Positive comments on the NZ performance v Belarus posted above by many fans backed by Ryan in the same interview James Dean quotes from above:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/football/7366191/Oly-Whites-look-to-bounce-back-from-Belarus-loss
“It's just a bitter disappointment that we played a style of football which was the best I've ever seen a New Zealand team play, and sadly we didn't get a result," said captain Nelsen.
“Belarus are an extremely good team, and the boys came out with a lot of confidence, they played the ball around and stuck to the game plan. We've had nowhere near the preparation other teams have had, so to be that brave on this stage is commendable to those young players," Nelsen said.
“Unfortunately you can get caught up with all the romanticism of playing good football and creating chances but generally it's the basics that cost you at this level, and unfortunately it was a basic mistake that cost us.”
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Great piece from Tommy Smith's local Ipswich daily paper about a group of 50 Ipswich supporters who journeyed to Coventry to watch their local hero become the first ever Ipwwich player to appear in the Olympics whilst on Ipswich's books.
The Ipswich media and the fans are obviously very proud of Tommy - and were impressed by the Oly Whites, suggestions being made their manager consider signing Ian Hogg !!!
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich_town_fans_descend_on_coventry_to_see_tommy_smith_make_olympic_history_1_1462435
IPSWICH TOWN FANS DESCEND ON CONVENTRY TO SEE TOMMY SMITH MAKE OLYMPIC HISTORY
...The stadium concourse was packed well ahead of kick off – and littered with fans in Ipswich Town shirts from various recent seasons. Aside from NZ and Belarus, easily the most common club shirts seemed to be those of a Town persuasion.
....Our nerves were set jangling for the start, when the fussy referee threw out a yellow card at a perfectly fine Tommy Smith tackle (from our, admittedly, biased viewpoint).
“Is that your Tommy Smith? He won’t last very long like that,” laughed the Coventry local in front of us.
As it happened, Tommy quickly settled nicely, on the left side of a fluid back four, with Ryan Nelson on the right of centre and Ian Hogg (a 22-year-old part-timer from Auckland, apparently) at left back. He looks good, PJ, check him out.
A decent atmosphere added to the spectacle, around 14,000 fans (including vast numbers of children, on a summer holiday treat) getting into the spirit in the 32,000 stadium.
New Zealand looked the better team throughout but lost to a Dmitry Baga goal when New Zealand keeper Michael O’Keeffe came and failed to make contact with a cross.
At the final whistle, shirts were swapped and Tommy jumped over the barriers to the front of the crowd – to see his mum and dad.
Having driven up from Suffolk to proudly watch their son make history, they had got stuck in traffic on the A14 and arrived in the ground just as the 3 minutes injury time was announced.
Obviously disappointed (but sporting fine, matching white and black NZ replica shirts) they had missed all but the last moments of his steps into the history books. But that won’t affect their acute sense of pride at seeing, albeit for a brief few minutes, their son make history.
It is a sense of pride which all Town fans should feel of our Ipswich Town Olympian.
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NZ v Egypt live only to My Sky HDi subscribers 11pm tonight - otherwise replay on Prime TV at 3.20am or 6am on Sky Sport 8
For the NZ men's and women's matches on Prime they've had a half hour buildup show with Ryan Nelsen, Ferns players, players' parents etc. interviewed. Probably not tonight though.
Also great to have a decent post-match show when I watched Ferns v Brazil this morning live on Sky- something Sky usually doesn't bother with either for internationals or Phoenix games. Bloody hell - Dennis Katsanos manged to get in post-match interviews with a few Ferns players, coach Readings, even the Brazil coach and "best woman's player of all time" Marta through an interpreter. Really good effort !!!