New Zealand U-23s - Quali Whites

Aaaa!  Kusoooo!

That goal was overdue

Neil is looking lost and his pass is tangled again.

Do we have any subs?

Oh Nelsen!!

Yeah, only subbed on Howieson for McGeorge I think it was, so far.

lol, that has to be the funniest fake injury roll I've seen in a while! 

Do a barrel roll.

FUCKING MAGIC!

FUCKING MAGIC!

Ha! You cheeky bastards, good work lads!

all right!!

Lol we just pillaged them, what a fluke result!!!

Nicely placed by Lucas, was that Rojas and Howieson up there as well?

Unbelievable escape!!  Well taken

Totally undeserved, but I will take it happily.

Nelsen has no idea what is going on.

YES YES YES! That made it worth staying up until 1am.

Better or worse than any of the WC2010 draws?

Are we now joint winners of the coveted Kirin challenge cup?

I was hoping for a penalty shootout to decide it.

We have a trophy and Australia does not, that is all I am seeing.

Kosta won the ball, Macro dummied, Lucas scored.

If the Japanese could finish a rice-ball, we would have needed six in lost time to get a draw.

Brazil will not be so generous

Happy. But sucks that it had to be Dakota Lukas who scored it! 

Anyone potentially able to do some match ratings? Opinions of what changes need to be made before Olympics

SACK EMBLEN HIRE RICKI

BELARUS SQUAD ANNOUNCED:

http://news.belta.by/en/news/sport?id=686862

Mentions four over-aged players - surely only three allowed?

They all play in Belarus or Russia.

Over-age striker Sergei Kornilenko may be familiar as he played on loan to Blackpool in the Premier League in 2011.

Renan Bressan is a naturalised Brazilian midfielder eligible since February for Belarus with Champions Lge and Europa Lge experience with BATE Borisov. 

MINSK, 9 July (BelTA) – Head coach of Belarus’ national Olympic football team Georgy Kondratyev announced the final squad for the 2012 London Olympics, BelTA learnt.

The press service of the Belarusian Football Federation noted that the Olympic squad application has been submitted to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).

Belarus team:

Goalkeepers: Alexander Hutar (born 1989), Andrei Shcherbakov (1991) (both are contracted to BATE, Borisov), Filipp Voytekhovich (1990; Frej Taby, Sweden).

Defensemen: Alexei Kozlov (1989) (Torpedo-BelAZ, Zhodino), Maksim Vitus (1989; Neman, Grodno), Igor Kuzmenok (1990; Gomel), Denis Polyakov (1991) (BATE, Borisov), Vitaly Gaiduchek (1989, Brest), Alexei Gavrilovich (1990, Naftan, Novopolotsk), Sergei Politevich (1990), Oleg Veretilo (1988) (both are contracted to Dinamo Minsk).

Midfielders: Dmitry Baha (1990), Renan Bressan (1988) (both are contracted to BATE, Borisov), Ilya Aleksievich (1991, Gomel), Artem Solovey (1990) (Torpedo-BelAZ, Zhodino), Mikhail Gordeichuk (1989) (Belshina, Bobruisk), Stanislav Drahun (1988, Dinamo, Minsk).

Forwards: Yegor Zubrovich (1989, Naftan, Novopolotsk), Andrei Voronkov (1989, Neman, Grodno), Maksim Skavysh (1989, Belshina, Bobruisk), Vladimir Khvashchinskiy (1990, Brest), Sergei Kornilenko (1983, Krylia Sovetov, Samara, Russia).

Stanislav Drahun from Dinamo (Minsk) has been named captain of Belarus’ Olympic football team.

Head coach Georgy Kondratyev has called up four mature players. They are forward Sergei Kornilenko, midfielders Stanislav Drahun and Renan Bressan, and also defenseman Oleg Veretilo.

Belarus national team goes to Colchester (the UK) on 11 July, where they will live until the start of the Olympics. Belarus football team is set to play three friendlies on 14, 18 and 22 July. On 14 and 22 July the team will play against English football clubs, and on 18 July Belarus’ team will encounter Japan in Nottingham. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

EGYPT SQUAD NAMED:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18780896

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

Ahly midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika is one of three over-age players named in the Egypt squad for the Olympic football tournament. Aboutrika is one of the greatest African players of the last decade (two time African Nations Cup winner 2006, 2008).

Coach Hany Ramzy's two other over-age players, Emad Moteab and Ahmed Fathi, also play for six-time African champions Al Ahly.

Ramzy initially named 73 players that he was considering for the games and they have had numerous friendly games since then to decide on his team including taking part in the recent Arab Cup in Saudi Arabia. 

Twelve players already have a dozen or more u-23 caps.

Star u-23 players include Ahmed Hegazy (Fiorentina, Italy) and Mohamed Salah (FC Basel, Switzerland).

Marwan Mohsen has scored a phenomenal 20 goals in 32 u-23 internationals.

