The New Zealand U-20 team, led by coach Darren Bazeley, travelled to China for their first matches outside Oceania in the build up to New Zealand 2015.
The four-team Panda Cup tournament featured China, Brazil and Croatia alongside New Zealand and the results were promising for the developing young side.
The Junior All Whites rounded out their Panda Cup journey against Croatia on Sunday, and despite taking a early lead thanks to a Croatia own goal off a Monty Patterson free kick, they eventually fell 2-1.
They missed several excellent scoring opportunities over the 90 minutes including two late in the match – one of which saw a Bill Tuiloma header come back off the crossbar in the last minute.
Bazely said those missed chances were costly, and something which has been a key learning experience for the squad over the three matches played in China.
“You have to take your chances when they come along and in every game against China, Brazil and Croatia, we’ve had good chances and had we taken those chances we’d have scored more goals than we actually have,” he said.
“That’s something the boys need to understand; no matter what game you’re playing, you need to take your chances when they come along at the international level. If you don’t, it could come back and hurt you.”
Overall, Bazeley said the tour has been invaluable as the squad builds towards the World Cup.
“The players have been able to see and feel the level required and hopefully it’s given the boys the belief and confidence that if we get it right on the day we can compete with the top teams in the world.
“We had patches of good football but overall our possession wasn’t quite good enough and we just need to keep working on our ability to keep possession and hurt opposition teams consistently.
“We can do it in patches and we had some good moments but it’s consistency that is the key and that’s an area where other teams are better than us at the moment.”
The second match at the Panda Cup saw the Kiwi’s claim the first point for a New Zealand men’s side against Brazil, recording a 0-0 draw against the five-time FIFA U-20 World Cup champions.
Bazeley hailed the efforts of his squad against arguably the world’s top football nation.
“New Zealand people should be very proud of the team today,” he said following the match. “They left it out there, gave 100 per cent and it was a strong and proud performance from our boys.
“We were playing a good Brazil team with good players but the boys showed so much heart and determination and, to be fair, we created the best chance of the game.”
He added that a year out from the FIFA U-20 World Cup on New Zealand soil, the result provided a real spark to team’s preparations.
“It has to give the boys a lot of belief that they can go on the world stage and compete against the top nations in the world,” Bazeley said.
“They’ve set a benchmark of determination, discipline and organisation that they are not going to have to live up to. If they can recreate the togetherness we’ve shown today, then we’ll give any team a good game on the day.”
The first match saw the Junior All Whites record a tight 1-0 loss to hosts China thanks to a 24th minute spot kick, while the New Zealanders had a goal disallowed late in the first half when the offside flag ruled out Tomislav Trbuhovic’s flicked finish from Andre de Jong’s free kick.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015 is being hosted by New Zealand from 30 May to 20 June.
For more on New Zealand football go to www.nzfootball.co.nz

Share