The time has come, the squads have been revealed. The 36 footballers (plus eight travelling reserves) who will represent Aotearoa at the 2021 Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been made public and we can look forward to some actual incarnation of international football involving New Zealand for the first time since the pandemic. The Euros and Copa America are pretty cool... but there’s nowhere near enough Libby Cacace or Livvy Chance there to keep the real fans going.

Both are included here, sweet as. Tokyo 2020, the 2021 redux, is gonna be wild... hopefully in a good way and not in an implosive nobody-in-Japan-actually-wants-this-covid-fest kinda way. The Olympics are a strange beast. You win the rights to host it, you basically sign over dominion of your own city to the IOC to build a temporary mini-nation. It’ll go ahead though. And at this stage the health precautions ought to be razor sharp after seeing plenty of other major events take place without too many pandemic-related hiccups. Enough of that tangent now.

The draws were made for these tourneys a few months back. The OlyWhites got maybe the best possible scenario while the Footy Ferns got pretty much the worst case scenario. It was nuts. But that’s how the cards fell. Of course Olympic squads are smaller than with other tournaments, only 18 players (plus four travelling reserves who can come into the squad if somebody from the main group is ruled out with injury). The men’s edition is an U24 thing with three overage players allowed (usually U23 but they kept the same eligibility date after the event was postponed a year, fair call) while the women’s one is a full international thing.

National team coaches Danny Hay and Tom Sermanni are in charge here too – for Sermanni it’ll be the last event of his tenure before his contract expires having chosen not to reapply with NZF hoping to appoint more of a long-term candidate than he’s willing to be. Sermanni was always going to be a place-holder coach to be fair, he came in to steady the ship after the Andreas Heraf travesty and while it would’ve been cool for him to stay on until the 2023 World Cup at home, we’ve also gotta be grateful he agreed to stay for Tokyo after the Olympics were delayed by a year. The Football Ferns last played a game in March 2020. The All Whites – and while this isn’t a senior squad it’s also not that far off – last played in November 2019. Let’s get this.

FOOTBALL FERNS

GK: Erin Nayler, Anna Leat

DEF: Ali Riley, Abby Erceg, Meikayla Moore, CJ Bott, Claudia Bunge, Anna Green

MID: Ria Percival, Katie Bowen, Olivia Chance, Betsy Hassett, Daisy Cleverley, Annalie Longo

FWD: Hannah Wilkinson, Paige Satchell, Emma Rolston, Gabi Rennie

RESERVES: Liz Anton, Vic Esson, Michaela Robertson, Marisa van der Meer

Fernies first and this is a very strong team, as close to full strength as was going to be possible. Rebekah Stott’s absence as she continues her cancer treatments is obviously a huge loss... however Meikayla Moore is a pretty useful replacement having missed the World Cup through injury. Ideally we’d have been looking at a back three of Stott/Erceg/Moore but so it goes. Claudia Bunge will be the next woman up and with the way her career’s taken off in the last year or two there’s nothing to panic about there. Especially with Abby Erceg involved – it’ll be her first appearance in a Ferns squad since the World Cup due to green card processes in the United States which kept her from travelling for the last couple tours. Veteran Anna Green is also an option in the centre of defence as she skips in here ahead of Liz Anton thanks to plenty of major tournament experience as well as the versatility to do a job across the backline.

The other major absentee is Rosie White. She hasn’t been playing a lot for OL Reign lately but would have been an important attacking presence in this squad all the same, a squad that was already very skint on potential goal scorers. But she revealed the other day on Instagram that she’d been in hospital with a chronic illness of some sort and not only can those things be lingerers that impinge on fitness down the line but also, like, there’s a global pandemic going on. And if your immune system is potentially compromised then travelling to a tournament where people from all over the world, including covid-ravaged nations, are all meeting up might not be the best idea. It’s awful timing but you can certainly understand the decision.

To make matters worse in the attacking regions, Jana Radosavljevic is out injured having needed surgery on a busted meniscus about two months ago. That ended her first season in the German Bundesliga with Werder Bremen prematurely... otherwise she’d have been a really handy option both as an attacking midfielder and also in the wingback role she usually plays for Werder. And Katie Rood as well, she’s just finished up with Lewes in the English Championship after a couple years and ruled herself out of selection in a recent video blog.

