Tyler Boyd is one member of the Junior All Whites squad who played a large role in the side’s qualification for the World Cup and is now looking to make his mark on the world stage.
New Zealand has been drawn in Group F alongside Uzbekistan, Uruguay and Croatia and Boyd believes the squad has a strong chance of progressing out of the group.
They young striker plies his trade with New Zealand’s only professional club, A-League side the Wellington Phoenix, and since the 2012-13 season finished back in March he has been pounding the tracks and visiting the gym in order to maintain his fitness levels and has been looking forward to finding the on-field harmony he developed with his teammates in Fiji.
“Because the team is scattered all around New Zealand and some are based in other countries my preparations have been a lot of gym work and less on-the-field work. But that’s why we came together early to start forming that team chemistry, which is good,” Boyd says.
“I think our team will do reasonably well because we’re such a tight-knit group. We all get along really well, we’re all close, and I think that helps. I’m just excited to be playing on the world stage.”
Part of his build-up included joining several of his teammates in the New Zealand A selection which faced Jordan earlier this month, an experience Boyd counts as essential to his early preparations.
“I’d had a couple of weeks off before that game and the training I’d done helped me to prepare for it. I thought I did well, but there’s always room for improvement,” he says.
Now with his focus on the matches ahead Boyd says while he has set himself some personal goals for the tournament, his motivation will always be the team.
“Personally I expect to do what it is I need to do to be a standout, maybe impress some scouts but overall I want to try really hard for the team,” Boyd says.
“My objective is to at least score one goal over there, but I hope to score many more than one. But sometimes it’s not all about that. Sometimes it is a selfless job and you’ve got to do things to give your team a better chance of winning and that means it’s not all about you scoring yourself, but it might be setting someone else up.
“Whatever it takes, I’m prepared to do that.”
Looking at Group F, Boyd says while it looks like a pretty tough group, he’s excited to play anyone.
“Croatia and Uruguay sound like some very tough competition. The New Zealand U-17 played Uzbekistan at the World Cup in 2011 and won, so hopefully we can take that and use it for fuel and confidence.”
The Junior All Whites get their U-20 World Cup campaign underway on 23 June in Bursa against Uzbekistan before encounters against Uruguay and Croatia on 26 and 29 June respectively.
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz

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