New Zealand U-23s - Quali Whites

Egypt Olympic 1 v Lebanon (senior) 1 in Arab Nations Cup this morning, meaning Egypt failed to make the semis, finishing third in their group behind Iraq and Sudan.

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Team Great Britain: three over-age players revealed - no Becks. Full squad named in next few days:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18624174

Pearce, who watched Beckham play for Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States last week, picked Manchester City defender Micah Richards ahead of him.

Pearce rang Beckham on Wednesday night to tell him the news, explaining that he wanted more defensive cover in the squad.

Richards has been included alongside Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs and Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy as the three over-age players. 

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Michael McGlinchey - only Scottish footballer at the Olympics it seems - none likely in Pearce's squad - so gaining attention in Scottish media:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/world-football/2012/07/01/ex-celtic-star-michael-mcglinchey-could-be-only-scottish-footballer-at-olympics-after-new-zealand-call-up-86908-23902818/

Ex-Celtic Star Michael McGlinchey Could Be Only Scottish Footballer at Olympics after New Zealand Call-up

Jul 1 2012 by Scott McDermott, Sunday Mail

Michael McGlinchey has the chance of a lifetime to play football at the Olympics – and says it’s a crying shame more Scots won’t be joining him.

The Glasgow-born New Zealand international has been called up as one of the All Whites’ over-age players for the Games in London this summer.

He was stunned when he found that, along with QPR defender Ryan Nelsen and Kiwi striker Shane Smeltz, he’d be spearheading their bid for a medal.

Since McGlinchey left Celtic three years ago he has settled at Australian club Central Coast Mariners and become a regular for his adopted country.

The former Scotland Under-19 starlet is ecstatic at the prospect of featuring in the Olympics – and can’t believe Team GB boss Stuart Pearce has snubbed all the tartan talent.

Celtic told coach Pearce that James Forrest wouldn’t be available for selection while the SFA have constantly repeated their stance against Scots being picked for the GB side.

The likes of Jordan Rhodes, Barry Bannan and Steven Fletcher had agreed to play but they were left out of the 18-man squad.

And McGlinchey said: “It’s a shame that more young Scottish players won’t get a genuine once-in-a-lifetime chance to play at the Olympics.

“I can understand Celtic wanting to pull the likes of Forrest out due to the Champions League qualifiers but it should be the players’ decisions.

“I’m so grateful to my club for giving me a month off to play at the Olympics. It’s a tournament any player would want to be involved in and it’s sad that more Scots won’t be part of the GB team.

“I might be the only ‘Scot’ playing football at the Olympics, which is strange. But I’ve had a rollercoaster three years since moving to Australia – getting to the World Cup with New Zealand and now this.

Since when is McGlinchey Glasgow-born?

Since the whole premise of the article is that he is Scottish.

Well, he is Scottish really, for all intents and purposes - his parents are Scottish, and he's lived most of his life in Scotland. But he was born in New Zealand.

I was pretty sure the only reson he is elligible for us is that he was born here.  Apart from his first year he hadn't been back until he came with the Mariners.

Marvin Sordell, Age 21    After 78 apperances for Watford sold to Bolton Jan 2012 for an undisclosed fee

Jack Cork, Age 23   11 years at Chelsea, sold to Southampton 2011 for 750,000 pound, played in every league game for the team that gained promotion to the premiership 2011-12. Played for England at every age group U16 - U23

James Tomkins, Age 23   15 years at West Ham, 104 first team apperances. Played for England at every age group U16 -U23

Just because they are not household names doesn`t mean they don`t have pedigree

I`m sure the Nix would jump at the chance to have any of the above on their books 

We are going to get thumped.

http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/News/ViewArticle/tabid/125/Article/64e0a6c1-28e7-4f26-abe2-b3b4e4feda5f/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Brazil squad:

Goalkeepers: Rafael Cabral (Santos), Neto (Fiorentina) 

