Soccer: Junior All Whites set sights high

Chris Milicich is back in charge as coach and is hopeful of at least emerging from their group this time but holds onto a combination of realism and optimism. Photo / Getty Images.

The Junior All Whites will head to next week's Under-20 World Cup in Turkey in the familiar position of underdogs but the side have set the ambitious target of making the quarter-finals.

New Zealand open their campaign against Uzbekistan on Monday morning (NZT) before taking on Uruguay and Croatia. A generous draw means the top two sides from the six groups as well as four third-placed teams progress to the second round.

The Junior All Whites know they will be seen as one of the weakest teams at the tournament but want to make a greater impression than the under-20s side did two years ago in Colombia. That team drew with both Cameroon (1-1) and Uruguay (1-1) before a 1-0 defeat to eventual runners-up Portugal saw them eliminated.

Chris Milicich is back in charge as coach and is hopeful of at least emerging from their group this time but holds onto a combination of realism and optimism.

"The reality is for the opposition we are the target,'' he said. "If they beat us, they are effectively out of the group. But there is no easy game for us. We are seen as the easy three points... or the easier of the three points.

"The team has put some pretty audacious goals out there. I think the first target we are aiming for is to get out of the group and to do that we need a minimum of three points. The reality is, if you want to go further in the tournament, you don't want to be coming third in your group because then you will be coming up against one of the top four or five-ranked sides in the world. We would be aiming to come in the top two in our group.''

They don't come in with particularly good form. They were beaten in all three of their warmup games in the past week against Australia (5-0) and Iraq (5-3) and this morning (NZT) were beaten by Egypt (2-1). But against Australia they were missing three of their best players and the game against Iraq occurred only hours after landing in Turkey.

They have a number of professionals in the squad, including senior All Whites Tim Payne (Blackburn) and Cameron Howieson (Burnley) as well as Luke Adams (Derby), Tyler Boyd, Louis Fenton (both Phoenix), Rhys Jordan (Bristol City), Storm Roux (Perth) and goalkeeper Max Crocombe (Oxford United). Others will hope they can pick up professional contracts from the tournament.

The Junior All Whites came through Oceania qualifying after winning all four games in Fiji but the level of opposition at the World Cup is on an entirely different level.
The previous Under-17 World Cup can often be used as an indicator and Uruguay were beaten finalists in 2011 and they also beat Uzbekistan, who topped their group, in the quarter-finals.

Croatia finished third in their group at the 2012 under-19 European championships, but established the equal-best defensive record with only two goals conceded in their three games.

"It's going to be hot up there [in Turkey] and we are coming up against sides significantly better than anything we have played previously,'' Milicich said. ``It's going to be important we can maintain some possession and build some pressure. My feeling is that we are going to have to treat every game as an opportunity to win.''