WCQ Final All Whites v New Caledonia | Mon 24th Mar | 7:00pm | Eden Park

reg22

I agree that it doesnt quite feel the same.

But, it's a World Cup, and the World should be represented.

I know it's tough for us to cast aside that good old kiwi trait of having to 'earn it'. It's like we'd only ever be happy about qualifying if we faced severe adversity like we did in 82.

I think it's about time we accepted that we are in fact the strongest footballing nation in our confederation. 

Long come to peace with OFC - it's not changing - I guess my gripe is that the qualifying is just five games. I think it should be at least 10 and fully home/away. Playing four out of five games at home and the other neutral doesn't massively give that 'earn it' feeling. I can't really think why OFC wouldn't want more games.

I love how people are saying so and so should definately start next game for the All Whites.

Screw that, pick the squad and starting 11 based on form and match fitness. Garbett is a great example. Based on previous games deserved his starts, but you could really tell he hasn't been playing much recently which is why he was pulled at half time.

I expect a couple people to come out of the wood work now as wel wanting to represent NZ like Jake Iredale whose playing in the Scottish Premiership - probably not good enough to be a starter in the squad... he will push the fringe CB's like Smith and Pjanker for a role (Boxall, Surman and Bindon are locks currently).

A lot of water to go under the bridge - but for now let's celebrate, we are heading to the WC and start figuring out when we will know what city we will be terrorising with our chants!

Jessie Merino

Att. 25,132

Great guess from me, only 132 ppl out!

YoungHeartHM

Aside from qualifying tonight (yay!) surely I can't be the only one who thinks that this game would've been better off being played at Mt Smart?

25k + change would've been pretty much a sell out, and I think it would've added a whole lot more to the atmosphere. I'm sure the powers that be thought they'd get a few more through the turnstiles at Eden Park.

I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Kudos to the New Caledonians for turning up and making a real fist of it tonight as well. This pro league that's on the horizon will hopefully do wonders for their development as a footballing nation.

The hidden agenda is that Eden Park are desperately trying to get the edge to avoid being replaced by Te Tōangaroa and probably offered mates' rates. But it doesn't sound like it was a great experience. Good.

How did the crowd behave when the phoenix players were named?

Thoughts on De Vries if you aren’t a one eyed AFC?
Was keen for him to be given a shot but seemed a bit underwhelming. Is his crossing going to elevate him over others?

carlind

reg22

I agree that it doesnt quite feel the same.

But, it's a World Cup, and the World should be represented.

I know it's tough for us to cast aside that good old kiwi trait of having to 'earn it'. It's like we'd only ever be happy about qualifying if we faced severe adversity like we did in 82.

I think it's about time we accepted that we are in fact the strongest footballing nation in our confederation. 

Long come to peace with OFC - it's not changing - I guess my gripe is that the qualifying is just five games. I think it should be at least 10 and fully home/away. Playing four out of five games at home and the other neutral doesn't massively give that 'earn it' feeling. I can't really think why OFC wouldn't want more games.

Not sure winning the comp with 3 games left would feel any more climactic. Or, if OFC wanted to avoid that scenario, I'm not sure any of us would be happy with the possibility of winning 10 games in a row but still having to play knockout finals at the end of that. I just don't think there's any way to make a qualifying tournament where every team bar one is ranked 150+ either exciting or drawn out (while still being fair), let alone both.

AucklandPhoenix

How did the crowd behave when the phoenix players were named?

Talk of some trashing nix players. To be fair the majority of AFC fans are clueless idiots. Take that back - not majority - just the vocal ones.

Feverish

Thoughts on De Vries if you aren’t a one eyed AFC?
Was keen for him to be given a shot but seemed a bit underwhelming. Is his crossing going to elevate him over others?

He's class. Need to find a way to find both him and Libby into our gameplan. Especially considering our wingers aren't that good.

LT01

Feverish

Thoughts on De Vries if you aren’t a one eyed AFC?
Was keen for him to be given a shot but seemed a bit underwhelming. Is his crossing going to elevate him over others?

He's class. Need to find a way to find both him and Libby into our gameplan. Especially considering our wingers aren't that good.

 
Fair enough. What’s the best plan?

Dont know if I agree with him being class, he's decent. Also not sure about Libby playing higher, he can clearly do the job but he is still a better LB/WB and De Vries is 2nd to Libby in the LB role.
I like what Bazely did last night though, brought De Vries on and moved Libby forward to see how it works.

theprof

Dont know if I agree with him being class, he's decent. Also not sure about Libby playing higher, he can clearly do the job but he is still a better LB/WB and De Vries is 2nd to Libby in the LB role.
I like what Bazely did last night though, brought De Vries on and moved Libby forward to see how it works.