Defenders
Marcelo (Real Madrid), Rafael (Manchester United), Danilo (Porto), Alex Sandro (Porto), Thiago Silva (AC Milan), Juan (Inter Milan), Bruno Uvini (Sao Paulo) 

Midfielders
Romulo (Vasco da Gama), Ganso (Santos), Oscar (Internacional), Sandro (Tottenham Hotspur), Lucas (Sao Paulo)

Forwards
Neymar (Santos), Alexandre Pato (AC Milan), Leandro Damiao (Internacional), Hulk (Porto)

Wow. Anyone know the squad strength of Belarus and Egypt? Definitely will be aiming for 4 points from those 2 games

Getting any points from those two games unfortunately will also prove tough - neither country has named their squad yet but both have been playing regular friendlies over the last several months and the u-23 players are pretty firm. A drawback we have is we're bringing our side together very late compared to Belarus and Egypt. Belarus qualified a year ago and started playing friendlies to prepare for London in September last year.  A big emphasis on youth development means Egypt have played the most u-23 games of all finalists for London: 38 competitive matches and friendlies to date since the current u-23's started their preparations for African qualifying with friendlies from July 2010. P: 38 W: 20 D: 9 L: 9 They've played 13 matches this year including three in the Arab Nations Cup last week. Before London they are playing Gabon, Ireland and Honduras u-23 sides in France: 15, 17, 19 July.

BELARUS: European teams qualify for the Olympics through the UEFA u-21 Championship in which Belarus finished third behind Spain and Switzerland in June last year, after causing Spain a lot of problems in the semi (led 1-0 until Spain equalized on 89 mins and went on to win in extra-time). Belarus are regularly a top country at u-21 level in Europe and have qualified for the UEFA u-21 Finals in 2004, 2009, 2011 (is held every two years).

Most of their side come from the Belarus league (have a pop. of 9.5 million and much stronger than ASB Premiership) which has some decent clubs like BATE Barisov (Group stage Chmps Lge 2008- 2009, 2011-2012. Group stage Europa Lge. 2009-2010, knockout stage Europa Lge 2010-2011 -pipped on away goals by PSG) and Dinamo Minsk.

Possible Players for Olympic Side: Over-age: Alexander Hleb (KSS, Russian Premier Lge, 31 years MF, former Stuttgart, Arsenal, Barcelona player) - won la Liga and Chmps Lge (2009); Anton Putsila (MF, Freiburg, Germany), Mikhail Sivakov (MF, Waregam, Belgium); Stanislaw Drahun (Dinamo Minsk), Igor Shitov (D, Dynamo Moscow), Pavel Nyakhaychyk (MF, Dynamo Moscow) - Chmps Lge experience, stand-out midfielder at the UEFA u-21 Finals. They have a dozen national team players who play in the Russian Premier Lge to draw on.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_national_under-23_football_team

EGYPT:  Made it to the CAF (Africa) u-23 Finals Nov.- Dec. 2011, Morocco by beating Botswana and Sudan home and away March - June 2011. Topped their group in pool play in the finals (two groups of four) ahead of Gabon, Ivory Coast and South Africa. Straight to the semis: lost 2-3 to hosts Morocco. Beat Senegal 2-0 in third-fourth play-off. (Gabon beat Morocco 2-1 in the Final). This is Egypt's tenth Olympic football appearance. At senior level they have been African champions the most times (seven) incl. 2006, 2008, 2010.

Possible Players for Olympic Side: Over-age players: El Muhammady (MF, 24 yrs, Sunderland), Ahmed Said Okka (Lierse, Belgium), Doody El-Gabbas (Lierse, Belgium), Mohamad Zidan (Mainz, Germany), Ahmad Hassan (MF, Zamalek, 36 yrs, record 183 caps, long career in Turkey and Anderlecht, Belgium). Star u-23 players: Ahmed Hegazy (CB, 20 yrs, Fiorentina, Italy), Mohamed Salah (FW, 20 yrs, FC Basel, Switzerland), Ahmed Hassan Mahgoub (FW, 19 yrs, Rio Ave, Portugal)

Coach: Hany Ramzy, Wynton Rufer's team-mate at Werder Bremen early '90's.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt_national_under-23_football_team

For more details and videos of both Belarus and Egypt, see my previous posting several postings back above ^

Excellent chance to see Egypt and Belarus (and Japan we're playing in a friendly) in the French Toulon tournie in May. All games highlights here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2o00TNiJVU&feature=plcp

Apparently this is happening next saturday

Yeah, I'll be at World Cup stadium for this. Can't wait!

