New Zealand Men's U-17s

I thought our RB for the first two games was decent along with houltheson up top.

Think the comment on Judd Baker is a little off, he actually injected a bit of energy up top and won a few free kicks and tended to look to keep possession.

Our midfield did not exist, but i put alot of this on the CB's who I thought were atrocious.

Everytime the got the ball they hoofed it forward even with no pressure. You actually could see Rufer and Vel (the dm) say again and again, to feet. 

CB's were simply shocking.

Not to take anything away from the great results from previous teams, buts let compare the competition each NZ age-group team faced at previous tournaments;

2009 U17 WC : Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Turkey. [P3 W0 D3 L0 GF3 GA3] Lost 5 - 0 to Nigeria* in Round of 16

2011 U17 WC : Uzbekistan, Czech Republic, USA. [P3 W1 D1 L1 GF4 GA2] Lost 6 - 0 to Japan in Round of 16

2013 U17 WC - Uruguay, Italy, Côte d'Ivoire. [P3 W0 D0 L3 GF0 GA11]

2009 U20 WC : DNQ

2011 U20 WC : Cameroon, Uruguay, Portugal*. [P3 W0 D2 L1 GF2 GA3]

2013 U20 WC : Uzbekistan, Uruguay*, Croatia. [P3 W0 D0 L3 GF1 GA7]

* Tournament finalist.

So by my reckoning, out of the previous five age-group World Cups (one of which we didn't qualify for) we won a total of 1 game.

I'd suggest we wait until the rest of the tournament plays out and we can see how Uruguay, Italy, and Côte d'Ivoire place before we go making judgements.

Ah, this is a fan forum pal. As fans we have opinions, and having opinions we make judgements on games played and players seen, as of yesterday and now. Keeping quiet for another two weeks is asking a little bit too much. You might as well say we should reserve judgement until the final ball of 2015 has been kicked.

I didn't mean judgements on players individually.

Just seemed a bit unfair to start waving the 'doom and gloom' flag about how poor the team, NZ Football, the coaching was when the tournament is still playing out. 

Yes I understand there are a number of very good 1995's available to come into the 2015 U20's squad.  While I would expect some/a number of the current NZ U17 squad to be part of the wider 2015 U20's squad, the implication (in the strikers quote) that the whole current U17 squad (ex Rufer & Ridenton) will be playing together for the next 2 years during the ASB premierships, is a little presumptive in my mind given the 1995 talent I'm aware of.

Can't believe Lewis didn't play. Certainly would of helped ball retention. 

Did he pay his $2k World Cup tax?

Sack bazeley

NZ football is utter rubbish and let us not encourage these youngsters to continue playing the way they did. They performed badly and not through their own fault but because of poor coaching. They performed well below world standards. NZ football should wake up and learn from this experience and start selecting players on their skill ability. Looking at the other countries; they had skillfull technical players. It seems as if NZ football has problems with boys coming from private academies who are taught to play proper football. 

Darren benched players such as that lad Alex Palezevic, he was benched all through the tournament, Tam Dimairo was given a miserable 5 mins and Andrew Blake eventually managed to play in last game. These boys are some of the most technically skilled in the squad who have come through Ole and APFA, hence the interest from Phoenix (FSE) who have realised their skills. It is unfortunate they are not from Auckland, the favoured region. I have watched these boys play and they play beautiful entertaining football and not this hoofing the ball forward. Rufer seemed frustrated by balls not going to feet which is what he has been taught.

Why did Darren not change his failing game plan and introduce these midfielders where we were obviously lacking. If the group of boys that played are going to represent us in the u20 world cup and not change their playing style we are going to be the laughing stock on our own soil as we will be breaking the records once again. 

Wake up NZ football and teach the kids proper football or get us better coaches.

Bollocks one of them players must be your son.....

They just weren't good enough no matter who you would have started

Whether he has a personal connection or not Soccer Fan raises some valid questions, namely: 1. is the Auckland bias in team/coach selection resulting in better players not being selected; 2. Did Bazely & Co. instruct the defenders to hoofball so regularly that it was utterly predictable? If so, why? 3. Is there a selection bias against private academy players (not sure there is as plenty APFA/Ole kids keep being selected).
To me though, the biggest question is have we got he right youth coaching team in place AND how can we better prepare a squad? Next U17 cup is Chile 2015 and we wont have any initial squad selection until July 2014 earliest; coach appointment probably just beforehand. Other countries ALREADY have squads selected, training camps and/or year round programmes in place, playing tournaments (and that is just Australia!)

Yes, but age-groups for 2015 (born 1998, 1999) are already (largely) training together at FTCs and the top talent from those should be coming together twice a year at NTC level. Possible that coaching team will come from FTC or NTC setup so they will be familiar with players and vice-versa.

