Sandwiched between tight losses to China and Croatia, the New Zealand U-20 side held five times FIFA U-20 World Cup champions Brazil to a scoreless draw in Chengdu City on Friday.
The 18-year-old Sail, who plays for Central United in Auckland, was a key figure in the performances against China and Brazil and says the experience will be valuable; individually and collectively.
“It was special to be standing alongside the other players who were named as MVP, it was a pretty good feeling,” Sail said.
“It’s something going into the tournament I wasn’t expecting at all and this tournament has given me a good chance to prove myself and show others and myself that I’m at that level.
“The help from the quality players I had in front of me helped me a lot as well.”
Sail said after performing at a high level, the team is building confidence towards the FIFA U-20 World Cup on New Zealand shores next year.
“We’ve just proved to ourselves that we have the ability to compete at this level and up against world class opposition we’ve held our own.
“I think we’re confident we could get out of the group stage and do really well for New Zealand Football because we’re up to competing at that level.”
Junior All Whites coach Darren Bazeley had nothing but praise for the young stopper.
“We’re really pleased for Ollie he has worked really hard for a long time and this performance in the tournament was the culmination of all of that hard work and development,” Bazeley said.
“He was solid against China and then had an outstanding game against a very good Brazil team.
“With Ollie working as part of a very resolute team performance we were able to keep one of the best teams in the world scoreless over 90 minutes and when you consider Brazil put four goals past both China and Croatia, it puts that effort into context.”
“Hopefully now this experience can springboard him onto bigger and better things over the next year. If he can consistently produce performances like the ones he’s turned in this week, I’m sure we will be watching the start of a long international career.”
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football
For more on New Zealand football go to www.nzfootball.co.nz

Share