New Zealand Men's U-17s

Last already in Group B.....

Two from Hay's school and two from Zoro's school. A blow to the conspiracy theorists.

Based on the teams from last year's nationals - I'm not a school football nerd so apologies if some were missing.

Article on the recently piced u17 team.

The OFC U-17 Championship will be held from February 11 to 24 and New Zealand have been drawn in Group B, in which they will meet Samoa, Solomon Islands and Fiji at Stade Pater in Pirae. The semi-finals and final will also take place at the same venue with a place at India 2017 in October on offer for the victors.

After months of talent identification and sessions with a wider training group, coach Danny Hay has now settled on the 18 young men he hopes will take New Zealand there and is excited about the potential of the squad.

“It’s hard to know until we actually get put under the pump over in the qualifiers but, in terms of the raw talent we’ve got, I think it’s very good,” he says.

“One thing we’ve started to improve on is developing very good technical players and we’ve got a lot of quality going forward. That’s promising because if you’d said that a few years ago people probably wouldn’t have believed you. I think it’s a sign of the changing nature of the game in this country.”

The best-represented clubs in the squad are the Wellington Phoenix Academy and Onehunga Sports, who provide five and four players respectively, while only one player is based overseas in the form of Brisbane Roar midfielder Oliver Duncan.

“Ollie’s name got thrown at us by one of our contacts over in Australia and we’re really pleased that we brought him in. He’s an outstanding young footballer and is a name I think we’re going to hear a fair bit of in the future,” Hay says.

New Zealand go into the qualifying tournament as defending champions but only need to look back as recently as the previous event two years ago – in which the Kiwis drew with Tahiti in the final before triumphing on penalties – to see that they will not have things all their own way.

“It’s always going to be very difficult for us going over to the islands, you’ve got very difficult conditions with the heat and humidity so that’s just something we’re going to have to deal with. There can’t be any excuses around that because we’re fully aware of what we’re going into,” Hay says.

“And the reality is that the other island nations are very good these days – they’ve got really good programmes in place and a lot of their players are working full-time together so they’re going to be a real challenge. We’re certainly not going there underestimating any of our opponents.”

The New Zealand players will not have to look far for ideal role models as Hay is joined on the coaching staff by assistant Chris Zoricich and goalkeeper coach Jason Batty, who also serves as Football Development Manager for the Auckland Football Federation. All three are ex-All Whites captains and form a trio packed full of experience and footballing nous.

They will be looking to pass on as much of that knowledge as possible and Hay says player development will be just as important as lifting the trophy and booking a spot in India.

“The nice thing we’ve seen in recent years, particularly since Anthony Hudson came in, is that there’s a real alignment between what the All Whites and the age-group sides are doing. These young players have a huge opportunity, not only to win a tournament and qualify for the World Cup, but also to put themselves in the picture for higher honours, whether that be in the U-20s or even beyond,” he says.

“My job as a coach is to win the tournament because we’re all about winning but it’s also about giving these boys an understanding of the style of play and the roles and responsibilities within that in terms of the way New Zealand teams are playing going forward.”

Max we all know... any other stand outs in the group?

Most of the WeeNix lads have been playing SS Premiership either off the bench or starting depending on who is dropped down from the full squad.  All have looked pretty comfortable at that level.

Jones has been coached by 2ndBest so make of that what you will...

At least two more now attending those schools

Heard a lot of great things about Matt Conroy according to my source. 

Matt Conroy is supposed to be very very good. When I say this, apparently his attitude is by far the best in the squad and is very humble. 

These days you get a lot of young kids who are extremely up themselves, and are only playing the game because they good at it, but have no real passion for Football.

As said by Hudson blasting young players when they were complaining about missing music festivals over the New Year break.

Matt is said to be one of the brightest players in the squad and is very professional. 

Charles Spragg seems to have been playing rep football for years - or maybe he's got an older bro'?

heard he is a decent middle distance runner so has a massive engine 

Thomas Spragg, 23, was at Auckland City a while back.