If they all stay fit, that's the left side of our field covered. I like them both. No clangers from DeVries. has a great crossing ability, even sneaking one in along the ground behind the retreating defence. Certainly come on in leaps and bounds at AFC.

I thought Cacace was ineffective further forward. It was only a small sample size. It could work though.

de Vries is very good IMO. If he starts, he needs to be better than our wide midfield options to justify pushing Cacace up. It would probably also help him if our game plan is to work the ball in to wide positions for Payne and de Vries to hit early crosses.

On this subject, credit to Bazeley for pivoting tactics 2x last night and for getting the subs right. 3 years ago, we had pointless possession and frustratingly no plan B vs Costa Rica. 

Feel de Vries lacks a bit of pace and is a risk he will be burnt by the very best at the WC, like he has even at times in the ALM. 

But man it's frustrating to see our other corner/dead ball takers fail to consistently find Wood's head.

Pity it's not American Football and we could just bring on FDV to take a dead ball, then off to the sideline again. He is very very good at that art.

Potentially if we play a back five at the World Cup - one plays LCB and the other plays LWB?

coochiee

Feel de Vries lacks a bit of pace and is a risk he will be burnt by the very best at the WC, like he has even at times in the ALM. 

But man it's frustrating to see our other corner/dead ball takers fail to consistently find Wood's head.

Pity it's not American Football and we could just bring on FDV to take a dead ball, then off to the sideline again. He is very very good at that art.

I was thinking, while watching last night and not seeing how we were going to score a goal, that maybe the best path for this team is to just exist in games and play for set pieces. obviously doubling down on our set peice emphasis/training.

carlind

reg22

I agree that it doesnt quite feel the same.

But, it's a World Cup, and the World should be represented.

I know it's tough for us to cast aside that good old kiwi trait of having to 'earn it'. It's like we'd only ever be happy about qualifying if we faced severe adversity like we did in 82.

I think it's about time we accepted that we are in fact the strongest footballing nation in our confederation. 

Long come to peace with OFC - it's not changing - I guess my gripe is that the qualifying is just five games. I think it should be at least 10 and fully home/away. Playing four out of five games at home and the other neutral doesn't massively give that 'earn it' feeling. I can't really think why OFC wouldn't want more games.

A longer OFC qualifying path likely means no June tourney in Toronto. As per Fitzy above more games in OFC achieves nothing, apart from seeing the AWs at home regularly. 

But then the AWs have played 5 home games (Malaysia & 4 qualifiers) in the last few months. That's a feast compared to prior years. Do we really need to watch 2 games against Samoa. What's the point. Plus we also had the OFC Nations Cup last year.

Have no idea why OFC were so friendly to NZ re this cycle's qualifying setup, but very glad they were. If we don't have to watch another AWs OFC game until 2028 I'll be happy.

We can still watch the progress of their de facto national teams in the new OFC pro league.

Bring on Ivory Coast and Ukraine in June.

Wood really should have scored during the first half (immediately after the mad goal mouth header scramble).  Header hit the inside of the post and went straight to the keeper.

coochiee

Feel de Vries lacks a bit of pace and is a risk he will be burnt by the very best at the WC, like he has even at times in the ALM. 

But man it's frustrating to see our other corner/dead ball takers fail to consistently find Wood's head.

Pity it's not American Football and we could just bring on FDV to take a dead ball, then off to the sideline again. He is very very good at that art.

 

YoungHeartHM

Didn't know which thread to post in, but I guess this is as good as any.

How good was it seeing Kosta, Rufs and Payne playing football with smiles on their faces again? Good contributions from all as well. 👏

I was thinking something similar.  Even towards the end we were still playing the ball forward, very un-Nix like.

coochiee

Feel de Vries lacks a bit of pace and is a risk he will be burnt by the very best at the WC, like he has even at times in the ALM. 

But man it's frustrating to see our other corner/dead ball takers fail to consistently find Wood's head.

Pity it's not American Football and we could just bring on FDV to take a dead ball, then off to the sideline again. He is very very good at that art.

This is football because 

Sadly I still remember when the AW's had to play at least 13 games to qualify for a playoff game against a South American team.

the rest of of OFC knew one off knockout games were their best chance of upsetting NZ to get the World Cup place, round robin or two-legged formats reduced their chances significantly. Having most of the significant games in NZ was probably needed to get our agreement for that sort of format, no doubt we would have cried foul to FIFA if it was the format we got but hosted in Vanuatu or the Solomons.  

coochiee

carlind

reg22

I agree that it doesnt quite feel the same.

