New Zealand U-23s - Quali Whites

Meanwhile Fiji

Fiji's preparation in Spain

"What do you mean New Zealand didn't qualify for the Olympics"

really feel for these young men today . reading about others fulfilling a dream of making an olympic team must be a hard pill to take.

Since the tournament isn't part of FIFA calendar many teams have problems to select their squads, Argentina manager Martino resigned today

What might have been.....

With 18-man squads being announced, who would you have picked? (leave out any over-age players)

After 10 mins thought, I'd go for

Max Crocombe

Nik Tzanev

Storm Roux

Declan Wynne

Kip Colvey

Luke Adams

Adam Mitchell

Cory Brown

Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi

Tom Biss

Matt Ridenton

Andre de Jong

Ryan Thomas

Tyler Boyd

Monty Patterson

Logan Rogerson

Noah Billingley

Joseph Champness (or Joel Stevens if Champness wants to be an Aussie)

didn't pick Cameron or Roux as both back on the road to recovery, or Tuiloma as I think he needs to stay with his club and, really, I'm just not sure about him.

but you pick Roux =) anyway a pretty decent squad but only 2 centre backs, Brotherton should be there

ahhhh shark - I did too

Change Roux for Brock Lesnar Messenger

3 CBs? Adams/Mitchell/Cory Brown

though he (Cory Brown) played only as left back, all right then

I've only seen him play CB - but Pokémon Go Google tells me he is also a LB. Maybe he is primarily a LB who can also play CB

Patterson, Boyd, Thomas, Mitchell could all put club before country plus injuries. Paper teams are the best.

got it! also there is a video on youtube (uploaded by himself) playing for Ole Academy, all games as LB 

Right you are Aza! :)

I'm sure he played as a CB in the U20WC though, but maybe that was a Pokémon

So in my imaginary team, I'd dump Wynne (as he is on the road to recovery) and bring in Brotherton

And yes, this is a paper team....for some reason, NZF aren't employing anyone to pick hypothetical teams.....

Fiji conceded 3 goals in like 2 minutes. Korea have just scored the 5th, how on earth is Tamanisau the best keeper Farina could use? He's awful in every sense. And I know they are just amateurs and may be nervous and all that but they haven't been able to make 2 passes in a row, their only decent play was a shot by Krishna after a long ball

FT. South Korea 8-0 Fiji. Really frustrating to watch. And their next games are Germany and Mexico. At least they have a very nice shirt

If it wasn't for Taminasau they would have lost 15-0, he made at least 9 good saves

Other results.  Japan v Nigeria would have been a cracker to watch.

[quote=2ndBest]

"What do you mean New Zealand didn't qualify for the Olympics"

[/quote

Adds more rolling on the floor to the above when looking at the Fiji result.

So if we can beat the likes of Fiji in the future how big an achievement that would be. Not.

I  haven't watched the game but it seems as though the result isn't a fair representation of the performance.

He was also aboslutely pathetic for a number of their goals.

5-1 against Mexico. Krishna scored Fiji's goal.

All 2nd round results.  2nd nil nil result for Brazil.  hmm.

Fiji lost 10 nil to Germany.  Feel sorry for them, they were in a very tough group.

Yea...but it was a close 10-0 ?

I'd have taken a 'humping' from stronger nations just for us to be there. If we don't play decent opposition, we can't improve.  

Here's an interesting article on Max Crocombe where he expresses his huge disappointment on missing out on the Olympics:

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/carlisle-utd/inside-b...

Does he suspect who shopped Wynne? "Yeah, but I can't say. Someone who was somehow aware of the rules - and made the complaint as soon as the final whistle went. The timing was quite strange."

There were, he later admits, tears among the devastated Kiwi players. "We had all been screened and checked beforehand," he says, "so it was all quite messed up. It can make kids' futures, this, and who knows if the chance will come again? We'd all worked so hard, and then to have the opportunity taken away without losing a game..."

I bet it was Herbert.

Doubt it.

a) Ricki didn't know that Lia couldn't play for the All Whites

b) He was coaching PNG at the time so he would have appealed after NZ beat them in the group stages. That way PNG would qualify for the knock out stages. 

The 'satire' one which has since be taken down? 

http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/all-whites...

Yip. Sad but true. I would love to see De Vries kick on and play for NZ again. With his O-league experience against the top island clubs he could be a real asset in WCQ. 

honestly, what a bunch of monkeys. And who paid for this unacceptable mistake ? . Unfortunately this is an all too common theme in NZ sport. Time to move out of the dark ages and stop sipping Gin and smoking each others pipe . At least in the 60s they weren't paid to be incompetent.

Funny to see deklan wynne back in an all whites top during the USA tour after the s-storm following the U23s. I must say he played pretty well. Goodluck to him for the legal future.

So with Danny Hay ruling himself out of NZ U17 and U20, does that mean he won't be in line for 2020 Olympics in Japan? 

Should whoever is the new coach of All Whites also take U23s?

Would make sense, considering the potentially light load the AWs coach will have over the next couple of years. 

Has there been any news about whether the Pacific Games will be entwined with Olympic qualifiers again next year?