Squad (over-age players marked *): Name / Age / u-23 Caps / Goals / Club

Goalkeepers:1 GK Ahmed El-Shenawy  (aged 21) 15 0  Zamalek/ 21 GK Mohamed Bassam  (aged 21) 4  0  El Geish 

Defenders: 3 DF Ali Fathy  (aged 20) 16 0  Al-Mokawloon Al-Arab/ 5 DF Mahmoud Alaa El-Din  (aged 21) 11 0  Haras El-Hodood/ 6 DF Ahmed Hegazy  (aged 21) 20 0  Fiorentina/ 7 DF Ahmed Fathi*  (age 27) 0 0  Al-Ahly/ 12 DF Islam Ramadan  (aged 21) 10 0  Haras El Hodood/ 15 DF Saad Samir  (aged 23) 12 0  Al Masry/ 20 DF Omar Gaber  (aged 20) 16 2  Zamalek

Midfielders: 8 MF Shehab El-Din Ahmed  (aged 21) 20 1  Al-Ahly/ 13 MF Saleh Gomaa  (aged 18) 19 3  ENPPI/ 14 MF Hossam Hassan  (aged 23) 30 1  Al Masry/ 17 MF Mohamed El-Nenny  (aged 20) 19 3  Al-Mokawloon Al-Arab/ 22 MF Mohamed Aboutrika* (c)  (age 33) 0 0  Al-Ahly/

 Forwards: 9 FW Marwan Mohsen  (aged 23) 32 20  Petrojet/ 10 FW Emad Motaeb*  (age 29) 0 0  Al-Ahly/ 18 FW Ahmed Magdi  (aged 22) 14 2  Ghazl El Mahalla/ 19 FW Mohamed Salah (aged 20) 17 6  FC Basel

I'll take a93rd minute goal from anyone thank you - the Japanese out played us across the park. may be different with Wood, Tommy Smyth back in nthe frame and Rojas starting.

Remember Emblem took off Nelsen to put on Lucas, how not is that NZ football as we know it!

That was tough to watch.  I hope that travel played a part, but I suspect not much.

Gleeson has a decent game, although should have done slightly better with the goal.  However he wasn't helped a all by Musa being stagnant. 

Most of their attack in the first half game down our left hand side when Hogg was caught horribly out of position.

Respect to Kosta for his work on the goal.  To sneak position in the 94th minute when it seemed unlikely was a fine effort.  Both Marco and Lucas made great runs after that as well.

Yeah watched the replay this evening. 

Wish Eages had made the squad as his versatility would be nice in an 18 man squad. 

Who took the armband after Nelly went off? I couldn't pick it out, but it wasn't Smeltzy

Blew...don't really know what you're on about. Think you get the wrong idea of what I was saying 

is there highlights anywhere I can watch?

Just got round to watching the replay, here are my thoughts:

1) I wouldn't read too much into that game as a whole, because our squad was depleted by illness, injury, and players yet to arrive while Japan were playing at home in front of big crowd. They have been playing together much longer than we have, and although I know we only have 2 more games before the Olympics and our opponents there will all have been playing together for a while too, at least our guys have a couple more weeks together to work on the team shape in training and so on. Also I'd say that the neutrals (especially local ones) in the crowds at the Olympics will go for us over Belarus and Egypt at least so the environment won't be as hostile for our young fullas as it was in this match.

2) Smith instead of Musa should make a world of difference, especially as Smith's distribution is far better, and that should allow us to keep possession a bit more. 

3) Nelsen needs to watch his discipline, he should have been sent off in that game and if he gets dismissed at the Olympics it would be disastrous for us. Imagine playing against Brazil with 10 men for instance. 

4) Good show of heart from Kosta to keep fighting for the ball in the 94th minute after your team's taken a pounding. Between him and Marco creating and Wood and Smeltz finishing, goal-scoring shouldn't be too hard for us. 

Although we got outplayed I'm not unhappy with that game. I'm really interested to see how we play against Korea now

Well, if we continue to have the 100% conversion rate from our chances, maybe. But somehow think that's unlikely to happen.

The worst thing about that game was that Japan was absolute pants - and they still bossed us without any problems other than the 94th minute. If that had been a team that actually knew what they were doing, the scoreline could have been well embarrasing.

Don`t see Musa as the problem

McGeorge and Feneridis aren`t exactly creative geniuses in the midfield

Wouldn`t be surprised if Smith is played in a mid field role

Always said it needed more Lindsay and Eager in midfield.  No idea what they see in those two.

Have a feeling Korea on Saturday night will be better than Japan - some class players with Premier Lge experience etc. who should prove more adept at putting the ball in the back of the net:

Park Chu- Young (Arsenal striker, age 27) - although he only made six appearances for the Arse last season, it still suggests a certain level of ability (91 apps for Monaco in Ligue 1, 25 goals)

Ji Dong-Won (Sunderland striker, 21 years) - 16 apps for the senior Korea team, 4 goals in six games in the 2011 Asian Cup, 21 apps (2 goals) for Sunderland last season including the memorable late winner against Man City on New Years' Day.

Ki Sung-Yeung (Celtic central midfielder, age 23) - six years at school in Brisbane and winner of Aussie u-15 nationals, decided to play in K-League rather than sign for Brisbane Roar, one of the tallest national team players in Asia at 6' 2", a first team regular at Celtic since 2009 and one of their best players (66 apps, 9 goals). Much sought-after by Premier Lge and Bundesliga clubs, rumoured to be on verge of joining Our Ryan and Park Ji-Sung at QPR. 45 apps already for the senior Korea side, incl. all four matches at World Cup 2010.

Koo Ja-Cheol - (Wolfsburg central midfielder in Bundesliga, on loan to Augsburg, aged 23) - 22 apps for Wolfsburg, 15 for Augsburg. 27 apps for senior Korea team - tournament top-scorer at the 2011 Asian Cup (5 goals).  

Goalie is Jung Sung-Ryong (aged 27, Suwon in K-Lge) - number one goalkeeper for the national team, rated one of the best in Asia. All four games at 2010 World Cup and all six games at 2011 Asian Cup.