I don't get it- NZ Olympic football team supposed to be playing Japan in Tokyo on the 11th (Thurs. morning NZT), and looking at players' Twitter accounts, Chris Wood was talking of just completing the second day of pre-season at West Brom eleven hours ago, so obvously not with the squad.

Seems some players are not being released by their clubs for this one - think I read that clubs are not obliged to release players until the 11th, so tough on some like Wood who seem to be joining the camp late... 

NZ Football are leaving it much too late to bring the squad together compared to the other sides in our group who have been playing regularly since last year (Egypt and Belarus) or since about May 20 (Brazil) and have a lot of tough friendlies under their belts already. Most of our players have been available for some months (or a full month now in the case of those involved with the All Whites in Honiara)- so they could have brought them together earlier.

No publicity whatsoever from NZ Football on the Olympic side coming together and the Japan game, which is really poor...

Found this from Cameron Howieson on Twitter:

@HendrixTui leaving tomorrow morning for Tokyo, there from the 9th-12th, playing on the 11th at 7:55pm at National Stadium against Japan.

Given how much Sky are plugging the Olympics already you would think they might actually be keen to show these games to  help get people excited about it

The Korea game starts 9pm NZ time, so if it starts at 9.30 here it'll be delayed only by half an hour, which is not too bad.

Yeah I found it odd that Adam Thomas was playing on Sunday in the Chatham Cup when there's a game on Wednesday, figured he'd be one of the ones they could get there earlier. Understand it's hard for the top players, but surely Melville isn't as big a drawcard!

Yeah I found it odd that Adam Thomas was playing on Sunday in the Chatham Cup when there's a game on Wednesday, figured he'd be one of the ones they could get there earlier. Understand it's hard for the top players, but surely Melville isn't as big a drawcard!

Wrong you numpty.  10:55 KO.

Dunno. My sauce in Korea said 6pm local/9pm NZ time, so I went with that.

I think 2ndBest is getting confused with the Japan game

i think you're right. I'm the numpty.

Japan game: NZ Football confirm Chris Wood and Tommy Smith not released by clubs for this one (all for the sake of a couple of days of pre-season fitness work, no games scheduled by clubs West Brom or Ipswich).

Marco Rojas arrives in Tokyo only on the morning of the match (no explanation given), Tim Myers has a virus and Dakota Lucas an ankle injury...so could be down to 14 players including one arriving hours before.

New Zealand v Japan
National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan
Wednesday 11 July, 7.55pm (10.55pm NZT)
Live on Sky Sport 3 from 10.30pm

New Zealand: (from) 1-Jake GLEESON (GK), 2-Tim PAYNE, 3-Ian HOGG, 4-Tim MYERS, 6-Ryan NELSEN (Captain), 7-Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8-Michael McGLINCHEY, 9-Shane SMELTZ, 11-Marco ROJAS, 12-Adam THOMAS, 13-Alex FENERIDIS, 14-James MUSA, 15-Cameron HOWIESON, 16-Dakota LUCAS, 17-Adam McGEORGE, 18-Michael O'KEEFFE (GK).
Coach: Neil EMBLEN

Japan: 
Coach: Takashi SEKIZUKA       Five play in Germany, one in the Netherlands, rest in the J-League:

Goalkeepers: 1 Shuichi Gonda  (age 23) F.C. Tokyo, 18 Shunsuke Ando  (age 21)  Kawasaki Frontale 

