New Zealand have landed a seemingly formidable group featuring football powerhouses Cameroon, Uruguay and Portugal but the Waikato FC defender says a bite-sized approach is helping fuel confidence ahead of the country’s second-ever appearance at a FIFA U-20 World Cup.
“We’ve got a lot of self belief in the squad but we’re taking one game at a time and not looking too far ahead,” Branch says.
“We are obviously aiming at getting out of our group but we have to put full focus on each opposition in turn and that begins with Cameroon.”
Also helping the confidence levels is the memories of a 4-3 win over African youth champions Nigeria at the Suwon International Youth tournament in May. The Flying Eagles defeated Cameroon in the final of World Cup qualifying after losing to their rivals in group play.
“We had a good result against Nigeria ourselves but they were tough and we’re expecting a similarly tough match against Cameroon,” says Branch, who scored New Zealand’s second goal in that victory.
“We’re expecting Cameroon to be very physical and very hard to break down. Knowing we can beat a good side like Nigeria gives us confidence heading into the tournament but we know it’s a World Cup and things go up a level.”
The team had its penultimate training session on Friday (NZT) – an official run at Estadio Olimpico Pascual Guerrero – without the injured Marco Rojas, who has been ruled out of the opening game with a hamstring injury.
The top two teams in each of the tournament’s six groups progress to the round of 16 along with the four best third-place finishers and New Zealand coach Chris Milicich says a competitive showing in the first game will be key to the team’s hopes.
“Picking up a result would be a huge bonus but if we put in a good performance without the result it’s easier to kick on and get the results you need in the next games,” Milicich says.
“If you find yourself a long way off the running it can be very difficult to pick up a win and a draw to get yourself out of the group.”
The Junior All Whites play Cameroon at 10am Sunday (New Zealand time) with live coverage on Sky Sport 2.
FIFA U-20 World Cup Colombia 2011
Group B
New Zealand v Cameroon
Estadio Olimpico Pascual Guerrero
Cali, Colombia
July 30, 2011
5pm (10am July 31 NZT)
Sky Sport 2
New Zealand: (from) 1-Stefan MARINOVIC (gk), 2-Andrew BEVIN, 3-Nick BRANCH (c), 4-Ryan CAIN, 5-Sean LOVEMORE, 6-Nikko BOXALL, 7-Cameron LINDSAY, 8-Ethan GALBRAITH, 9-Tim PAYNE, 10-Anthony HOBBS, 11-Dakota LUCAS, 12-Andrew MILNE, 13-Colin MURPHY, 14-James MUSA, 15-Marco ROJAS, 16-Luke ROWE, 17-Mikey KRAMER, 18-Adam THOMAS, 19-Liam HIGGINS, 20-Scott BASALAJ (gk), 21-Coey TURIPA (gk).
Coach: Chris MILICICH
Cameroon: (from) 1-Thierry TANGOUANTIO (gk), 2-Eric NYATCHOU, 3-Ambroise OYONGO, 4-Banana YAYA, 5-Ghislain MVOM, 6-Idriss NGUESSI, 7-Yann SONGOO, 8-Emmanuel MBONGO, 9-Franck OHANDZA, 10-Clarence BITANG, 11-Yannick MAKOTA, 12-Franck KOM, 13-Serge TCHAHA, 14-Yazid ATOUBA, 15-Maxime MENGUE, 16-Jean EFALA (gk), 17-Jushua MBULUBA, 18-Herve MBEGA, 19-Christ MBONDI, 20-Eric SAME, 21-Eric NGANA (gk).
Coach: Martin NDTOUNGOU
Upcoming matches
New Zealand v Uruguay
Cali, Colombia
August 2, 2011
5pm (10am August 3 NZT)
Sky Sport 2
New Zealand v Portugal
Cali, Colombia
August 5, 2011
5pm (10am August 6 NZT)
Sky Sport 2
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand football go to www.nzfootball.co.nz