Look CO I agree with a lot of your points. And good luck to your son I hope he makes the U17's for Brazil. But I'm sure as parent you will be proud no matter what.
Also what a fantastic achievement today by the U20's. However that performance owes a shark load more to what those young players have learned in the years at the Welnix & Ole Academies (and earlier), than anything they gained when they were in the NZ U17's (for those that were), or even what they have gained being in camp with Buckingham and co the last few weeks.
The hand of mad hatter Declan esp is all over that scoreline.
Thing is that for example Just, Wilkins, Woud, and soon to be McCowatt are all now in Europe. Cacace & Singh will surely soon follow.
Some of these guys will also hopefully be with the U23s in Tokoyo, and so feature on our TV screens briefly amongst all the other Olympic Games coverage.
But what after that? If they carve out solid careers in Europe or even MLS they will just be You Tube downloads on a Sunday morning.
Some will also feature in the AWs home inter-confed playoff game here in March 2022. But mostly they will very rarely play again on our shores (esp in any non sharkty OFC games), as the AWs barely play, let alone at home.
That's my real lament. Maybe it's the spend at the U17 level that needs review? Keep the U20 programme - but are the U17s really necessary?
No easy answers.
