Coach Chris Greenacre takes positives from FIFA U

Head coach Chris Greenacre is confident his players will benefit from their experience at the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup, despite their early exit from the tournament.

“A lot of these players have bright futures. It’s another milestone in their careers,” he said after New Zealand’s 3-0 loss to Japan in their final group game in Chile.

“I told the players that games are won or lost on small margins, and sometimes they go for you and sometimes they don’t.

“We’ve had a couple of lapses of concentration on this tour, at this World Cup, and it’s cost us heavily.”

New Zealand lost their opening game 2-1 to hosts Chile, conceding in stoppage time.

With Egypt beating Chile 2-1 in their final game, the results left New Zealand bottom of the Group A table on goal difference, extinguishing any hopes of going through to the Round of 16 as one of the best-performing third-placed teams.

READ MORE: New Zealand exit FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup after 3-0 loss to Japan >>>>

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Of the result against Japan, Greenacre said: “Full credit to Japan. They’re a top side, a very good footballing team.

“I think that showed in the first goal that they scored. It was an incredible goal and enough to win any game.

“I thought we had some moments ourselves where we had a couple of half-chances, and on another day, maybe we take those.

“They (players) gave everything out there today. We didn’t want to be on the backfoot — we wanted to play our brand of football. I asked the players to be brave on the ball and I think we’ve tried to do that and I think we surprised a lot of people with how we wanted to play.

“We’ve tried to press high. We’ve tried to use the ball to our advantage.”

New Zealand captain Lukas Kelly-Heald said: “It’s a tough loss to take.

“The boys have been fighting hard this whole tournament.

“We gave 100% in every game. Sometimes things just don’t go our way.

“Full credit to Japan. They’re a top side, and unfortunately, we didn’t come away with the three points or the draw.

“I’m immensely proud to captain the boys. We try and play a brand of football that represents the country, and I think we did that today.”

Results

Games played on Saturday October 4, 2025 (NZT)

Group A

New Zealand 0

Japan 3 (Kosei Ogura 21′, own goal 64′, Hisatsugu Ishii 82′)

Egypt 2 (Ahmed Abdin 47′, Omar Khedr 90+5′)

Chile 1 (Javier Carcamo 27′)

This story was first published on October 4, 2025.

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