But, it's a World Cup, and the World should be represented.

I know it's tough for us to cast aside that good old kiwi trait of having to 'earn it'. It's like we'd only ever be happy about qualifying if we faced severe adversity like we did in 82.

I think it's about time we accepted that we are in fact the strongest footballing nation in our confederation. 

Long come to peace with OFC - it's not changing - I guess my gripe is that the qualifying is just five games. I think it should be at least 10 and fully home/away. Playing four out of five games at home and the other neutral doesn't massively give that 'earn it' feeling. I can't really think why OFC wouldn't want more games.

A longer OFC qualifying path likely means no June tourney in Toronto. As per Fitzy above more games in OFC achieves nothing, apart from seeing the AWs at home regularly. 

But then the AWs have played 5 home games (Malaysia & 4 qualifiers) in the last few months. That's a feast compared to prior years. Do we really need to watch 2 games against Samoa. What's the point. Plus we also had the OFC Nations Cup last year.

Have no idea why OFC were so friendly to NZ re this cycle's qualifying setup, but very glad they were. If we don't have to watch another AWs OFC game until 2028 I'll be happy.

We can still watch the progress of their de facto national teams in the new OFC pro league.

Bring on Ivory Coast and Ukraine in June.

Kosta looked good in both his cameos I thought - probably makes the best runs in the team. Has certainly moved up the pecking order I think.

A few good selection calls to make going forward. A big 12 months for lots of our players.

Congrats from the APL

Good Morning, Kiwi football fans 👋

It wasn’t a dream - you’re really going to your first FIFA World Cup 𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 🏆🇳🇿🥳

To all the A-Leagues boys involved, we’re so proud 🫶

📸: @NZ_Football pic.twitter.com/HMA62eoW7i

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First morning as a nation heading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, how bloody good 🇳🇿🏆

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Moments like these 🏆🇳🇿😍 pic.twitter.com/XoYlesCJn5

— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) March 25, 2025

Unfortunately relying on set pieces is definitely not the way to win games let alone in a WC… better teams will not be giving away corners.

reg22

coochiee

Feel de Vries lacks a bit of pace and is a risk he will be burnt by the very best at the WC, like he has even at times in the ALM. 

But man it's frustrating to see our other corner/dead ball takers fail to consistently find Wood's head.

Pity it's not American Football and we could just bring on FDV to take a dead ball, then off to the sideline again. He is very very good at that art.

I was thinking, while watching last night and not seeing how we were going to score a goal, that maybe the best path for this team is to just exist in games and play for set pieces. obviously doubling down on our set peice emphasis/training.

Football Ted

Unfortunately relying on set pieces is definitely not the way to win games let alone in a WC… better teams will not be giving away corners.

reg22

coochiee

Feel de Vries lacks a bit of pace and is a risk he will be burnt by the very best at the WC, like he has even at times in the ALM. 

But man it's frustrating to see our other corner/dead ball takers fail to consistently find Wood's head.

Pity it's not American Football and we could just bring on FDV to take a dead ball, then off to the sideline again. He is very very good at that art.

I was thinking, while watching last night and not seeing how we were going to score a goal, that maybe the best path for this team is to just exist in games and play for set pieces. obviously doubling down on our set peice emphasis/training.

It's also something these days that professional standard teams (i.e. every team that makes the World Cup) pay close attention to. Easy to look dominant against island teams from these situations but it isn't reality on a global scale. Most teams defences are big and fit and even those from countries with naturally shorter people have come a long way.

It depends who we get in our group but I expect us to face a really good team and 1-2 beatable teams. Win one of those games and you likely progress to the knockouts (48 goes down to 32). 

The midfield is our strength as an area of the pitch imo - we have dominated possession and kept the ball quite well in some friendly matches against decent teams, in contrast to our good teams in the past. With Stamenic, Bell, Rufer, Garbett, Howieson, Thomas if we get him, etc. the depth is quite decent compared to other positions, and they all offer something a bit different too.

Then we have top 5 league quality players in Cacace and Wood to carry us in other parts of the pitch and make a big contribution too.

If we can improve on our creativity against good teams, which I think out of everything is our weakness, and keep our key players (especially Wood) fit and firing, I think we're capable of winning a game and potentially progressing. Especially those games against Ireland and Tunisia showed we are not far off World Cup level.

I think our midfield will come to the party against sides at the WC and in lead up higher level international window matches (at the best level we can play at) when 
a) we aren't just expecting to roll over an Oceania nation and 
b) the idea we can hold off a bit to avoid physical tackles and injury is out the window.

