New Zealand Men's U-17s

If I can chip in on the basis of having run a junior club and been involved with a couple of other sports in junior development: Money is certainly an issue with just about all sports with rugby probably in the best position of strength. I'm going on memory here now, but 3 or 4 years ago my club was charging $70 a year for junior subs and we were one of the least expensive clubs in our region. Whereas there were rugby clubs around us where the kids paid around $40 a season, and sometimes nothing AND they were supplied with socks, water bottles etc all free of charge and funded through quite substantial sponsorships. We just could compete on a $ for $ basis with that. It might not be politically correct but a lot of the kids from low decile areas are athletes and are good at any sport they try their hand at. most parents want the best for their kids and want them to play sport, so it is an easy choice for many to have their kids play rugby because it doesn't cost very much, especially if they have 2, 3 4 or more kids playing. So if the vast majority of their mates are playing rugby, where do those kids on the financial fringe choose to play? usually with their mates, so more athletes are not making their way  to football. The vast number of good athletes find their way into rugby where they are looked after extremely well. The remainder are in a pool that has a number of sports fishing from it. and some of those sports are highly organised [the likes of rowing etc] so football is competing for what is left with a number of others, so more dilution of the gene pool. that is not to say that football doesn't have athletes, they do, but the very best athletes are usually snapped up early by rugby, looked after and kept.

you make it sound like FTC is only place that charge for coaching. don't think there would be to many academies about the place that are not looking to make a profit or are about "cost-recovery"

you make it sound like FTC is only place that charge for coaching. don't think there would be to many academies about the place that are not looking to make a profit or are about "cost-recovery"

Has McGarry ever played LB before? Why is Hay making him play there and not in the mid?

Yes, for WeeNix

Stream?

Probert misses penalty!

He must train with the Nix

Best I've found: http://vipbox.so/soccer/watch-2100ba-new-zealand-u... (it's a bit shark)

Hay giving plenty of lip to the lino there

If we fail to win this it will be down to some horrible finishing!!

I can barely watch this. Possibly the most frustrating, hair-tearing-out 45 of football I've ever observed.

Still playing direct as well. Can we try playing through them??

We do seem to have the strength / pace on them, but we need to change it up a little. To easy to predict.

Our centre backs have not made one single pass forward into the midfield in 45 minutes of football. So we have technical ball players like McCowatt, Parker Price not being given the ball from our backline. Our GK has cleared long on every occasion, not once tried to play out from the back. Is Hay under instruction from Hudson in this style of play?

Hay spending more time having a go at officials than coaching

Yep.  Someone want to tell me how saying "you should be ashamed of yourself referee" is in any way productive? How about "you should be ashamed of yourself Rogerson, you should know about the offside rule at your age".

10 times offside in 65 minutes of footy between rogerson and imrie.

rogerson doesn't get his head up much does he?

Even if he did he couldn't see coz his hair is in his eyes.

Get a hair cut or wear a headband buddy.

He takes up good positions and has some nice touches but he's horribly naive. I know he's young and that will (might) come but it is hard to accept that he's been anywhere near a full AWs squad. 

because a coach telling his players they should be ashamed of themselves mid-game has to be one of the stupidest things they could do? 

Probert had come into the game a lot more. Looks like a real playmaker.

I wasn't actually suggesting he do it, just pointing out where the blame should really lie

Excuse me, I need to go and self-harm. 

Its well recognised that players often follow the lead of their coaches/parents regarding referee abuse. I've just seen our GK, Woud, post match, point at ref and yell "You're a fudgeing joke" Well done Danny Hay.

I'm no expert on local NZ football - but can anyone explain to me how Danny Hay gets a job? Everything he has said in media is ridiculous.

...and within seconds of the final whistle NZ Football post that Rob Sherman is the new DoF.  A cynical person might suggest this is meant to hide the display of the players and coach in Chile and remind us that we've just lost a Director of Football who can be Scapegoated for this.

At least under Jose this team was a pleasure to watch.

I asked this yesterday. What is the real reason Hudson sacked Figueira?

Edit: FFS, sort out the quoting

Apparently Zoro said something similar to this to one kid in that tour to Qatar(?) 

Was it Zoro or his 15 year old St. Kents assistant?

Someone remind me again how Andy Martin still has a job?

The lack of media coverage has been dissapointing, I know our media is focus on other things, but the least they could

do is give the results on one news.

Today's text from Jose to Hudson look something like this? Actually, given Hudson sacked the coach weeks out from a World Cup, and his subsequent "alignment" statements, I wonder what he will say when he fronts post tournament?

"Was it Zoro or his 15 year old St. Kents assistant?"

Did you mean Hays 18 year old assistant from Sacred Heart?

We played poorly and finished even worse, but dominated.

Hopefully we can sneak a goal against Paraguay to qualify as one of the best losers to go through... or even poach a second place.

Paraguay 3-3 v France after 65 minutes

4-3 to France. A win against Paraguay sends them through assuming France get past Syria

What else are we to expect from this team then what we have seen so far. I feel for the players who have been through a world wind of emotions this year; 

- change of coaching and management staff

- eligibility issue around some members

- raft of player and personnel changes prior to leaving for Chile

- lack of quality preparation

- a coaching and management staff with little or no World Cup International coaching experience

- last minute lineup and personnel changes prior to opening group game

We are all meant to be seeing an 'alignment' with our NZ teams. Teams that are aggressive and try to press from the front (which the 17s naively did vs France and got punished) and a supposed proactive possession brand of football through the thirds (which has not been seen in ANY one of our international sides).

The player pathway and structure in NZ is more fractured then ever. We have players coming through junior/youth football getting mixed messages, poached to play at various schools/private providers/clubs and more importantly over training.

How many cycles of international age groups teams do we need to highlight the fact our players are not being educated the right way (technically/tactically), have players in this (and previous) U17 side trying to bridge the gap from school football to world class opposition and also being over trained in a way that impairs the correct physical development (speed, power, agility) which is horribly highlighted at major tournaments.

What is that I hear people crying...we don't have the player pool! Our population is too small! We don't have a professional league!

What is fundamentally wrong with our player development model in NZ is that we don't have enough quality well educated football coaches, delivering the same message, putting player development/welfare ahead of personal gains and attention.

Until we address this issue the future of our game on the international stage will look forever bleak!

#alignment

 

Funny you mention that, because Zoro did exactly that to at least one player in Oman. "You're a disgrace" was what he actually said to the poor kid in question. 

And to think that he's the man who made me an All Whites fan (with his free kick in the 1999 Confed Cup). Sad when your heroes turn out to be knob jockeys.

Somehow I find this sort of outcome extremely unlikely.