Tuchel is understood to have requested friendlies near England’s pre-tournament training camp in Florida on 6 and 10 June – the night before the World Cup starts – and finding high-calibre opponents for the latter date is proving particularly challenging.
The head coach would ideally like matches against World Cup sides but Fifa regulations prevent participants from playing friendlies in the final five days before their first game of the tournament. That means only teams playing on 16 and 17 June – who will include two qualifiers from March’s intercontinental playoffs – could face England on 10 June.
The FA is in discussions with several national associations and confirmation of England’s opponents is expected this month. With its options limited, New Zealand, who have qualified, and Costa Rica, who have not, are understood to be under consideration.
England have been starved of top-class opposition under Tuchel, making the identity of friendly opponents more significant. The highest-ranked opponents England have played under Tuchel have been Senegal, who were 19th when they won 3-1 in Nottingham last summer, and the best team they have beaten according to the Fifa rankings are Wales, who were 30th at the time.
Fifa has relaxed its previous World Cup regulations that banned teams from playing from 48 hours before the start of the tournament, as a result of the expanded draw and elongated opening round. World Cup participants remain prevented from organising friendlies against sides in the same group, although this was never a consideration for England, whose group is completed by Ghana and Panama.
England’s late start to the World Cup has left also them facing a congested schedule, with eight games in 33 days if they reach the final, and a large amount of travelling. Their three group matches will take place in an 11-day period.
Tuchel wants to give his players a holiday at the end of the season, which has influenced his request for late friendlies, although anyone involved in the Champions League final on 30 May will be denied a break with the squad due to fly to Florida on 1 June.
England’s warm-up games are expected to take place in Orlando and Tampa before they move to Kansas City in advance of the start their tournament.
The FA has announced England will face Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in March in their final matches before Tuchel names his World Cup squad.
The match will be played on Sunday 7 June NZT (Saturday 6 June local time), with the venue and kick-off time to be announced in due course.
The game will see the All Whites face their highest-ranked opponent in 17 years, coming face to face with The Three Lions for the first time since 1991, and for just the third time in history.
This is big... 🇳🇿🏴
The All Whites will warm up for the @FIFAWorldCup by taking on one of the tournament favourites @England in Florida this June 🙌
The match will be played on Sunday 7 June NZT (Saturday 6 June local time), with the venue and kick-off time to be announced in due course.
The game will see the All Whites face their highest-ranked opponent in 17 years, coming face to face with The Three Lions for the first time since 1991, and for just the third time in history.
This is big... 🇳🇿🏴
The All Whites will warm up for the @FIFAWorldCup by taking on one of the tournament favourites @England in Florida this June 🙌
"Title contender" Haha!! They say this every tournament cycle, always over hyped. These days they even try it with a german coach ;-) I hope we play great and send them into a downward spiral.
The match will be played on Sunday 7 June NZT (Saturday 6 June local time), with the venue and kick-off time to be announced in due course.
The game will see the All Whites face their highest-ranked opponent in 17 years, coming face to face with The Three Lions for the first time since 1991, and for just the third time in history.
This is big... 🇳🇿🏴
The All Whites will warm up for the @FIFAWorldCup by taking on one of the tournament favourites @England in Florida this June 🙌
"Title contender" Haha!! They say this every tournament cycle, always over hyped. These days they even try it with a german coach ;-) I hope we play great and send them into a downward spiral.
They obviously are a title contender though aren't they.
Is it wise to play warm-up games in Florida when our games are on the other side of the country in a cooler climate?
It will be very hot in California for the first game verus Iran.
Though SoFi Stadium (LA) itself is an air conditioned stadium I read. But if the team train at all in LA before that Iran match it will be toasty.
With the tight scheduling between the WC starting and European club seasons finishing, sounds like is not so easy to find suitable opposition in North America, ie a lot of teams will play pre WC friendlies in Europe??
Obviously its a high profile match but I do wonder about the logic of flying LA to Florida to play a match in hot humid conditions right before the WC starts. Its a 5hr 30 min flight and a different time zone. We will lose two training days to travel. Surely we could have found some opposition on the east coast. England like everyone else are contenders for the WC. But they are serial chokers at international tournaments. What is it now....60 years since they last made a final.
