Coming into this tournament, the aim would’ve been for the Junior All Whites to find their way out of their group. No dramas how it happened but after doing so on home soil in 2015, it was time to get there on foreign soil in 2017. So it’s pretty cool to be able to say, a couple weeks later, that said objective has been completed and completed in style.

A 0-0 draw with Vietnam, a 3-1 victory over Honduras and then a 2-0 defeat to France meant four points from three games and a second placed finish in the group – some rare air for a kiwi men’s team to be breathing at a FIFA tournament. The U17 team have made three knockout stages before but only once as a second-place finisher while even the U20s in NZ last time only got through as a third-place team. Next up is a clash with America on Thursday night (11pm NZT) in the round of 16.

The USA will be a ruthless opposition. They’re seriously good at the youth level and they topped their group unbeaten with a win and two draws. Although… they weren’t overly impressive at the same time. Luca de la Torre equalised in the fourth minute of injury time for them to draw 3-3 with Ecuador in their opener. That fella de la Torre then set up 17 year old Josh Sargent for the only goal in a 1-0 win over Senegal with the Yanks defended well after taking the lead.

They were already guaranteed passage to the knockouts before their last game with Saudi Arabia kicked off but America still came out looking to make a statement and book first place. Brooks Lennon put them one-up and they had chances to make it two but then Cameron Carter-Vickers got a couple unlucky yellows which saw him hit the showers early and the Saudis levelled it from a corner in the second half. The draw suited both teams, USA went through top to play us kiwis and Saudi Arabia snuck through too (and face Uruguay).

It doesn’t take much to see that Josh Sargent and Luca de la Torre are the danger men up front. Sargent already has three goals this tournament while de la Torre has been pulling strings and looking seriously good himself. De la Torre is actually one of the few non-American based players in their squad, he does his thing for Fulham (though has only played three League Cup games for the senior team). No doubt they’re the ones the NZers will need to worry most about, but sleeping on that USA defence would be a naïve thing to do as well.

The three goals they shipped against Ecuador probably need a little context. Two came in the first seven minutes and it was sheer chaos at the back from USA. For whatever reason, they started like an insane asylum and immediately had themselves staring down a double deficit. Since then they’ve only let in two goals in 267 minutes. That’s rock solid… and one of them goals only happened because of this from keeper Jonathan ‘The Son Of’ Klinsmann:

Ecuador hit them early down the left flank. The NZers don’t really play with wingers but we get good mobility from Myer Bevan and Noah Billingsley up top and the wingbacks overlap well. That seems to suit nicely enough. The Americans beat Aotearoa 4-0 in the group stages of the last tourney so there’s nothing to lose here and based on the performance against France they have it in them to start with enough urgency to catch teams napping. Finishing will need to be better but yeah, this is New Zealand we’re talking about.

Plus the biggest boost is the suspension of three of their best players. Cameron Carter-Vickers, Derrick Jones and Aaron Herrera will all miss this game with accumulated cards and midfield starlet and Arsenal youth Gedion Zelalem tore his ACL earlier in the competition so he’s out for a fair while. Carter-Vickers is the biggest loss. Coming back from a decent injury layoff himself, he’s an absolute pillar at the back (he and Zelalem played against NZ in 2015) and, unlike Zelalem, CCV is still tipped to eventually crack the first team of a North London Premier League club – Cam being a Tottenham academy lad. Herrera and Jones are also midfielders so couple that with Zelalem missing and it leaves a large hole in the American spine.

It’d be a bit of a dream to think we can win, yet it’s nice to know we’ve got a decent chance. Well, decent for our status. The kiwis weren’t supposed to come close to Portugal in the R16 last time either and they ran them down to the bloody wire. Of course, the Junior AW’s are missing a couple chaps as well. Clayton Lewis and Dane Ingham have been called up to the senior side for Confederations Cup prep, leaving the team minus their captain and two of their full internationals.

There’s no worries over messing with the U20s squad. Plenty of other squads have had similar comings and goings – some starting short on numbers because of the club season while almost every team there (other than Vanuatu, pretty much) has had at least some push and pull in that regard. England are missing a whole heap of players, for example. Where are Tom Davies, Axel Tuanzebe, Patrick Roberts and Izzy Brown? Hell, Marcus Rashford is still eligible for this team, where is he? The answer is that all had first team commitments that are more important than the U20 World Cup. Same deal goes for the All Whites vs the Junior All Whites – ask Clayton Lewis if he’d rather play against Josh Sargent or Cristiano Ronaldo, what do you think he’d say? (Didn’t see Kylian Mbappe there for France either, just sayin’).

No worries with letting them go, possibly no worries with replacing them either, to be fair. Not that they aren’t amongst the most talented folks in that squad but for once this is a roster with some depth and while Ingham looks sharp getting up that flank, Jack-Henry Sinclair ain’t the worst himself and James McGarry has been really great down the left. Lewis is slightly harder to replace. As one of the older guys there, he’s got a senior footy physicality combined with a really nice touch. But this team doesn’t play through the midfield a huge amount so a job-doer can get away with it – and they’ve still got Moses Dyer, a full international, and Joe Bell, one of the team’s best performers so far, to stock that midfield with.

Against Vietnam we saw an U20 side that was too conservative, looking for long balls and set pieces and not doing bugger all with either – hence a 0-0 draw that they bossed but were luckier not to lose than they were unlucky not to win. However against Honduras they unleashed Myer Bevan, who scored a screamer after less than a minute, and the confidence they took from that filtered through the team immediately like Popeye’s virility after a can of spinach. When they conceded a comical goal to let the Hondurans back in they responded with a killer third from the penalty spot (though Noah Billingsley will have rather they let the game play on, no doubt). And while they were well beaten in the end by France, for the first stages of that game it was the New Zealand team forcing the issue. Class showed through eventually but Allan Saint-Maximin’s two goals were still flippin’ worldies.

The two finest players for New Zealand so far will probably have to stand up if they’re gonna push the Americans, that’d be Myer Bevan and Michael Woud. Bevan has been magnificent, that dude is a clever footballer who can both hold the play up and get in behind the defence, plus he has that killer instinct for goal which you can’t teach. As for Woud, he made a series of saves against the French which are career highlight reel fodder for most keepers. Seriously, that’s not an exaggeration. Think when you last saw a denial better than that sonofagun he made with his left boot in the first half there, the score still at 0-0?

They could lose 4-0 again and it’d still be a successful tour. The Honduras result probably made sure of that on its own, which was reassuring coming after the dead average effort against Vietnam. The performance against France only added to that, even if we really ought to have come away with a goal from that one – can’t afford to waste those ones when the result’s on the line.  

Hmm but best wait until after the campaign’s all wrapped and stored away before getting too judgemental.

You ain’t getting this kinda footy writing in ya local fish n chip rag, so may as well slap an ad and help the ol’ Nichey Niche keep serving it up. (Please).