Academy midfielder Monty Patterson and the New Zealand U20 squad face hosts China in their opening game at the four-team Panda Cup International Tournament on Wednesday morning.
The four-team competition is part of the Junior All Whites’ preparation for next year’s FIFA U20 World Cup, which they are hosting.
Following their game against the Chinese, the New Zealand youngsters play Brazil on Friday and Croatia on Sunday.
Patterson, who starts a two-year scholarship with the Blues this summer, recently scored four goals in his first three friendlies for the Junior All Whites, two games with Fiji and one against Papua New Guinea.
In October, the 17-year-old featured for New Zealand in their three games at the FIFA U17 World Cup finals in the UAE and prior to that, in April last year, he won the Golden Ball at the Oceania Football Confederation U17 Championship when he joint-top scored on six goals with team-mate Stuart Holthusen.
Two months later, he won his first cap with the New Zealand ‘A’ side when he came on as an 85th minute sub as they lost 1-0 to Jordan in a friendly in Auckland.
New Zealand U20s: Damian Hirst (Birkenhead Utd), Oliver Sail (Central Utd), Cory Brown (Western Suburbs), Jesse Edge (Vicenza Calcio), Brock Messenger (Sunshine Coast Fire), Adam Mitchell (Central Utd), Te Atawhai Wihongi Hudson (Real Salt Lake), Daniel Bowkett (Miramar Rangers), Andre de Jong (East Coast Bays), Michael den Heijer (Kashiwa Reysol), Monty Patterson (Ipswich Town), Matthew Ridenton (Wellington Phoenix), Alex Rufer (Wellington Phoenix), Birhanu Taye (Braga), Bill Tuiloma (L’Olympique Marseille), Judd Baker (East Coast Bays), Stuart Holthusen (Onehunga Sports), Joel Stevens (Miramar Rangers), Tomislav Trbuhovic (Whittlesea Rangers).