The AWs will probably be flying into Florida from even further away. As it sounds like their training base will be around either Seattle or Vancouver.
Flight time Vancouver to Tampa is 7 hours - including a transit somewhere as limited direct flights.
That's unless the AWs are changing their training base to some sort of Mid West location like Kansas, Denver or similar.
This England game on 7th June, will be nine days before the All Whites face Iran in their opening game at the World Cup. So maybe rather than two warmups the AWs will just play this England match, so training days lost travelling to Florida not such an issue??
Maybe the English FA offered NZF a tidy sum, as the English were struggling to find someone to play. I mean Costa Rica their other warmup opponent are not even at the WC.
This match will have resonance as NZ is a British colony and lots of people have ties to the UK. The media will certainly jump on board. But remember this is a warmup/training game a week or so before the WC kicks off. So it will be low key. Expect stuff like unlimited subs as the coaches will try and give everyone a run. Most players will just want to avoid an injury. Personally the real deal starts when we kick off the first match.
Obviously its a high profile match but I do wonder about the logic of flying LA to Florida to play a match in hot humid conditions right before the WC starts. Its a 5hr 30 min flight and a different time zone. We will lose two training days to travel. Surely we could have found some opposition on the east coast. England like everyone else are contenders for the WC. But they are serial chokers at international tournaments. What is it now....60 years since they last made a final.
They have made back to back European Championship finals.
This match will have resonance as NZ is a British colony and lots of people have ties to the UK. The media will certainly jump on board. But remember this is a warmup/training game a week or so before the WC kicks off. So it will be low key. Expect stuff like unlimited subs as the coaches will try and give everyone a run. Most players will just want to avoid an injury. Personally the real deal starts when we kick off the first match.
It will be a cap-earning international with six subs per side.
This match will have resonance as NZ is a British colony and lots of people have ties to the UK. The media will certainly jump on board. But remember this is a warmup/training game a week or so before the WC kicks off. So it will be low key. Expect stuff like unlimited subs as the coaches will try and give everyone a run. Most players will just want to avoid an injury. Personally the real deal starts when we kick off the first match.
It may be a warmup - but from memory the warm-up game between All Whites and Serbia(?) in 2010 turned into a pretty feisty affair. Players still want to win and compete for the starting 11.
Unsure what thread to put it in specifically, so have gone with this one.
Iran have named a provisional 60 man squad in the lead up to the world cup. Lots of domestic based players, with a smattering of players who ply their trade at European and other Middle-Eastern clubs.
We open our campaign against Iran on June 16 (NZT)
Goalkeepers 1.Alireza Beiranvand TRACTOR SC
2.Seyed Hossein Hosseini SEPAHAN SC
3.Payam Niazmand PERSEPOLIS
4.Mohammad Khalifeh ALUMINIUM ARAK
5.Mohammadreza Dinarvand KHEYBAR FC
Centre-Backs 6. Shoja Khalilzadeh TRACTOR SC
7. Morteza Pouraliganji PERSEPOLIS
8. Hossein Kanaanizadegan PERSEPOLIS
9. Mehdi Zare AKHMAT GROZNY (RUSSIA)
10. Amin Hezbavi SEPAHAN SC
11. Saman Fallah ESTEGHLAL FC
12. Hossein Abourghaei PERSEPOLIS
13. Danial Eiri ZOB AHAN
14. Ali Nemati FOOLAD
15. Masoud Mohebi KHEYBAR FC
Right-Backs 16. Aria Yousefi SEPAHAN SC
17. Saleh Hardani ESTEGHLAL SC
18. Sadegh Moharrami TRACTOR SC
19. Danial Esmaeilifar TRACTOR SC
20. Ramin Rezaeian ESTEGHLAL FC
Left-Backs 21. Milad Mohammadi PERSEPOLIS
22. Abolfazl Jalali ESTEGHLAL FC
23. Hossein Goodarzi ESTEGHLAL FC
24. Ehsan Hajsafi SEPAHAN SC
25. Mohammad Naderi TRACTOR SC
26. Mersad Seifi SHABAB AL AHLI (UAE)
27. Abolfazl Razaghpour FOOLAD
Defensive Midfielders 28. Roozbeh Cheshmi ESTEGHLAL FC
29. Saeid Ezatolahi SHABAB AL ALHI (UAE)
30. Mohammad Ghorbani AL WAHDA (UAE)
31. Omid Noorafkan SEPAHAN SC
32. Amirmohammad Razzaghinia ESTEGHLAL FC
Playmakers 33. Saman Ghoddos KALBA FC (UAE)
34. Soroush Rafiei PERSEPOLIS FC
35. Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad DINAMO MAKHACHKALA (RUSSIA)
Wonder if there are many fractures in their national team and in Iranian football as a whole at the moment, along pro regime verus anti regime lines?