It still beats me why there wasn't a straight red for that early foul on Payne. No-one else thought that?  I know we have low expectations of the refs, so fair enough. But I thought it was a factor in how we played.

AlfStamp

Just back from the game. Awesome that we have qualified and its great we will probably get to qualify every time from now on but there was something missing tonight, the crowd felt flat and there was an edge missing from the game.  I was at the game against Bahrain and there was a tension in the air and the fans were fired up. I missed that tonight.  Im not a fan of what FIFA are doing these days but Im sure I will get used to it. I guess I was expecting too much having been in the crowd in 2009.

I was also there in 2009 and I surprised at how 'meh' I was about the game right until kickoff this time around. 
The comparative ease of path VS any other WC cycle, the bloated tournament size that awaits, with games spread across three countries, including Trump's USA.
I'm kind of grateful we were poor in the first half, I think it made me stop taking the win as a given and I was able to enjoy it a bit more.

Another factor I feel is the difference in the length of drought 2009 broke VS this time around. Many of us either weren't alive for 1982 (or in my case, were slightly less than a year old), and had come to believe that was a one off blip on the radar and we'd never be back, until the stars aligned again.

I kept telling myself in the days leading up to Monday's game 'this is FIFA, they could change their minds on a whim again, we might not have a path this easy forever, enjoy it now' in an effort to fire myself up.

One thing I did notice being there is all the kids too young to remember 2009, did not care about a soft path to a 48 team tournament, they were all over the moon to see the All Whites qualify. That's always been the split of supporting Football in NZ, equal parts enjoying the result on its own merit, but also hoping it inspires the next generation. Hopefully this new pathway can at least do that more often.

Oh yea, and a handful of vocal AFC fans were tools, but the majority of them were there in the right spirit and understood we were all there for the same team.

Just anytime I heard 1-2 of them in particular say something mind-numbingly idiotic and I wanted to call them out, I reminded myself that doing so would cause a scene that could spiral, whereas ignoring them meant they could just be seen as idiots without my help.

I had a laugh to myself when they struggled to get themselves together for the march to the stadium. Kinda weird to see a Port struggle so badly with outbound logistics.

mjp2

I think our midfield will come to the party against sides at the WC and in lead up higher level international window matches (at the best level we can play at) when 
a) we aren't just expecting to roll over an Oceania nation and 
b) the idea we can hold off a bit to avoid physical tackles and injury is out the window.

It still beats me why there wasn't a straight red for that early foul on Payne. No-one else thought that?  I know we have low expectations of the refs, so fair enough. But I thought it was a factor in how we played.

I think we will do okay defensively and in the midfield possession stakes against bigger teams. Bell-Rufer-Stamenic did well against the Americans. Though the USA have just lost to Panama at home in the Gold Cup semis so maybe they just ain't that good.

But our problem is going to be finding a goal or two. Our last 4 games against bigger teams (US, Mexico, Tunisia & Egypt) have produced 1 goal, that being a fluke one off Ben Waine's face.

The 4 before that (Ireland, Greece, Australia & Congo), two goals with 1 being a Wood pen. So you have solely Garbett's goal of note against Eire in 8 meaningful games!

Old & Thomas (fingers crossed) coming in will help. But it would be great if Singh can get back to that level he had a few seasons ago in Bundesliga 2. When Bremen in the German top tier were on the brink of signing him. When he ran the show for the AWs in the 2nd half of that 1-1 draw in Dublin. He ain't there yet.

LT01

Ricki for all his achievements lost to OFC teams on multiple occasions and had the horror in Honiara.
Hudson nearly lost the Nations Cup in PNG on penalties and had draws against Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
Hay had tight 1-0 wins against PNG and Tahiti.

I know our squad is better now but seriously these Bazeley out comments because we faced resistance for once in OFC qualifying are just absurd and out of touch.

It was a mistake going with unchanged XI three days after Fiji and it showed with the lack of energy, poor passing and allowing them time on the ball, but the subs made a big difference and in the end we still eased to victory.

Ten games against OFC opposition for DB - ten wins by 3+ goals. Well done to him and the boys

You say that but had there not been unrest in NC which massively affected the side and had this final been played in the islands, there’s a high chance it would have gone down to the wire. 

Let’s not forget a number of this squad were in the team that lost to NC in 2012.

The reality is we dont have high level creative midfielders who can create goal scoring opportunities. They are all pros but all play in minor leagues. We do however have a truely international level striker. He us the key for us at the WC. De Vries crossing to Wood will probably be our main scoring chance. Wood is world class in heading the ball. He has troubled all the best defenses in the EPL. 