Rood and Rado had been the two forwards to come back into contention since the World Cup after the retirements of Sarah Gregorius and Emma Kete. Remember that the Ferns’ big issue at that World Cup was a lack of creativity, not ever really looking like they could score goals against the best nations. They were already ineffective in that area and now they’ve been weakened rather than strengthened.

Hannah Wilkinson is in much better form these days having played the WC on a short recovery from an ACL injury, she’s been scoring goals for MSV Duisburg in the Bundesliga lately – although not enough to help them avoid relegation (Wilkie’s now a free agent – it was only a short term deal) so that’s a huge boost and she’ll be the focal point up front whom all them midfielders can work off of... hopefully. Wilkinson’s strike rate of goals isn’t as high as you’d expect but she’s clearly the player most capable of being that presence and threat up front. She pretty much has to be in this team.

Which brings us to the bolter of this crew: Gabi Rennie. A member of that wonderful U17s team from a few years back, scorer of a double in the final of the most recent Women’s Premiership for the victorious Canterbury Pride (and seven goals in seven games overall), now away at university in Indiana. The Ferns don’t always have the luxury of being able to select professionals when their depth is tested – ideally the progression would be local amateur to overseas pro to senior international but we often have to flip the second two stages around. Rennie is an example of that... yet not by much. Not only is she someone with a very bright future in the game but she’s also the exact right type of player that we need to be developing. A speedy attacker with quality on the ball and the ability to score goals. As far as bolter picks go this one is a ripper.

As for the rest of the team... nothing much to say. All the regulars are there, this would not have been a particularly difficult a team to pick outside of working around the unavailabilities. Anna Leat gets the nod as the backup keeper. Vic Esson has been doing more in her recent club career but Leat has the higher upside (she sat out the World Cup as she focussed on getting into uni at Georgetown – although she doesn’t seem to have gone back (yet?) after lockdowns and currently with the FFDP crew... btw Daisy Cleverley is attending Georgetown for her post-grads having gone to Berkeley before that, shout out to Georgetown for flying the flag). Nayler’s the starter there so no dramas either way, even if Nayler’s club season was a disaster for Reading where she only played one League Cup game all season.

But Nayler’s lack of club form an exception to the rule. Whereas the World Cup swung around with players battling back from injuries, in between clubs, or out of form... things done changed. Abby Erceg, Ali Riley, and Katie Bowen are starting every game in the NWSL. Ria Percival had played every minute for Spurs in the WSL until her late-season injury broke the streak. Meikayla Moore is already a fan favourite at Liverpool after one season. CJ Bott played Champions League with Vålerenga. Annalie Longo and Claudia Bunge won the W-League with Melbourne Victory while Paige Satchell and especially Olivia Chance had great seasons with Canberra Utd and Brisbane Roar respectively. Betsy Hassett is scoring goals for Stjarnan in Iceland. Hannah Wilkinson scored a few Bundesliga goals. Word on the street is that Emma Rolston is on the verge of signing with Norwegian club Arna-Bjørnar too, just gotta sort out some visa technicalities or something.

Even if this team hasn’t been able to do bugger all work as a squad for ages (granted those who’re available have been in camp in Auckland recently), players have been doing lovely things at club level to put them in the right place for this tournament. Unfortunately the pitiless draw might cancel out the improved preparation... but you never know with these tourneys. This is a strong Ferns squad. Not quite as strong as it could have been but pretty close and that’s a reflection of the ever-growing depth emerging in kiwi women’s footy.

(Caveat here to mention that the Ferns have drawn one and lost eight of their last nine games. The draw did end up as a penalty shootout win but three goals scored and 17 conceded in that span is not pretty: 1-0 loss to Wales, 1-0 loss to Netherlands, 2-0 loss to Canada, 2-1 loss to Cameroon, 2-0 loss to China, 3-0 loss to Canada, 1-1 draw with Belgium, 3-0 loss to Italy, 2-1 loss to Norway... ‘bout time that streak got snapped but USA, Sweden & Aussie are all above our weight class so yikes).

In fact there’s so much depth that Liz Anton could only make the travelling reserve section after her breakout season with Perth Glory, while Glory teammates Malia Steinmetz and Lily Alfeld didn’t even make that cut-off. Vic Esson is the third-choice keeper. Marisa van der Meer and Mickey Robertson fill out that contingent, both uncapped locally-based players but both were on tour for the Algarve Cup the last time the Ferns were together. Nicole Stratford might have nudged out MVDM but a dislocated ankle in the Auckland training camp recently ended that hope. Football is ruthless... Stratford got the unexpected call-up for the last World Cup after Moore was ruled out late, now it’s Stratford’s turn to miss a tournament through injury (although doubt she’d have made the playing 18).

