Interesting bit of history which relates to us playing Argentina at u-20 level.
Australia hosted the 1981 FIFA u-20 World Cup so us Kiwis, as the top remaining Oceania side went through to the final round of qualifying.
Australia were permitted to take part in the Oceania qualifying tournament as a guest but weren't eligible to win it.
NZ beat them comfortably anyway.
Interesting debate over whether our youth national sides have actually progressed much.
Because that NZ u-20 side did bloody well against a great Argentina side that supplied some players who went on to win the World Cup in 1986.
Maradona had only recently been an Argentina u-20 rep at that time.
So it was a great generation for them.
First round qualifying tournie in Fiji:
(two groups of four teams)
Oceania U-20 Youth Cup 1980
Fiji, Dec 7-13, 1980.
Group 1
7-12 Fiji 2-2 New Zealand
9-12 New Zealand 5-0 Papua New Guinea
11-12 Fiji 4-2 Papua New Guinea
1. New Zealand 2 1 1 0 7- 2 3 (Played, W. D, L, GF, GA, Pts)
2. Fiji 2 1 1 0 6- 4 3
3. Papua NG 2 0 0 2 2- 9 0
Group 2
6-12 Australia 1-0 Tahiti
9-12 Tahiti 1-2 New Caledonia
11-12 New Caledonia 1-6 Australia
1.Australia 2 2 0 0 7- 1 4
2.New Caledonia 2 1 0 1 3- 7 2
3.Tahiti 2 0 0 2 1- 3 0
3rd/4th place play-off 13-12 Fiji 4-3 New Caledonia
Final 13-12 New Zealand 2-0 Australia
New Zealand won the the Oceania Youth Cup and the right to represent Oceania in the next preliminary round of World Youth Cup qualifiers in South America in February 1981. Australia, as the hosts, qualified for the World Youth Cup automatically.
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Our team's results were surprisingly good, considering that that the final round of qualification was played in Buenos Aires and that the NZ side was completely composed of amateur kids from NZ clubs facing well-known Argentinians from their country's major clubs. NZ had only played a handful of u-20 internationals in our country's history, our youth national team set-up being very haphazard before the 1980's.
We beat Israel in one game and drew the other.
And against Argentina only lost the first match 1-0 and the second 3-0.
It was a very good NZ side containing a teenage Wynton Rufer and Malcolm Dunford (who went on to become one of NZ's best centre-backs of the 1980's and a regular senior All White) amongst other future senior internationals.
I remember it well because I was at Nelson College with the NZ u-20 goalie John Brydon who was two years above me (his future full All White brother Paul was one year above me).
John was my House Prefect in the archaic old English system in place at Nelson College (you were assigned a "House" or school group according to which part of town you lived in), so he was in charge of regular "House Meetings" where school business was discussed.
Coming from a family of dedicated Nelson United football supporters I would talk football with John and so was always in his good books!
And of course John was largely absent from school in 1980 because he was off representing NZ.
John had become Nelson's regular national league goalie at that time after the encumbant broke his leg.
Intercontinental Qualification Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 18-29, 1981 18- 3 New Zealand 0-0 Israel
20- 3 Argentina 1-0 Israel
22- 3 Argentina 1-0 New Zealand
25- 3 Israel 1-2 New Zealand
27- 3 Argentina 3-0 New Zealand
29- 3 Argentina 2-0 Israel
1. Argentina 4 4 0 0 7- 0 8
2. New Zealand 4 1 1 2 2- 5 3
3. Israel 4 0 1 3 1- 5 1
Argentina qualified for
WYC 1981 in Australia.