New Zealand: Kosta Barbarouses’ Time to Shine?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 29, 2012

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 New Zealand 1 Egypt 1

Four years ago, New Zealand qualified for their first ever Olympic football tournament thanks to the attacking abilities of Kosta Barbarouses, netting four goals in five games in the preliminary tournament. However, with three older players being drafted in, as the qualifying campaign was strictly an under-23 competition, Barbarouses was left out of the side that traveled to Beijing. Two years on, he only made the reserve player list for the World Cup in South Africa.

Now, he appears in his first major international tournament. Is this his time to shine?

It’s match day 2 for New Zealand in this, their second-ever Olympic Games, and Barbarouses has just played a full 90 minutes against Egypt at Old Trafford. Although his impact in the game did not change the scoreline, his movement off the ball, darting runs, drawing defenders out of position and maintaining the Oly Whites attacking flow was invaluable.

Playing against an Egyptian team who nearly overturned Brazil’s 3-0 lead in an impressive second-half display, New Zealand took the lead. West Brom’s Chris Woods scored from a corner, celebrating, as he later tweeted, in the style of one of Old Trafford’s more familiar figures, Wayne Rooney.

Their lead was short-lived, however. Twenty-two minutes later, Mohammed Sallah was leveling from six yards. With minutes to go, Barbarouses’ moment came at the corner of the box, but he failed to find the killer touch.

“When you go up, you’ve to try to get that little touch on the end of it, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen for us today,” said Barbarouses, who had been playing a defensive role for most of the game.

Only in the closing stages, when a winner was so desperately needed ahead of their final group game against Brazil, did we see the real attacking prowess he has.



In a sombre tone, K...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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