Like their other pool B opponents Austria (Tuesday, June 2) and Ghana (Friday, June 5), the Argentines are an unknown quantity in a competition that has evolved into a stage for talent scouts to tag the future stars of the global professional big boys' leagues.
"That's the beauty of the World Cup," he says, his eyes smiling.
It helps immensely that their coach, Leonardo Pipino, is an Argentine and has coached Narbon from the age of seven as well as his two older brothers.
However, the 1.73m midfielder is expecting every game in the tourney to be a grind.
"It never will be easy because if you make your way here they are all going to be tough and all [games] will be worth three points," says the first-year international business student from James Madison University who hails from the capital, Panama City.
Panama have never got out of the pool stage of the U20 tourney although Narbon was in the U17 side that advanced to the playoffs in Mexico in 2011.
There's no mistaking the Chin Hormechea-captained tourists are unobtrusively oozing with confidence in breaking that shackle this time after an 18-month build up.
They were the second-ranked qualifying team from the Concaf region.
Narbon describes the team as one who "don't give up on any balls".
"We like to keep the ball," he says, his role in the engine room an epitome of everything Panama stand for.
"I'm the first one at defence and the first on attack to keep the balance of the team."
They boast a predominantly home-grown squad with just Narbon and defender Christopher Bared (Villanova University) away on tertiary commitments in the past year.
"I've played with [or against] all the players from the time I was a child," Narbon says.
The son of retailer Gabriel and American mother Mariana, Narbon is a recipient of a soccer scholarship to the United States.
The love for every facet of the game comes from his Spanish grandfather.
"The fitness and practising side everyone hates but you've just got to do it," says Narbon, who also resents losing.
Like baseballers who aspire to make it big in the majors in the US, he harbours dreams of becoming a professional footballer in Europe someday although his degree will be a safety net should he come up shy.
"Everyone's soccer dream is to play in Europe, not just because of the money but that it has the best competitions."
He describes Panama as a beautiful country but in stark contrast to New Zealand.
The Panama Canal punctuates a nation that embraces the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans for the "happy Latin" population of about four million.
"We found Taupo more like green but Wellington is cooler and has a lot of younger people [students]," says Narbon, contrasting it with his country, where people bask in tropical climes.
"It's super clean here, everyone is nice, super quiet and they mind their own business."
-Sports editor Anendra Singh interviewed Panama in the capital city courtesy of Positively Wellington Tourism.
