There’s a Men’s U20 World Cup happening in a couple of months, if you didn’t know, and the New Zealander team has been busy in preparation. They just popped over to Chile for a couple of games.

Another Oceania tournament and another trophy for NZ Football headquarters to proudly display. This one came with a hiccup though.

It was a bit much to expect the lads to sneak past the United States of America. Getting to the knockouts was the main aim of the tournament and they achieved that, progressing to the round of sixteen for the fourth consecutive time at a Men’s U20 World Cup

Argentina’s U20s, spurred on by a raucous home crowd with no pressure whatsoever on their shoulders, unleashed vicious carnage upon the poor Aotearoa contingent… but it didn’t matter because we’re through to the knockouts anyway

It’s always hard to know what to expect at these youth tournaments. The prestige of a nation’s senior team doesn’t necessarily translate to the younger levels and there’s never an abundance of pre-tourney games from outside the confederations to let anyone know how teams compare

After three consecutive knockout appearances at the Men’s U20 World Cup, there was no reason to think that this Class of 2023 should be aiming for anything less. Particularly not after those previous efforts earned them a second seed for the draw

People, we’re living rent-free on controversy corner right now. The kiwi U20 lads were up to some magical things in Poland and were on the brink of history when keeper Michael Woud pounced to his left to deny Andres Perea for Colombia. It was Woud’s third straight save to start the shootout.

All you can do in these tournaments, in this sport, in all of life, is to put yourself in the best position to succeed and the rest is up to fate/luck/spiritual providence. The kiwi lads did that. They showed up and competed at a level that we’ve never seen from a New Zealand side at a FIFA tournament (definitely not a men’s side, at least).

The lads went down to a 2-0 defeat against Uruguay, which doesn’t do too much damage to things on the surface but it was a disappointing result and a game which wasn’t really worth getting up for especially when you’d already stayed up later than you meant to watching cricket.

Following on from the Honduras win which showcased what they could do at their best, we had a very different challenge in a well-organised Norway side that wasn’t going to allow themselves to be carved open in the first half hour the way that New Zealand did to their last opponents.

Honduras versus New Zealand, first game of the group stage for both, 4am in Aotearoa for us hardy jokers. Could they step it up when it really mattered? Mate, could they ever.

There’s a men’s U20 World Cup starting in a few days and you should probably be excited about it. With quite possibly the strongest pool of age-group players New Zealand has ever had for one of these things, even Des Buckingham’s squad announcement felt like a Moment and based on their preparation for this thing this set of lads could genuinely be the real deal.

Des Buckingham has named his 21-man squad for the upcoming U20 World Cup in Poland in five weeks and, mate, it’s a doozy. There are senior internationals, there are overseas professionals, there are Ole Academy stars, there are Wellington Phoenix grads.

Look, we’re good enough to compete at this level. No doubt about that, just look at the result against France. With that comes increased expectations and while it would’ve been enough to create a few cheeky chances and battle hard in the past, this squad was good enough to be taking those chances.