Thousands dead. Millions protesting. Is bound to be some political splits in their football scene.
The Persian Gulf League I also presume has been disrupted during the protests, and may have to be completely suspended if the US/Israel goes in with massive aerial bombing, plus attempted regime change. Watch this space. FIFA will be.
Was a similar sort of environment for Iran for the last World Cup, I think there were these big "women, life, freedom" protests or something like that around that time. And the players just studiously stayed apolitical.
Edit: a full on war would be different though obviously
Sometimes it can unify them, see Didier Drogba showing unity with the national team and pleading successfully to end violence and civil warimanixsupporter
Was a similar sort of environment for Iran for the last World Cup, I think there were these big "women, life, freedom" protests or something like that around that time. And the players just studiously stayed apolitical.
Edit: a full on war would be different though obviously
Supporting the supporters and love an away day anywhere in the world. Kiwis Can Fly!
The All Whites have confirmed they will be based in Southern California for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, selecting San Diego as their official team base camp.
New Zealand Football have chosen the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium as their training ground, as well as a team hotel close by.
Main photo: Torero Stadium. Photo credit: University of San Diego.
As with most sides at the FIFA World Cup, the team will be based in one city and then travel to the match location one or two days before games.
Ahead of the All Whites opening match against IR Iran on June 16 (NZT) in Los Angeles, California, the team will travel two hours by road.
Vancouver, Canada, the location for the team’s second and third Group G games against Egypt on June 22 (NZT) and Belgium on June 27 (NZT), is a three-hour flight away.
The strongest existing football link between New Zealand and San Diego runs through Football Ferns defender Michaela Foster, who played college soccer, as it is known in the US, at the University of San Diego while graduating with a sociology and business administration degree.
Before going on to play professionally for the Wellington Phoenix and Durham FC in England, as well as earning 31 caps for the Ferns, Foster played three seasons for the Toreros (bullfighters), as San Diego’s sports teams are known, from 2018 to 2021.
“I only have good things to say about San Diego and my time there. I really enjoyed it. I think they're really lucky to be based there, in a beautiful city.
“They're up in La Jolla in their hotel, which is stunning. There's not many better places in America.”
Michaela Foster, Jenny Bindon and Tyler Bindon at the University of San Diego in February 2018. Photo: SUPPLIED
Foster’s move to the US came about with help from former Ferns goalkeeper and current assistant coach Jenny Bindon, who was based in Los Angeles at the time, with husband Grant and son Tyler, who was 13 then, but has since gone on to become an All White, and is a lock to be selected for the World Cup.
“They came down to visit me in San Diego years ago and we’ve got a photo of us standing outside the [university] and it’s me and Tyler there, so it will be quite cool for him to go back and hopefully get the same photo.”
The All Whites won’t be the only World Cup team based in San Diego, which is home to 1.5 million people, making it the eighth-largest city in the US.
Switzerland, who have been drawn in group B with co-hosts Canada, Qatar and a European qualifier still to be determined, will also be based in the city, training at the San Diego Jewish Academy.
The All Whites will begin assembling for the World Cup starting in the last week of May.
Bazeley said they were seeking another match four or five days prior.
Playing in Florida would be the preferred option, followed by any other east coast city, though it was possible they would end up criss-crossing the US from west to east and back again.
