anyhow. Tommy Smith seems his best mate in the AWs, so he might get an invite to the UK nupitals.
With talents like Eduardo Camavinga, Bradley Barcola and Warren Zaire-Emery potentially at his disposal, (French coach Thierry) Henry will want to top the group.
It is understood that Paris Saint-Germain superstar Mbappé is also very keen to represent his country at the Olympics, but he would likely have little time to rest after Euro 2024.
Football's world governing body FIFA does not oblige clubs to release players for the Olympics, which could complicate Mbappe's situation even more.
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