Probable starting XI: Erin Nayler | CJ Bott, Meikayla Moore, Abby Erceg, Claudia Bunge, Ali Riley | Ria Percival, Katie Bowen, Olivia Chance | Betsy Hassett, Hannah Wilkinson

OLYWHITES

GK: Michael Woud, Jamie Searle

DEF: Winston Reid (OA), Michael Boxall (OA), Liberato Cacace, Nando Pijnaker, George Stanger, Callan Elliot, Dane Ingham

MID: Joe Bell, Clayton Lewis, Gianni Stensness, Marko Stamenic

FWD: Chris Wood (OA), Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just, Ben Waine, Joey Champness

RESERVES: Matt Garbett, Ben Old, Alex Paulsen, Sam Sutton

How about this for an Olympic squad? It helps that the eligibility date remained the same with the year’s delay so we’re talking about an U24 squad and an extra season of career progression... but this is a fully professional unit. Every single player, even the youngsters in the alternates, are aligned with a pro club. A few of them only on academy deals but this is technically a youth team after all. Mate, what a place to find ourselves in. And compared to the Fernies whose draw is absolutely horrid... the OlyWhites came out in the exact opposite space. South Korea, Honduras, and Romania. It’s do-able.

However they will have to do it without Sarpreet Singh who leaves a significant hole in the squad as there really isn’t anyone else who slides into that CAM role so sweetly. Singh is entering the final year of his Bayern Munich contract and after a stuttering second season where he didn’t really progress his case at all, and with Bayern bringing in a new manager, he’s not really in a position to disappear during preseason for a month. The reserve team has been relegated so if he wants to progress then he needs to either find a way into the first team (you can imagine how tough that’d be even without considering which players they might bring in when the transfer window opens) or he’s gotta go out on loan again where he’d be trying to impress from scratch. Can’t blame him for giving this one a miss, to be fair.

Other than him it’s pretty much top choice. Asterisk on that idea as far as Winston Reid goes because he’s also in a delicate club situation, returning to West Ham after his loan at Brentford but nobody’s really sure how long he’ll stay there. Bit tricky to negotiate a release (the Olympics aren’t in a men’s international window due to the U24 status of the thing) when you don’t even know what club you’ll be at. So he’s been bracketed in case he has to drop out with Tim Payne on standby.

Let’s assume that Reid is able to play (which could boost his loan-out stakes if we go on a nice run with all the scouts watching), in which scenario it’s almost perfect as far as the overage dudes go. The only guy who could have improved things further would have been Ryan Thomas but he’s injured and wasn’t gonna play anyway, prioritising PSV’s preseason. He’d have been perfect for the Sarpreet Singh spot but at least there are some quality CMs in this team whereas the central defence is a lil sketchier. So having Reid/Payne and Boxall turns a weakness into a significant strength while the main man Chris Wood does the same up top where there are zero other strikers in the squad who can do what he does, let alone at the level that he does it.

This squad was always gonna be built around the framework of that 2019 U20 World Cup squad, many of whom have already progressed into the All Whites since Danny Hay took over. Sure enough 10 of the 15 U24s in the squad are from that U20 group. Would have had a whole starting XI had Singh been there (Woud | Elliot, Stanger, Pijnaker, Cacace | Bell, Stensness, Singh | Just, McCowatt, Waine). Six of those ten are full internationals (Stanger, Stensness, Waine & Elliot yet to feature... bear in mind we’ve only had two All Whites games since the 2019 U20 WC).

There are also obviously the three overage veterans plus Dane Ingham and Clayton Lewis who have played for the All Whites, adding up to 11 full internationals in this group. Marko Stamenic was due for a call-up last year for the friendlies that got cancelled. Joey Champness has only just switched allegiances from Australia. Jamie Searle is the one fella left over after all that: he’s just re-signed with Swansea City after impressing with their U23 team (following a year in the Aston Villa academy). Big raps on that dude.

A lot of these players are in their offseasons at the moment and most of these clubs will like the idea of their guys playing at an Olympic Games. It’s high quality football, a great experience within their development, and if they really shine then their transfer value rises. Guys like Cacace and Woud are first choice with their teams and therefore can afford to dip out for a spell. The A-League blokes only just finished their season. The likes of Searle and Stamenic are in youth systems so their clubs will wanna see them tested. Callan Elliot didn’t play at all for Xanthi last season so nothing to lose there.

