Twenty-four hours after arriving in Australia the Junior All Whites lined up against the Young Socceroos in Wollongong in their first outing since qualifying in Fiji in March and coach Chris Milicich made no excuses following the result.
“We were beaten by a very, very good Australian side today. They have just returned from a three week tour of Europe on top of a gruelling qualification campaign.”
Milicich, on his way to his second consecutive U-20 world cup, was hopeful that his young charges would learn from the experience.
“Hopefully today’s result provided a bit of a realisation of the level we need to be at once we get to Turkey. We defended naively at times and conceded some soft goals and that was compounded by not being more effective in the final third of the pitch,” Milicich said.
In contrast, Adam Taggart was clinical for the Young Socceroos, netting a hat trick for his country inside 47 minutes, while substitutes Jamie Maclaren and Ryan Edwards rounded out the scoring for Australia in front of a crowd of over 2,000.
The Junior All Whites will now travel to Antalya in Turkey for their final preparations including a pair of international matches against their counterparts from Iraq and Egypt before moving to Bursa, where they will play their group matches.
Max Crocombe, Rhys Jordan and All White Tim Payne will link up with the side in Turkey to complete Milicich’s 21-strong squad.
New Zealand’s first match is against Uzbekistan on 23 June, before facing Uruguay three days later, and rounding out their group stage against Croatia on 29 June. All of the Junior All Whites matches will be played in Bursa.
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz

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