Coach Des Buckingham may have just seen his players record one of the largest ever victories by a New Zealand team on the global stage but says keeping their feet on the ground won’t be an issue.

Buckingham’s side kicked off their FIFA U-20 World Cup campaign in Poland in stunning style three days ago with a 5-0 win over Honduras, which equalled the country’s biggest winning margin at any FIFA World Cup.

They are now in a strong position to progress from a group that also includes Norway and Uruguay with the former next in the firing line in the early hours of tomorrow morning (NZT).

While some in the footballing world may have been shocked at the high-scoring nature of that Honduras win, Buckingham was not among them.

“For us, the performance wasn’t a surprise so you wouldn’t have seen any huge celebrations afterwards,” he says.

“It’s a start and that’s all it is. It’s just one game and we’ve put ourselves in a good position now to progress if we can pick up some points in the next two games but it’s just a start.”

The result was the culmination of months of hard work and meticulous planning by Buckingham, the rest of his coaching staff and the players. That extensive preparation wrapped up with a pre-World Cup training camp in Poland, during which collaboration was a central theme.

“The biggest thing was getting the players together for a period of time and involving them in the process in terms of looking at our playing style and how we wanted to do things,” Buckingham says.

“I feel that’s been the real key, involving the players in the process has been hugely welcomed by the playing group.”

That sense of buy-in spilled over into the Honduras performance as New Zealand went on the goal rampage to blow the Central Americans away, particularly in an outstanding first-half showing that brought a three-nil lead by the break.

After an early own goal, Ben Waine did much of the damage with a double while Sarpreet Singh and substitute Matt Conroy also went on to find the net in the second half.

“I was really pleased with the team performance and the way they went about wanting to get on the ball and showcase what they’re capable of doing,” Buckingham says.

“We’ve put a framework together which allows them to express their own individual talents within that. For them to stick to that and get the goals and performance alongside it was hugely pleasing to watch from the sideline.”

While New Zealand are now promisingly placed, Norway will be fighting for their lives after beginning with a 3-1 defeat to Uruguay. Another win would be enough for the Kiwis to qualify for the Round of 16 but would spell elimination for the Scandinavians.

Norway do not have a recent record of success to draw upon in this tournament with their previous appearance coming way back in 1993. They are clearly not short of quality though after booking a World Cup berth by sweeping aside England 3-0 in the crucial match for fifth place at the UEFA U-19 European Championships last year, denying the reigning champions the chance to defend their title in Poland.

While delighted with the showing of each member of the squad who took the field against Honduras, Buckingham has faith in the depth of talent at his disposal and would have no hesitation in making use of that.

“We had ten players who didn’t start and I have no issue starting any of them against Norway,” he says.

Match Details

Norway vs New Zealand
FIFA U-20 World Cup, Group C
Tuesday 28 May, 6.30am NZT
Lodz Stadium, Lodz
Live on SKY Sport

New Zealand (from): 1. Michael Woud (GK), 2. George Stanger, 3. Dalton Wilkins, 4. Gianni Stensness, 5. Nando Pijnaker, 6. Dane Schnell, 7. Elijah Just, 8. Joe Bell (c), 9. Max Mata, 10. Sarpreet Singh, 11. Matt Conroy, 12. Cameron Brown (GK), 13. Liberato Cacace, 14. Leon van den Hoven, 15. Trevor Zwetsloot, 16. Dominic Wooldridge, 17. Callan Elliot, 18. Ben Waine, 19. Callum McCowatt, 20. Willem Ebbinge, 21. Zac Jones
Coach: Des Buckingham

Article added: Monday 27 May 2019