Defenders: 2 Yuhei Tokunaga  (age 28)  F.C. Tokyo, 4 Hiroki Sakai  (age 22  Hannover 96, 5 Maya Yoshida  (age 23)  VVV-Venlo, 8 Kazuya Yamamura  (age 22)  Kashima Antlers, 12 Gotoku Sakai  (age 21) VfB Stuttgart, 13 Daisuke Suzuki (age 22) Albirex Niigata 

Midfielders: 3 Takahiro Ogihara  (age 20) Cerezo Osaka, 6 Taisuke Muramatsu  (age 22) Shimizu S-Pulse, 10 Keigo Higashi (age 21) Omiya Ardija, 14 Takashi Usami  (age 20) TSG Hoffenheim, 16Hotaru Yamaguchi  (age 21)  Cerezo Osaka, 17 Hiroshi Kiyotake  (age 22) 1. FC Nuremberg 

Forwards: 7 Yuki Otsu (age 22) Borussia Mönchengladbach, 9 Kenyu Sugimoto  (age 19) Tokyo Verdy, 11 Kensuke Nagai  (age 23) Nagoya Grampus, 15 Manabu Saito  (age 22) Yokohama F. Marinos  

Japan play NZ's Olympic opponents Belarus in a friendly on July 18 in Nottingham, so will be useful for gauging respective strengths...

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Korea game 6pm Saturday 14th Korea time (9pm NZ time) - expecting crowd of 40,000 at the World Cup Stadium, Seoul!

This from Kiwis living in Korea:

Kia ora Kiwis,

as you all may know by now, the NZ under 23 Olympic team will play a match here in Seoul Korea, on the 14th of July 2012 at 6pm.

They will play Korea Under 23, at the Seoul World Cup stadium.

This stadium is located on line number 6, the brown line - same as the Itaewon line.

This is our chance as Kiwis, to show our support for our Kiwi boys.

As the game is to be played at 6pm, we will look at meeting up for a picnic at the World Cup park.

So come on out and enjoy this great day with fellow Kiwis, Koreans and other expats. Lets show Korea how we Kiwis party lol!!!

Please wear a WHITE shirt on the day, as we need to stand out. They expect some 40,000 plus people for this game, so it will be big.

The "S" stand area is a free moving area.

SUPPORT OUR BOYS IN "WHITE"!!! 

SUPPORTERS GOING TO BRITAIN - CONTACT TVNZ NEWS FOR STORY:

From All Whites Facebook page:

1. 

   Heather du Plessis-Allanposted toAll Whites

    

   19 hours ago

   Anyone going over to the Olympics to support the Oly-Whites? We're keen to catch up with supporters for TV1 news. If you are going, please drop me a line!

    

    

   Email the Wellington newsroom:newswn@tvnz.co.nz  or ph. 04 914 5095.
   
   Follow Heather on Twitter @hdpaONENews

My basic knowledge of Japan tells me they must be quite good, no Ryo Miyaichi named, best team in Asia, must be rather decent, be intresting to see how we go, being a bit under-strength and all.

Fire up.

totally forgot this was tonight. Hmm hopefully I can watch! Lets not embarass ourselves lads

Whatever the result is, I'm expecting the Brazil result to be 5 times worse, so hopefully we put up a fight tonight.

Looking forward to this game. Interested to see how they go, won't be too disappointed even if they get spanked tonight, it is a warmup game after all.

Anyone know of any streams

Please, esp. for those of us living overseas.

I can never understand these people who say "any stream?" when they theoretically have access to Google same as the rest of us. I've found this, but it's in Japanese.

@ Dolaras, its because some of us, like me in the UK, aren't able to find said links as the British govt. makes my internet provider block these sorts of things in web searches due to fact that they are a breach of copyright.

The ground announcer sounds like the freakin' Iron Chef. This is fantastic.

Thats made my night Doloras. This guy is fantastic.

Can't wait to see if they do the NZ team. "NAAMBAARU WAAAAN... JEEIIKO GUREEEESONNN!"

these ads are even better!