The New Zealand U-23 men will receive the ideal preparation for their bid to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by taking on their counterparts from Australia in a pair of matches next month.

Des Buckingham’s side will meet the Australia U-23s in two games in New South Wales, shortly before heading to Fiji for the OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.



Buckingham, who recently led the team to a gold-medal finish at the Pacific Games in Samoa, says the Australia encounters will be invaluable as his side prepares to book their place in Tokyo.

“I think it’s an excellent couple of games for us,” he says. “Not just in preparation for the Olympic qualifiers but also as an opportunity for us to continue building on the successful work from both the U-20 World Cup and the recent Pacific Games. It’s a good chance for us to showcase our talented young Kiwi players against what will be a very good Australian side while also helping prepare us for the qualifiers.”





Aside from the benefit of providing preparation for the Olympic qualifiers, the Australia matches will also hand Buckingham’s young charges the rare chance to test themselves against New Zealand’s traditional sporting foe.

The countries have not come up against each other at U-23 level in over a decade with the last meeting a 3-2 win to Australia in Sydney in 2008.

They have met 10 times over the years with New Zealand’s only positive results being a famous 1-0 triumph in Adelaide in 1996 and a 1-1 draw in Auckland in 2004.

Buckingham is expecting to come up against a high-quality outfit in the upcoming games, which take place in Wollongong on 6 September and Campbelltown three days later.





“They’ve got a lot of U-23 players who are playing regularly in the A-League so it could be a really strong Australia team,” he says.

“But we’ve just seen what we can do at an U-20 World Cup, not just with the results but in terms of how we can play. We will continue to drive that and it’s certainly something we did in the Pacific Games, coming back with a gold medal,” he adds.

“Over the past 15 months, we’ve been able to grow a pool of players and create a real identity of who we are. From what we’ve already done and from the preparation we’ll have leading into these qualifiers, we’ll set ourselves up well to go and be successful.”





Soon after taking on Australia, the New Zealand U-23 men will take part in the OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Fiji from 21 September to 5 October.



New Zealand U-23 tour of Australia

Australia U-23 vs New Zealand U-23

Friday 6 September kick off 7.30pm (9.30pm NZT)

WIN Stadium, Wollongong



Australia U-23 vs New Zealand U-23

Monday 9 September, kick off 7.30pm (9.30pm NZT)

Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Campbelltown







Article added: Monday 05 August 2019