But a few of them are in the middle of their seasons. Michael Boxall, as an overage bloke, will have had to do some serious convincing to convince Minnesota United to release him but Boxy’s built up heaps of karma points so that worked out. Joe Bell will miss several games for Viking in Norway which is awkward but they seem cool there too. His performance against Norway at the U20 World Cup was huge in their initial scouting of him so VFK know what’s up. And though he’s not in-season at the moment, Premier League clubs tend to be bullies with these things so lucky thing that Chris Wood’s star is as bright as it’s ever been at Burnley so if ever he was gonna have an opportunity to leverage that then this was it. Sweet as. All in all, Sarpreet Singh wasn’t able to go but otherwise it’s as strong a group as we could have hoped for.

The A-League lads are the funkiest ones here. It’s always tricky to know where that competition stands in relation to others around the world, though Sarpreet Singh and Libby Cacace have done their bit to show it off recently. Dane Ingham is a guy with six international caps to his name but has never lit the A-League alight like Cacace once did. In fact he’s just been released by Perth. But right back is a weakness in this team. Callan Elliott only has a handful of pro appearances to his name as well. He did start at RB in that U20 World Cup but neither exactly screams assuredness in a backline that’s otherwise an All Whites first choice unit. It’ll be interesting, if he does end up playing instead of Reid, if Tim Payne plays at right back and someone like Nando Pijnaker starts at CB with Boxall instead to shore things up some. The one guy who is notably missing of course is Noah Billingsley... guessing that’s a case of focussing on his loan at Phoenix Rising. A pity because he’d be starting otherwise. You do have to wonder how close Jack-Henry Sinclair came to selection.

Into the midfield and Bell and Stensness were the U20s central mids although Marko Stamenic might well get the nudge ahead of Stensness – granted GS has had a super season with Central Coast so it’s one of those Nice Problems To Have. Or Clayton Lewis could play there, he was fantastic there for the Nix. Can’t go wrong there hence the real question is who plays in the Sarpreet Singh role and Lewis would have to be one of the major candidates... though don’t sleep on Eli Just playing centrally. Depends on how you want the balance of the side to look. Danny Hay will surely stick firm to that 4-3-3 shape but there’s a lot you can do within that shape.

Taking us now to the joker in the pack: Joey Champness. When he went to America for his hip hop sabbatical he was on course to be in the Aussie team for this competition, instead here is he switching allegiances to the nation of his birth about a week before the squad was named... which was a rather large clue as to his impending inclusion. Champness is a tidy forward competing for those spots outside The Woodsman, though doesn’t have a crazy good A-League strike-rate or anything. 10 goals in 60 appearances for Newcastle and Brisbane. He had 2 goals and 2 assists in 1236 minutes this past season – working out to 0.29 goals+assists per 90 minutes and that’s a rate considerably below non-import Phoenix players such as Reno Piscopo (0.36), Jaushua Sotirio (0.42), and OlyWhites teammate Ben Waine (0.52).

But to be honest there’s not a heap of striking depth available. Ben Waine’s rise has been pretty timely because Myer Bevan has stuttered again at a higher level, hardly even getting a chance at TS Galaxy in South Africa, while Max Mata is yet to score for Real Monarchs in the USL in America. Guys like Andre De Jong and Elliot Collier are too old. Guys like Matt Garbett and Ben Old are too young. Logan Rogerson will be bummed out by his exclusion but he has been injured lately in Finland so it could be fitness related.

By the way, behind the four very young travelling reserves (all four are aged 18-19)... James McGarry, Myer Bevan, and Owen Parker-Price were also listed as non-travelling reserves. For what that’s worth. McGarry is arguably better than either right back but his lack of versatility will have cost him there given he’d have been stuck behind Cacace anyway. OPP, for those who don’t know, is a very classy midfielder out of the Ole Academy who Hay worked with when his Eastern Suburbs team won the Premiership a couple years back and who has been at Torslanda in Sweden more recently. And Myer Bevan is Myer Bevan. And that’s this article finished.

Possible starting XI: Michael Woud | Callan Elliot, Winston Reid, Michael Boxall, Liberato Cacace | Joe Bell, Marko Stamenic, Clayton Lewis | Callum McCowatt, Chris Wood, Elijah Just

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