U17 World Cup: New Zealand looks to keep their development running

There is no doubt that New Zealand is most prominent football nation of Oceania, but at world stage the situation is far different: the Kiwis took part of only two World Cups (1982 and 2010) and produced few players that had impact at the most important football leagues. Wynton Rufer is certainly the most prominent of those that made their path to European continent – a joint topscorer of the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League for the German outfit Werder Bremen. Now a days we can remember some important names as Ryan Nelsen, Winston Reid and Chris Wood – enough to qualify the All Whites for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but not to make them go through the group stage, the same campaign as in 1982.

The new generation of the New Zealand football is looking to give steps ahead and produce more players that can compete at world stage. The recent U20 World Cup played in Poland surely can increase the hope of the New Zealand fans: the good football displayed – that ended up their participation at the Round of 16 against Colombia after a dramatic penalty shootout – by the Junior All Whites showcased their talent enough to make the Wellington Phoenix academy product Sarpreet Singh to secure a contract at the European giants FC Bayern.

This is the background the U17 New Zealand team comes for their 7th straight U17 World Cup: looking to keep New Zealand football youth development in progress. From all their eight appearances in the youth tournament, the New Zealand side could only progress to the Round of 16 three times – being beaten at all times they reached it. In the 2017 edition of the tournament, the Young All Whites could just draw against Turkey in their oppening match, but lost the remaining two for Paraguay and Mali.

Being the heavy favourites to qualify for the tourament, the Kiwis did not face an easy life in Solomon Islands where the U16 OFC Nations Cup was played: they surprisingly lost for the home side at group stage by 5-0, but still were able to qualify for the semifinals. Since FIFA decided to secure two spots for OFC at the youth world stage tournaments, both New Zealand and Solomon Islands – teams who made the final of U16 OFC Nations Cup – qualified themselves for the U17 World Cup. In the final match the Kiwis could not overcome Solomon Islands in the regulation time, but won the tournament at penalty shootout.

After sealing their spot to Brazil, the side coached by the new Auckland City head coach Jose Figueira, looked to prepare themselves in order to make a tournament that can confirm the development of the football in the country.

The squad went to play in China the Panda Cup and were grouped with the home side, South Korea and Thailand. The New Zealand team had a fantastic result at their opener with a 2-0 win against the Chinese team, but the remaining two matches in the group were not what they expected: a hard 4-0 loss to South Korea, and another loss this time against Thailand by the 1-0 margin.

After the final squad for the tournament was relesead in September, the team departed for a short period of camp in Argentina, where they made two friendly matches against teams that are also taking part in the U17 World Cup – Mexico and Argentina. The first match against the Mexicans, New Zealand went down with a 2-0 defeat, but their biggest blow came against the Argentinians: the South American powerhouse demolished the Young All Whites beating them by a huge margin: 7-1.

Even with bad results, the coach Jose Figueira seemed positive and said the team learned from their mistakes and from playing with better technical teams.

Figueira and their staff are confident they are bringing the best U17 talents New Zealand has for the competition – check the full New Zealand squad. The coach has good experience in the game and there is no reasons for doubting his judgement – Figueira won the 2018 OFC Champions League when coaching Team Wellington.

Key Players

The New Zealand side has at their side in the Group A the hosts Brazil, Canada and their first challenge in the tournament, Angola. The Kiwis will start their campaign looking for glory this Saturday 8pm BRT – in New Zealand the match kicks-off at 12am of Sunday.

The other two matches scheduled for the team at Group A will be against Brazil on 30th October at 12am and Canada on 2nd November at 12am – both match times at New Zealand time.