Centre-half Tommy Smith and the Oly Whites take on the UAE’s U23s in their final pre-Olympics friendly in Matrei, Austria this evening. The New Zealanders return to England after the game having travelled to Austria yesterday, Smith having joined the squad when they arrived in the UK on Monday.

New Zealand’s Olympics schedule sees them play Belarus at Coventry's Ricoh Arena on July 26th, Egypt at Old Trafford three days later and Brazil at St James' Park, Newcastle on August 1st.

Meanwhile, as we revealed on Monday, Steve Foley has confirmed he is in discussions with the academy about a return to Playford Road: "We are in talks but nothing has been decided yet. Ipswich is a club very dear to my heart and it is nice to be asked by Bryan [Klug] to come back."

Photo: Action Images

Photo: Action Images

MaySixth added 14:17 - Jul 19 New Zealand will lose every game in the Olympics.
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Len_Brennan added 16:40 - Jul 19 While the Olympics will be a fantastic experience for Tommy, he may well regret the timing of it. Great opportunity for Delaney to strike up an understanding with Chambers in pre-season and be the likely starter on the left side of the centre-half pairing come the Blackburn game. While Smith is clearly the long term future, I don't think there is much to choose between them at this moment in time. Both Smith & Delaney need a strong (right-footed) leader type alongside them to really shine and both have had shockers when playing as part of an unsettled defence. Delaney has great incentive to work hard over the coming weeks.

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footyblue added 19:58 - Jul 19 Dis agree totally with that Len as I think Tommy is a far better player than Delaney after all he has been the one to play on the right side of the pairing and in them last few games was definitely the senior defender of the two.
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