MetalLegNZ

Kosta looked good in both his cameos I thought - probably makes the best runs in the team. Has certainly moved up the pecking order I think.

A few good selection calls to make going forward. A big 12 months for lots of our players.

I think the red card against Costa Rica and us failing to qualify was a massive wake-up call to Barbs. 

He’s scored more AW goals in the last 10 months (5) then he did in the 15 previous years combined (4).

it really was a lovely little dink finish.

Marto

MetalLegNZ

Kosta looked good in both his cameos I thought - probably makes the best runs in the team. Has certainly moved up the pecking order I think.

A few good selection calls to make going forward. A big 12 months for lots of our players.

I think the red card against Costa Rica and us failing to qualify was a massive wake-up call to Barbs. 

He’s scored more AW goals in the last 10 months (5) then he did in the 15 previous years combined (4).

joachim

Oh yea, and a handful of vocal AFC fans were tools, but the majority of them were there in the right spirit and understood we were all there for the same team.

Just anytime I heard 1-2 of them in particular say something mind-numbingly idiotic and I wanted to call them out, I reminded myself that doing so would cause a scene that could spiral, whereas ignoring them meant they could just be seen as idiots without my help.

I had a laugh to myself when they struggled to get themselves together for the march to the stadium. Kinda weird to see a Port struggle so badly with outbound logistics.

The Port did not organise anything, they weren't there in any official capacity. The main guys weren't even all together. They were sat all over the stadium. A lot of them aren't kiwi's so did not need to do anything.

Marto

MetalLegNZ

Kosta looked good in both his cameos I thought - probably makes the best runs in the team. Has certainly moved up the pecking order I think.

A few good selection calls to make going forward. A big 12 months for lots of our players.

I think the red card against Costa Rica and us failing to qualify was a massive wake-up call to Barbs. 

He’s scored more AW goals in the last 10 months (5) then he did in the 15 previous years combined (4).

The poor guy said he thinks about that every day/night. 
Outside Wood, it's only really Garbett, Just and Barbs who ever look like scoring. 

joachim

Oh yea, and a handful of vocal AFC fans were tools, but the majority of them were there in the right spirit and understood we were all there for the same team.

Just anytime I heard 1-2 of them in particular say something mind-numbingly idiotic and I wanted to call them out, I reminded myself that doing so would cause a scene that could spiral, whereas ignoring them meant they could just be seen as idiots without my help.

I had a laugh to myself when they struggled to get themselves together for the march to the stadium. Kinda weird to see a Port struggle so badly with outbound logistics.

anyone else in active hear the N-word thrown around at the ref? there were a couple of young English tourists in front of us and it wasn't the best look to say the least lol

mrsmiis

joachim

Oh yea, and a handful of vocal AFC fans were tools, but the majority of them were there in the right spirit and understood we were all there for the same team.

Just anytime I heard 1-2 of them in particular say something mind-numbingly idiotic and I wanted to call them out, I reminded myself that doing so would cause a scene that could spiral, whereas ignoring them meant they could just be seen as idiots without my help.

I had a laugh to myself when they struggled to get themselves together for the march to the stadium. Kinda weird to see a Port struggle so badly with outbound logistics.

anyone else in active hear the N-word thrown around at the ref? there were a couple of young English tourists in front of us and it wasn't the best look to say the least lol

No, I would not have bit my tounge on that one. Would have gone straight to security without issuing a notice or warning etc.

van Alberto

joachim

Oh yea, and a handful of vocal AFC fans were tools, but the majority of them were there in the right spirit and understood we were all there for the same team.

Just anytime I heard 1-2 of them in particular say something mind-numbingly idiotic and I wanted to call them out, I reminded myself that doing so would cause a scene that could spiral, whereas ignoring them meant they could just be seen as idiots without my help.

I had a laugh to myself when they struggled to get themselves together for the march to the stadium. Kinda weird to see a Port struggle so badly with outbound logistics.

The Port did not organise anything, they weren't there in any official capacity. The main guys weren't even all together. They were sat all over the stadium. A lot of them aren't kiwi's so did not need to do anything.

Ah, I was told there was an overlap between Flying Kiwis and The Port. Either my source could be mistaken and/or I may have misheard.

I did see a number of AFC kits and Port T-shirts in the heart of the active zone too, and the two people who said the most toolish things* were sticking Port stickers to the seats after the game, so please forgive my mistake.

*Just in case anyone from there does lurk here. I joined in on ADV chants, so maybe STFU about the Phoenix players you don't like for 90 minutes while they're wearing OUR national colours (ok, national shade/absence of colour)