McGlinchey bullish about All Whites’ prospects
FOLLOWING some of his finest displays in an All Whites shirt, Michael McGlinchey is in a confident frame of mind and says there is a real belief in the New Zealand squad it can foot it with the best sides in the world.
Anthony Hudson’s men will have to do just that at next month’s Fifa Confederations Cup in Russia, where they will come up against the host, Mexico and Portugal — all countries ranked far higher than the All Whites’ standing of 112th but ones
McGlinchey
(30) is relishing the prospect of taking on.
The midfielder’s bullish approach stems largely from the All
Whites’ noteworthy tour of the United
States at the end of last year — which brought a 21 loss to Mexico and 11 draw against the US — as well as an unbeaten start to Oceania stage of qualifying for the 2018 Fifa World Cup against New Caledonia and Fiji.
The games in the US were especially memorable for McGlinchey, who caught the eye with a pair of characteristically composed showings as the All Whites further underlined their potential to make an impact on the world stage.
‘‘I think they were probably my best performances in an All Whites jersey and I just want to carry on from that now,’’ he said.
‘‘That was the moment when we believed we could match these bigger nations. It’s given us the confidence to go to this tournament believing we can cause upsets.’’
The midfield schemer is one of 12 domesticbased players fighting for spots in the Confederations Cup squad during a pretour training camp in Auckland and is enjoying being in the All Whites environment once more.
‘‘It’s good to get back in and see all the faces again. I think everyone’s been looking forward to this for a long time now so it’s just good to get in and get the training boots on,’’ he said.
After enduring an injuryinterrupted ALeague season with the Wellington Phoenix, McGlinchey is relieved to now be free of any niggles.
‘‘I managed to get a few games in by the end of the season and had three or four weeks there just to rest and keep my training levels up. The five days we have here is a massive advantage to the boys to get some training minutes and every session counts.’’
Before their thoughts can turn to the Confederations Cup though, McGlinchey and co first face several pretournament games, including internationals against Northern Ireland and Belarus.
The All Whites will meet the former in Belfast on June 2 and are set to come up against a side that includes English Premier League talent such as Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans, Chris Brunt, Craig Cathcart and Steven Davis.
‘‘Northern Ireland are a physical team. They’ve got a lot of experience and are good when the ball’s in the air. We’ll be working on them this week and when we catch up with the rest of the boys we’ll have a solid game plan to try and beat them.’’
While the preConfederations Cup games were worthy occasions in their own right, McGlinchey said the importance of the tournament itself could not be overstated.
‘‘It means everything. We obviously want to get to the World Cup and this is the start of it. We’ve been saying it the whole time but we want to make history and that starts from now.’’