Darren Bazeley: ‘We need more of our young players at professional clubs’

Head coach Darren Bazeley says New Zealand’s challenge is to get more of its young players into professional football so they can compete better on the world stage.

Speaking minutes after his side were knocked out of the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup in Argentina, Bazeley said:

“We’ve got, maybe, two or three professionals in our squad. The rest of our players are playing New Zealand domestic (football).

“Our challenge (is) to get as many players playing professionally as we can, and then we’ll be able to have more moments, and we’ll be able to be more consistent when we get into games like this.”

New Zealand lost their Round of 16 tie 4-0 to a clinical United States side that have now won four games at the tournament without conceding a goal.

READ MORE: New Zealand on their way home from FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup >>>>

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“It’s a disappointing end for us, to get knocked out of the tournament,” Bazeley said.

“It’s been a really great experience for our players. You know, we’ve had some really good moments within the tournament.

“Today, I don’t think it was a 4-0 game. I felt like, yes, USA were a better team than us, and I felt they were really clinical in moments.

“I felt like we tried to play out; we tried to do some good things.

“We had some moments where we got into good areas and we didn’t quite have that clinicalness.”

Comparing the experience of the two teams, Bazeley pointed out that Cade Cowell, scorer of the second goal, had played more than 100 games in the MLS.

“It’s difficult for our players.

“They kept trying to score a goal all the way till the end of the game.

“We might look back and go ‘we have had one or two goals’ but overall, they (United States) are a good team, and they were better than us today.

“It’s been a really good tournament. There’s a lot of good players here.

“It’s been a platform, hopefully, for some of our players to move forward on.

“The realistic challenge for us is that we’re coming up against players that are professionals around the world in every team we play.”

“We’ve got, maybe, two or three professionals in our squad. The rest of our players are playing New Zealand domestic (football) so they have to get themselves to the next level and that’s our challenge to get as many players playing professionally as we can and then we’ll be able to have more moments and we’ll be able to be more consistent when we get into games like this.”

Bazeley said he was proud of his players.

“We competed throughout. No one let their heads go down.

“Their commitment and their workrate is enormous.”

Result

Game played on Wednesday May 31, 2023

United States 4 (Owen Wolff 14′, Cade Cowell 61′, Justin Che 75′, Rokas Pukštas 82′)
New Zealand 0

The clubs they play for

Here’s a comparison of the squads for the match:

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