Soccer: Milicich casts net for Oceania

Cameron Lindsay (left) and Zane Sole bring an aerial ball under control. Photo / Getty Images.

New Zealand under-20 coach Chris Milicich will take a passing interest in the ASB Youth League which starts at the end of this month but admits his major focus will be on the ASB Premiership in settling on a squad for next year's Oceania Championship.

"My feeling is that any player good enough to play for New Zealand at age-group level should be playing in the highest possible competition," said Milicich.

"The ASB Premiership is hugely important in my eyes and I would expect any players we are interested in will be playing there."

Not that there is likely to be a huge number of locally based players in his final selection. He has already identified around a dozen potential under-20 internationals playing overseas.

"We already have guys like Cory Chettleburg in Holland, Liam Graham in Italy, Cameron Lindsay at Blackburn, Stefan Marinovich in Germany, Luis Estvez in Portugal and Jamie Doris at Hibs," said Milicich. "It is great they are playing at this level and they will bring invaluable experience to the squad."

All Whites striker Chris Wood is also very much in the mix but Milicich will need to tread warily as the Oceania qualifiers, to be held from April 18-29 (likely in Auckland), fall outside any Fifa window and he would need the co-operation of Woods' club to have him available for the tournament.

Woods' participation in Milicich's programme is being done with All Whites coach Ricki Herbert.

Milicich has already used many local players in the games the team has played against Waitakere United, Auckland City, Wellington Phoenix and O-League champions Hekari United.

"We have guys like Zane Sole, Ryan de Vries, Ashton Pett, Dakota Lucas and Sean Lovemore at Waitakere, Adam Thomas and Aaron Bawdekar at Auckland City and Marco Rojas and James Musa at the Phoenix," said Milicich. "But the search does not end there."

Milicich has been tracking players since his appointment in April, leaving nothing to chance as he settles on the around 30 players from which he will select the 20 for the Oceania tournament. If they win that he will bring in another three players for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Colombia in late August.