A few other Spragg's around this age group - played NYL at Suburbs last year. 

Not sure of any relation.

Good attitude with a massive engine. Sounds like the NZF blueprint for All Whites to me.

Have also heard Oliver Duncan from the Brisbane Roar is very good - just missed out on final selection for the Australian u17 squad apparently

Thomas - Spragg - Charles Spragg are brothers

with younger brother Oscar also in the wider Auckland NZ U17 training squad

that's a lot of Spragg sprogs

Hopefully we these players will get on the radar of pro teams (apart from phoenix)

I go to saint kents and saw him today, i imagine that he would stay there because of his trasnfer to eastern suburbs.

He's also pretty fudgeing good at football, so his selection deffo isn't part of some auckland private school stitch-up.

Spraggs moved to St Kents from Kings college to be with Zorro

Leon has moved from MAGS to Sacred Heart to be with Danny

Mata also left full ride in Welly with the nix to go back to the glory of school boy football at St Kents

i think he went back to train with the U17's squad more reguarly - plus he has had home sickness before.

Didn't he bail out on a West Ham scholarship because of home sickness?

He wont make an professional career if he can't leave Auckland.

Still a kid... he might have matured / grown out of it now.

Did any players miss out on this cycle of u17s to be held back for the next as they did with big max Mata two years ago?

And Jeff Vader - Ben Mata could be max's minder if he went abroad. Just like entourage.

Goodluck in the islands boys. Looks like an exciting squad.

Ps I guess the squad that qualifies the team isn't always the team that goes to the WC if the U20s are anything to go by with their renewed talent search.

When do they play their first game?

Feb 12th

3:00pm Monday our time. official programme here https://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc-u-17-champion...

doesn't look like its on sky sport, any ideas where this might be streamed? 

Pretty sure it is, limited coverage I was told

at a glance

Do we know if there is any coverage of the game online?

Asked NZ Football and OFC on twitter if there was coverage and it appears online tweet updates for the matches

Which is all you should really expect for an under-17 tournament :)

Can always hope they might have the one camera, youtube live videos. I would say that highlights of the match will most likely be on the OFC Football Youtube channel the next day https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5_ARWRWjWNIAyHBAG3eiFQ

the whole youtube live idea does seem pretty simple not sure why this couldn't be done...

Under 17s are 2-0 up after 10 minutes

5′ GOAL!! SAM 0-1 NZL | Willem EBBINGE scores following the indirect free kick #OFCU17M #SAMNZL 0-1

— OFC Oceania Football (@OFCfootball) February 13, 2017

10′ GOAL!!! SAM 0-2 NZL | Willem EBBINGE follows up on an attempted clearance from Osa SAVELIO #OFCU17M #SAMNZL 0-2

— OFC Oceania Football (@OFCfootball) February 13, 2017

Another two goals in the space of a minute

20′ GOAL!!! SAM 0-3 NZL | Matthew PALMER delivers the cross and it’s a sweetly struck finish from Charles SPRAGG #OFCU17M #SAMNZL 0-3

— OFC Oceania Football (@OFCfootball) February 13, 2017

21′ GOAL!!! SAM 0-4 NZL | A quick follow up goal as Kingsley SINCLAIR sends a low drive in at the back post #OFCU17M #SAMNZL 0-4

— OFC Oceania Football (@OFCfootball) February 13, 2017

At half time New Zealand U17s lead Samoa 5-0

40′ GOAL!!! SAM 0-5 NZL | Charles SPRAGG gets on the board again with an excellent finish past a diving FETU #OFCU17M #SAMNZL 0-5

— OFC Oceania Football (@OFCfootball) February 13, 201

HALF TIME | New Zealand lead 5-0 in their match against Samoa after a dominant half from the Kiwis #OFCU17M #SAMNZL 0-5 pic.twitter.com/v43uVlu2AU

— OFC Oceania Football (@OFCfootball) February 13, 2017

Finished 11-0 Spragg and Palmer got hat-tricks

Next game on thuursday (NZ) agasint solomon islands.