Dartmouth's Craig Henderson Updates From Beijing Olympics

Dartmouth men's soccer senior Craig Henderson (Wellington, New Zealand)sends in a second update on his experience with the New Zealand Olympic Team at the 2008 games in Beijing. The ride has come to an end for the Oly-Whites but Henderson and his team put on a solid showing in the Kiwi's first Olympic bid. For his previous entry, click here.

The boys and I arrived in Shanghai on the Aug. 11 and the first thing we noticed was the even warmer and more humid temperatures as compared to Shenyang! The city itself is huge - high-rise apartments and office buildings as far as you can see. Again like Shenyang, the facilities have been first-class and the people are extremely friendly and accomodating. Our game against Belguim was a must win for us. We knew that if we could get a result then we would be through to the quarterfinals for the first time in NZ football history.

The game was played at a pretty fast pace and in hot and humid conditions. We made it through the important first 30 minutes and were starting to settle in to our game when we conceded a pretty soft goal from a set-piece. We were still in the game at half-time, but then deja vu struck. Dan Ellensohn got a straight red for a tackle just seconds into the second half. It was a very harsh decision and meant that we had to work even harder in the energy-sapping heat. The boys toughed it out though and we probably started to play better football being down to 10 men.We were lucky not to be down by a couple more goals though with Belguim hitting the post a few times, but like the China game we were in it until the end and even with 10 men we had our chances to grab a result. We didn't manage to sneak one but I can honestly say that the boys gave it everything we had. We were disappointed not to progress but realize that we were pretty close to achieving that goal.

Overall, the support from our travelling friends and families has been unbelievable and the experience of competing at an Olympic games, and playing against world-class players, has been something that will stay will me forever.

Schedules