New Zealand Men's U-20s

The thing is, they have to stay in or get into pro environments in order to keep progressing.

Those 50 or so scouts might be looking at NZ players. 

Sure, but there are precious few Kiwis in a pro environment (other than Nix) without a Euro passport - Fitzgerald in Japan, Rojas, Brockie/Boxall in Sth Africa, Tim Payne at Portland?, any at other A league clubs, aside from Kosta, Roux? If our football future relies on accident of birth/passport, then we need to find a way to develop more pro environments.

Fudge sake, they were there when it mattered !

The only NZ mens team to get to this stage as far as I know. Acquitted themselves well against a good team. 

Can hold their heads high

Over your surprise yet

Well done Bazely

What impressed me most was the croud. Was quite impressive to be in the heart of Chiefs country and to be in the middle of such a supportive atmosphere.

For a team that I thought was going to be ripped to shreds NZ did stunningly well.

I think you know what I mean. If these players can play like they did v Portugal, it's a shame they couldn't/can't play like it more often and become a team of winners. Coz that's what it will take to get the non-committed NZ public & media onside. e.g. for next month's Olympic qualifiers. Fail there and once more we're going nowhere.

Don't rate Billingsley myself.

I think physically he's ok with good speed, but he's poor in the air for someone so big and his touch and passing is way too heavy.

He gave away as much ball as Dyer.

Did alright against Myanmar, but overall pretty unconvincing... it looked like his job was to run and close down rather than create.

Blake was immense and should have generated some interest.

NZ U20s: The good, the bad and the questionable

Why was Jesse Edge, predominantly a central player, used at right-back? The Vicenza 1902 player looked uncomfortable on the flank and would be more suited to a defensive midfield role.

Why did Moses Dyer play almost every minute of every game? Dyer was playing 1st XI football until last year and the step up was too big. There was no questioning his work rate or endeavour but he was found wanting in and out of possession. A curious selection.

What happened to Matt Ridenton? He was supposed to be one of the premier players on the team, but the Phoenix midfielder wasn't in the picture for the final two games. He struggled against the United States, like most of the team, but his experience could have been handy against Portugal.

Why didn't Stuart Holthusen get more time? On limited evidence, the University of Akron striker looked the only genuine poacher in the New Zealand team. In a short time against Portugal he scored once and got in a handy position for another, dragging his shot wide. Perhaps deserved an earlier opportunity.

Why was Alex Rufer played out of position? To most judges, including Ernie Merrick, Rufer is a midfielder, and his composure and strength on the ball would have been handy in that area. He worked extremely hard but didn't fire up front.

PEC Zwolle midfielder Ryan Thomas and fellow All White Tyler Boyd missed the age cut-off for this team by 11 days and two days respectively.

To be honest Ridenton and Rufer where disappointing. Rufer may played out of position, but when he had the ball nothing really worked for him. Did Ridenton even played? This should be their big tournament could be break through.

Brings me to the point that the 'former-All Whites' system sucks, big time. How many other former (insert National Team here) kids play in any other international teams, ever? We have three in one team! I'm not saying that those former All Whites kids are bad players, they are just average. And they are only average because they got good coaching for years. Ask yourself, if 1000 other kids had the same attention in their youth than these three former-All Whites u20 kids, do you think any of those 3 where still in the team? Very unlikely.

I personally thought Rufer did ok and showed some good strength.

Playing alone up top he quite often had a couple players on him straight away so getting a touch was difficult.

4 actually - Ridenton, Rufer, Edge De Jong. The wee NIx and U17s squad have more SOFWs (Sons of Former All Whites).

who cares what their last names are - judge them on the performances they gave not on their parents - play the ball mate not the man.

NZ hardly has a large pool of players to pick from compared to most other countries, not surprising that you recognise some names.

To be fair that's a bit tough on Jeremy/Plodder.  

He was a stand-out in the U17 team and when I played with and against him, he was markedly better then most of the boys (Lockhead etc) who had decent playing careers following that '99 World Cup.  

Dyer is definitely not better then most of the boys in the U20 team.

Dyer is nearly two years younger than most of his team in his defence.

Having watched a few more games today and the woeful finishing etc... I'm beginning to think some of our criticisms have been unfair and perhaps our players are not quite as limited as we believe.

Technically its 3 as Jesse Edge is Declan's nephew

Arabest - Mr Pedantic

Both Argentina and Uruguay had sons of former players in their squads for this tournament too - Gus Poyet's kid and Diego Simeone's kid. 

But this would explain why England didn't even qualify.

And when they do....

Has there been any transfer talk for any of the players?

I saw online somewhere we finished 14th out of 24 teams, of course now I can't find that article.  Is this correct? 

Yeah, 14th. Spanish Wikipedia has a table

New Zealand: finished in the top 16 teams ahead of Argentina and Mexico as the best of all the third placed teams in group play.

(Which placed NZ as the 13th best team of the 24 after group play)

Junior All Whites final tournament ranking: 14th

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_U-20_World...

Ahead of Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Hungary etc.

NZ were the eleventh best team in number of goals scored:

http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/statistics/teams/g...

Ahead of Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Mexico, Austria, Ghana, Senegal, Honduras etc.

No one would have predicted that before the tournament.

And.... how far ahead of Australia?!

We were 25th Equal

its amazing that we beat Myanmar (maybe one of the worst teams to ever qualify for a FIFA wc) and it can improve our global ranking. 

Why are they one of the worst teams to qualify?

How would their entry be any different to Australia's if they had made it through. Same comp, same opposition. Yes they weren't great, but in all of their games they showed some great patches.

They were a competitive team until half time.

They played the better football for the first half

All 3 games. 

Memories...those golden memories...

Full Game NZ vs. Portugal

Euro Sport English commentary:

http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2015/06/11/port...

One video for each half. Click on appropiate tab at top of video window.

Man, this a great website for recent matches from all over the world on demand plus magazine shows and season reviews etc.

Has all the Copa America games too, if like me you missed them while focusing on the u-20 World Cup.

http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/News/ViewArticle/tabid/125/Article/920e0006-c86d-4d3e-8f5e-15beeb56f3fe/language/en-US/Default.aspx

2016 OFC U-20 Championship Draw Results

Group A
Vanuatu (VAN)
Fiji (FIJ)
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
New Caledonia (NCL)

Group B
Tahiti (TAH)
Solomon Islands (SOL)
New Zealand (NZL)
Preliminary Winners (TBC)

 

The 2016 OFC U-20 Championship will be held in Port Vila and Luganville in Vanuatu from 3-17 September 2016.

You'd think Rogerson, Oli Sail and McGarry would be in the mix. Think they are all eligible.