Months of meticulous preparation are about to come to a head as New Zealand U-20 Head Coach Des Buckingham holds his final training camp before selecting the players he will be taking to the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland.

The prestigious tournament kicks off for the Oceania champions with a clash against Honduras on 24 May before further challenges in Group C against Norway and Uruguay.

To make sure his charges are ready to take on some of the best young players in the world, Buckingham has left no stone unturned in the build-up – a process which is all but concluding this week in Auckland.

A wider squad of 33 players has been brought together and it’s the last chance for many to impress before the final selections are made ahead of one remaining training camp at the end of this month.

“This week is almost the culmination of the last 14 months’ worth of work, which started back in February when I was appointed,” Buckingham says. 

“Since qualifying, a substantial amount of work has been undertaken to ensure players have been seen.” 

Buckingham has worked tirelessly on player identification, which has seen him spend much of his time on the road visiting players, clubs and federations – both on these shores and overseas.

Those included this week will need to be at their best as the list of players not available to take part in the camp is impressive. Several Wellington Phoenix professionals in the likes of Liberato Cacace, Sarpreet Singh and Callan Elliot are eligible for the World Cup, as are the overseas-based Dane Ingham, Max Mata, Michael Woud, Trevor Zwetsloot and Joe Bell.

Buckingham will therefore be able to name a final squad of huge potential and believes that is down to the time and resources now being invested in player development.

“I think the list of players we’ve got in this week shows there’s a lot of good work happening, not just in this country but elsewhere,” he says.

“It’s a good pool of players and now it’s just important we select the right ones and prepare ourselves to go and take on the three teams we’ve got at the World Cup.”

The squad will assemble in Poland in early May, spending two weeks in camp before their opening clash with Honduras.

“We can’t wait, we were one of the first teams to qualify for the World Cup so we had to wait six months to find out who we were going to play and where we were going to be. But the two stadiums we will play in are excellent and the training facilities and hotels we’ve seen are of the highest quality,” Buckingham says.

“We’re really looking forward to getting across there and have made sure we have a lot of time working with the squad to get us ready for that first game.”

New Zealand U-20 men’s training camp squad

Goalkeepers
Keegan Smith (Wellington Olympic)
Cameron Brown (Central United)
Zac Jones (Wellington Phoenix)

Defenders
Nando Pijnaker (Eastern Suburbs)
Dalton Wilkins (Eastern Suburbs)
Joshua Jones (Central United)
Kelvin Kalua (Eastern Suburbs)
Robert Tipelu (Onehunga Sports)
Jorge Akers (Miramar Rangers)
Jordan Spain (Cashmere Technical)
Emlyn Wellsmore (Brisbane Roar Academy, Australia)
George Stanger (Hamilton Academicals, Scotland)
Boyd Curry (Onehunga Sports)

Midfielders
Lachlan McIsaac (Birkenhead United)
Gianni Stensness (Wellington Phoenix)
Dominic Wooldridge (Eastern Suburbs)
Dane Schnell (Western Springs)
Tacettin Kumsuz (Wellington Phoenix)
Oliver Whyte (Rio Ave, Portugal)
Leon Van Den Hoven (RKC Waalwijk, Netherlands)
Elijah Just (Eastern Suburbs)
Willem Ebbinge (Wellington Phoenix)
Kingsley Sinclair (Eastern Suburbs)

Forwards
Jacob Mechell (Birkenhead United)
Callum McCowatt (Eastern Suburbs)
Stafford Dowling (Onehunga Sports)
Dauntae Mariner (FC Vizela, Portugal)
Matthew Palmer (Vejle Boldklub, Denmark)
Charles Spragg (University of Wisconsin, United States)
Seth Clark (Canterbury United)
Matthew Conroy (Western Springs)
Thomas Raimbault (Vancouver Whitecaps, Canada)
Benjamin Waine (Wellington Phoenix)

Article added: Wednesday 03 April 2019