Sunday News

Bevan’s stunning rise to the All Whites

- ANDREW VOERMAN

‘ He’s got time for everybody, he’s a humble kid. ’ NEIL EMBLEN

IF strikers rise and fall by the goals they score, Myer Bevan is on the up and up.

The 20-year-old has been included in the All Whites squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against the Solomon Islands, which is just reward for his remarkable run of late.

In the past 15 months, he has gone from Auckland club football, to the Nike Academy in England, and then on to Canada, where he is now a profession­al with Vancouver Whitecaps 2.

He has also represente­d his country at the Oceania Under-20 Championsh­ip and the subsequent World Cup, and at every stop, goals have been the constant.

There were 13 for Western Springs in the 2015 winter season, which had him among the best in the northern region as an 18-yearold, and four more the following year.

Then there were five, including a hat-trick, at the Oceania Under-20 Championsh­ip last September, where he was named player of the tournament; 25, during the 2016-17 season at the Nike Academy; two, at the Under-20 World Cup in South Korea in May; and two more in his first seven appearance­s in Vancouver.

‘‘He’s one of the only players I’ve worked with that’s got this real desire to score goals,’’ says Neil Emblen, who coaches Western Springs, and is an assistant with the national under-20 side.

‘‘You’ve got to put yourself in positions where you could get hurt, you’ve got to want to get in behind and make dynamic runs, and be able to receive and finish. He wants to be good at all of those aspects of a centre forward’s game, and that’s why he is one. He’s just hungry.’’

What is more revealing is what happens when the goals don’t come.

‘‘There were times where I’ve had to say ‘are you all right?’ after games, and it’s because he hasn’t scored,’’ says Emblen.

‘‘The rest of his play could be perfect, and he could have led the line well, and really put in a good shift, but he’s got this mentality where he wants to score. He was disappoint­ed at the World Cup at times, because he didn’t score more goals, and that’s the thing about him, he’s disappoint­ed every game he doesn’t score.’’

Bevan scored twice at the Under-20 World Cup, in New Zealand’s 3-1 win over Honduras. One of them was a penalty – bread and butter stuff – but the other was voted the sixth best goal of the tournament in an online poll.

After beating Honduras’ offside trap, and chasing down a long ball played forward, he entered the area from the right at a narrow angle and fired off a rocket of a shot, which hit the crossbar and rebounded down and in.

Emblen says that while Bevan has the selfishnes­s all good strikers need, he marries it with a work ethic that makes him an excellent teammate.

‘‘He’s got time for everybody, he’s a humble kid, and he just sort of thrives off of that.

‘‘It’s about his personalit­y as much as it is about his ability. When he gets to a tournament, or when he gets on the field, it’s like he doesn’t want to let anybody down, because he’s got so many people rooting for him.’’

 ??  ?? Striker Myer Bevan.
Striker Myer Bevan.

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