AUCKLAND – The Oly-Whites’ hopes of reaching the quarter-finals on their Olympic debut rest on a Shanghai showdown with Belgium on Wednesday night.
The top two of each group progress to the final eight and New Zealand will leapfrog the second-placed Belgians with victory at the 80,000-seater Shanghai Stadium.
China could also come into contention if they beat the already qualified Brazil in Qinhuangdao – in a match played simultaneously with New Zealand’s – but with four players out through suspension, victory over the Seleção would be a tough ask.
“If Brazil keep travelling as they have been then the other game won’t become a factor,” asserted New Zealand coach Stu Jacobs.
Breaking new ground is high on the list of motivation for Jacobs and his players with the chance of becoming the first New Zealand football side – or second if the Football Ferns can upset the USA on Tuesday – to make the quarter-finals of a major tournament, but they realise the size of their task.
“The talk within the camp’s been about continuing to make history.
“We know it won’t be a walk in the park. Belgium are a high-quality side.
“We’ve got to go out there as if we’re playing for the gold medal. Anything less and we’re on the plane.”
Jacobs acknowledge that Belgium – who could potentially progress with a draw – were firm favourites for the match, but said that worked in the Oly-Whites’ favour.
“Like Brazil they’ve got players in the highest leagues of Europe and defensively they are very good – a one-nil loss to Brazil is a reflection of that.
“The pressure is on them to beat us. Belgium have got a core of the squad that made the semi-finals of the U-21 European Championships and have been quite open about this group being their best generation of young footballers in a long time.
“No-one expected us to get a point against China and after the Brazil game, no-one’s expecting us to get anything out of Belgium, so externally all the pressure’s on Belgium.
“Internally we put pressure on ourselves to give us the best chance of getting three points.
New Zealand will be without star defender Ryan Nelsen, who has returned to England for Blackburn’s Premiership opener, but Belgium may also be a defender light with Bundesliga club Hamburg SV trying to recall Vincent Kompany.
Steven Old returns from suspension to take Nelsen’s place in the line-up but yellow cards against China and Brazil rule out in-from striker Jeremy Brockie with Jacobs calling on others to step up.
“We have to pull all the emotion out the equation, and produce performances from [goalkeeper] Jacob Spoonley all the way through to Chris Killen up front.
“There’s been emotion built around the Olympics, playing the hosts, and playing Brazil but this game is just about performance.
After facing Brazil’s star-studded attack led by a rejuvenated Ronaldinho, the key to victory against Belgium may well be cracking a defence that keep China scoreless and held Brazil until down to ten men with ten minutes to go.
“They have a simple game plan but as we saw against China it’s very
effective,” Jacobs said.
“They often get nine players behind the ball but can break very quickly.
“We’ll need to defend well collectively and use the ball better. We have to get behind Belgium on attack as China played a lot of the game in front of them but Belgium were comfortable with that. We have to be smarter.
The Scenario:
The top two in each of four groups progress to the quarter-finals.
New Zealand must win to overtake Belgium. If New Zealand win and
Brazil beat or draw with China: New Zealand qualify in second place.
China beat Brazil: NZ and China finish level on four points. NZ would need to better China’s margin of victory by four goals (or more) to improve its goal differential above China’s.
Men’s Olympic Football Tournament: Group C
Shanghai Olympic Stadium
Wednesday 13 August 7:45 local (11.45pm NZ time)
TV: Live on Freeview and tvnz.co.nz with delayed coverage on TV One.
Radio: Live on RadioSport
New Zealand v Belgium
New Zealand: (from) 1-Jacob SPOONLEY (GK), 2-Aaron SCOTT (Captain), 3-Ian HOGG, 4-Cole PEVERLEY, 6-Michael BOXALL, 7-Simon ELLIOTT, 8-Craig HENDERSON, 9-Daniel ELLENSOHN, 10-Chris KILLEN, 11-Jeremy BROCKIE, 12-Steven OLD, 13-Shaun VAN ROOYEN, 14-Cole TINKLER, 15-Greg DRAPER, 16-Sam JENKINS, 17-Sam MESSAM, 18-Liam LITTLE (GK)
Belgium: (from) 1-Logan BAILLY (GK), 2-Sepp DE ROOVER, 3-Vincent KOMPANY, 4-Thomas VERMAELEN, 5-Sebastien POCOGNOLI, 6-Marouane FELLAINI, 7-Tom DE MUL, 8-Faris HAROUN, 9-Kevin MIRALLAS, 10-Jan VERTONGHEN, 11-Maarten MARTENS, 12-Yves MA-KALAMBAY (GK), 13-Laurent CIMAN, 14-Landry MULEMO, 15-Jeroen SIMAEYS, 16-Anthony VANDEN BORRE, 17-Stijn DE SMET, 18-Moussa DEMBELE, 19-Vadis ODJIDJA-OFOE