Today I'm going back exactly ten years to a Preliminary Round match between Belarus and New Zealand, part of the London 2012 Olympics Games. The match was played at Coventry City's Ricoh Arena, known for the duration of the Olympic football tournament as the City of Coventry Stadium due to the sponsorship agreements of the Olympic governing body. Getting a ticket to almost any Olympic event was very difficult and, in the end, the football tournament was the most accessible event for those wanting to experience the atmosphere of a home Olympics. Belarus against New Zealand doesn't exactly set the pulses racing does it and yet, such was the attraction of attending the Olympics, the official attendance for the featured game was 14,457 (around half the capacity of the stadium), nearly all of whom were locals rather than supporters of either participant.
The Olympic Soccer tournament has never been held in high regard in Great Britain and nor by FIFA for that matter. Unlike the governing bodies of most other sports, FIFA take the view that they don't want the Olympics to steal the limelight from their own flagship competition: the World Cup. FIFA therefore only allow Soccer at the Olympics on the basis that it is an under-23 competition albeit that countries are allowed to select up to three players who are older. This makes Olympic Soccer unique because, elsewhere in FIFA's football world, under-age Football tends to end with the under-21s and there is no dispensation allowing over-age players in any other age group competitions to my knowledge. The other reason why Great Britain has tended to turn its nose up at Olympic Soccer is because we enter international football competitions separately as either England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales rather than Great Britain whereas we can only compete as Great Britain at the Olympics. In 2012 however, in view of the fact that Britain hosted the Olympics, Great Britain did not have to pre-qualify and therefore decided to enter a team for a change. Team GB's over-age players within the squad of 18 selected by manager Stuart Pearce were 38-year old Ryan Giggs, 33 year-old Craig Bellamy and 24-year old former Wetherby High School pupil Micah Richards.
15 countries pre-qualified for the tournament along with hosts Great Britain and the 16 squads were organised into four groups of four. Belarus and New Zealand found themselves in Group C alongside Egypt and pre-tournament favourites Brazil. The featured game was the opening game in the Group. New Zealand football authorities, perhaps anxious to avoid comparison with New Zealand's all-conquering Rugby Union side ("the All Blacks") ensure that their team turn out in an all white kit (they are nicknamed "the All Whites") whilst Belarus wore all red. Possibly the only player on show who would have been familiar to the average British punter was Chris Wood (note the spelling: goalkeeper Chris Woods is somebody completely different). Wood was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1991 and was signed by West Bromwich Albion as a 17-year old and indeed made his debut in the Premier League against Portsmouth becoming only the fifth Kiwi to appear in the competition. Loan spells followed at Barnsley, Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol City, Millwall and then Leicester City where he was eventually signed and became a member of their 2014 Championship winning side. A further loan spell, this time at Ipswich was followed by probably the most notorious part of his career when he signed, first for Leeds United and then Premier League Burnley before joining Newcastle United's Saudi revolution earlier this year. All in all Wood has scored 156 goals in 477 club appearances, not bad for a target man who also enjoys plenty of assists. In March Wood became New Zealand's all time top scorer and has currently scored 33 goals in 68 Internationals.
There was just one goal in the featured game and it came on the stroke of half time from a corner which wasn't very well defended by New Zealand who allowed Dzmitriy Baha to sneak in at the far post and head home. You could almost hear the demonic laughter in the stands... bahahahaha! For all their possession, New Zealand couldn't fashion a decent chance against the underdogs and, indeed, Belarus created a number of good chances to extend their lead before it ended 1-0 to the Belarussians.
In their second Group C game, played at Old Trafford, New Zealand could only draw with the Egyptians. Wood's strike for the Kiwis was cancelled out by an equaliser from Mo Salah. Later the same day in an Old Trafford double header, Brazil, replete with Neymar, beat Belarus 3-1 to qualify for the knockout phase with a game to spare. In the final round of Group C games, Egypt's 3-1 victory over Belarus put them through and eliminated both New Zealand and Belarus. In any case New Zealand were thumped 3-0 by Brazil and would not have gone through, finishing bottom of the Group with just a single point. In the knockout phase, Brazil defeated both Honduras and Great Britain's conquerors on penalties South Korea to reach the Olympic Soccer Final before surprisingly succumbing 2-1 to the gold medal Mexicans at Wembley. Ole!
CRB Match No. 1904
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