For all the good work that academies do, it does really come down to players needing to work within the NZ Football system (for right or wrong) to increase their visibility and building relationships with the staff who are ultimately going to select them to play for New Zealand.

We played 3 very good teams.... we should not lose sight of that.

Yes our results were poor, but is this team better than previous ones... the general consensus was before they left, that yes they were. 

As our players get older and learn to play a faster and higher tempo game hopefully they will learn to counteract teams like Uruguay more effectively. 

The current crop of NZ players coming through is far better than previous years technically... we are catching some nations, but with others we are still well off the pace.

Also, lets not forget, unlike 95% of the world, where football is the only choice in NZ there are many options.

Would Australia / Sth Africa (nations we normally compare ourselves to) done that to us... i doubt it. 

Hey 343(sorry can't quote on new YF app - note to Patrick - ios7 iPhone5), the better ole apfa kids are in the NZF system via NTC. I think soccer fans point was that because they choose to train in their academies, not live in auk or attend an often inferior FTC set up, they were missing out; yet nix/FSE see the talent.

Ok.

Would have thought that if they were in NTC setup and good enough not sure why they would miss out. That said, my understanding is that to qualify for NTC requires a minimum attendance % at FTC and NZ Football and the Federations are pretty clear on that, so if players choose not to comply with attendance requirements then they are potentially making life difficult for themselves.

Not saying I agree with those attendance requirements as there are plenty of valid reasons why a player may not be able to attend FTC, but you can't blame NZF for wanting players to work within a prescribed framework right from Federation level (and in fact they are trying to get them to work within that framework from club level by instituting the WoF programme).

Metal I agree with you that we are producing more technically better players but my point is we are not giving them appropriate WC build up/on-going development. Not sure Aussie sth Africa are our football yardsticks or models BTW.

Not sure if you are referring to a specific age-group by that comment, but based on my conversations with a number of the 13s who have attended NTC this year that is not the case  - all found the environment very challenging and learnt a great deal at the camps.

Agree that NZ Football system is behind that of most academies and can't talk to what they are doing to narrow that gap, hard when competing against a pay-to-play model.

I have seen good improvements at FTC level in the three years my son has been involved - admin, structure, coaching.

Have heard stories of how there is a bit of 'us and them' between some academies/clubs and the FTC /  NZF system where players basically told not to waste their time because of standard of coaching etc., got better chances within their club or academy.

Interesting.  I get the impression that the standard between different FTCs and NTCs varies way too much. NZF need to make sure there is consistancy or it impacts their credibility.

Would like to see NZF work more closely with academies. I remember there being some talk at start of WoF programme of NZF licensing academies to deliver NZF programme - wonder what happened to that ?

You are right, no matter who coached them they would still perform as they did!! so where is the problem, obviously if people dont want to blame the coaching, then its selection criteria. And I wish one of them was my son I would be able to confront the coaches myself.

The truth hurts, we were just not good enough. I rest my case.

That would be right. Corey Brown was at Sth Island NTC April 2012 and that would have been his last one because the year prior to WC year, initial squads selected after April NTC (really only a 12-18mth build up, not 2 yrs that Fred keeps banging on about).

Declan could tell you. But he'd charge for saying it.

I think there in lie's the problem. It is in what environment and who with. We should not get that confused with quantity.

U17 World Cup update:
QFs
Mexico beat brazil on pens
Sweden beat Honduras

Ivory Coast v Argentina
Uruguay v Nigeria
So two from NZ's group make last 8 ( so far)

Hey, we coulda been a contender!

Irony.

U-17 World Cup semis tomorrow morning Sky Sport 1:

1.50 am Argentina v Mexico

4.50 am Sweden v Nigeria

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the end, it was incredibly three teams from Group F who made it through (Sweden, Nigeria, Mexico).

Latest news: http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/news/index.html

Sweden - bit of a surprise to make the semis and no Brazil, Italy etc. Beat  Honduras 2-1:  http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/matches/round=259259/match=300253582/summary.html

Highlights:  http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/highlights/video/video=2216160/index.html

Some real talent in this Swedish side - made up of 11 different immigrant nationalities:

Star striker is Valmir Berisha, Albanian immigrant, shares same name as Besart Berisha, Brisbane roar striker...

Mexico scraped through against Brazil after amazing 11- 10 penaties duel after 1-1 draw:

http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/matches/round=259259/match=300253589/summary.html

Highlights: http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/highlights/video/video=2216342/index.html

Argentina beat Ivory Coast 2-1:  http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/matches/round=259259/match=300253552/summary.html

Highlights: http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/highlights/video/video=2216858/index.html

Nigeria beat Uruguay 2-0: http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/matches/round=259259/match=300253586/index.html

Highlights: http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/highlights/video/video=2217052/index.html