How heartbreak and dedication prepared New Zealand for World Cup

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No team benefits more from an expanded World Cup than the All Whites, who head into this summer's tournament with a genuine opportunity

For years, no team was punished more by the World Cup qualification process than New Zealand.

Win Oceania, earn a playoff, fall short - repeat.

In 2013, it was Mexico, and a 5-1 loss at the Azteca shut hopes down quickly. Their 2017 battle with Peru started with a scoreless draw in Wellington, but ended with a 2-0 defeat in Lima. Then, in 2022, Costa Rica scored just three minutes in and never looked back.

Despite dominating their region, there would be no joy for New Zealand - a confederation winner routinely left on the outside of the World Cup.

Few understand that cycle better than Darren Bazeley.

"I was involved as an assistant coach [for New Zealand] in the Peru and Costa Rica games," Bazeley says. "We competed and got close, but didn't get across that final hurdle and missed out on going to the World Cup."

Bazeley isn't New Zealand's assistant anymore; he's the head coach. That job is the culmination of a lifetime of work. Over the last two decades, a man from Northampton, England, has dedicated his life to growing soccer in New Zealand. That dedication, that journey, led him here. New Zealand is finally going to a World Cup, and they didn't need a playoff this time.

Due to FIFA's expansion of the World Cup field to 48 teams, the Oceania champion went straight through to the 2026 tournament. Unsurprisingly, New Zealand took care of business again. Across five qualifying matches, they scored 29 goals and conceded just one. In March of 2025, it was finalized. On that day, the All Whites scored three goals in 19 minutes to defeat New Caledonia, sealing their trip to North America this summer.

"When they expanded it, it was great news," Bazeley says. "We still had to do our job here in Oceania, but we did that pretty comfortably. We were lucky enough to be one of the first teams to qualify, and then we were able to spend the next 18 months playing against good, high-ranked opposition and test ourselves in these international windows.

"I think it's great for countries like New Zealand. More countries playing at a World Cup with a global game, the audience, I suppose, is spreading football more around the world, and that can only be a good thing."

There have been concerns about the expanded field, though. How would these smaller nations compete? Would the addition of 16 teams lead to, at best, a diluted field or, at worst, some all-time blowouts? Bazeley isn't worried about those issues, he says. He believes that his team has what it takes.

It's a World Cup that Bazeley truly believes can alter the course of New Zealand for good. This is a prideful country, one that has often been shortchanged by the global soccer landscape. This is a country where the sport is developing, but this is a country with real potential - one that might just experience a new boom thanks to the heroes that will take the field this summer.

Bazeley is often asked a simple question: why New Zealand? Now, he can explain it a little bit better. It's because Bazeley sees the moment ahead, and he sees a moment the team is eager to seize. The Englishman also sees a chance to repay the country he fell in love with all those years ago.

"Going to World Cups and Olympics, that's not something I thought would happen," Bazeley says. "I suppose I've just been on this journey, and here is where it's left me: on the eve of a senior World Cup."

New Zealand v Finland - FIFA Series 2026

The man in charge

In 2005, Bazeley made a decision. After a 16-year career across England's top divisions, he packed up his life for one last hurrah in New Zealand. His wife joined him. His two young daughters did, too. With his playing career winding down, Bazeley opted to fly across the world for one last football adventure. Well, that was the idea at the time, at least.

Now, 21 years later, Bazeley can't help but smile when asked about it.

"I had an opportunity to join a new club in a new league that was forming, and that was quite exciting at the time," he says. "You don't get opportunities like that very often. I had a young family. We had two daughters at the time, they were five and seven, and moving from England to New Zealand was quite a big deal. It's a long way on the other side of the world.

"All of our family was in England, but we still came across. We jumped at the opportunity and fell in love with the country. My wife fell in love with the country. My daughters loved growing up there. We made our lives there. I was really lucky to get involved and continue my football journey in New Zealand. It's a great place to live. We're very fortunate with where we are and how we live. The opportunities that I've been afforded have been great."

Bazeley retired from the game in 2008. In the years since, he's dedicated his life to building the sport in New Zealand. Over the last 17 years, he's managed the U17s, U20s and U23s. He's been an assistant with the senior team twice and served as the country's technical director. He led New Zealand into multiple youth World Cups and the Olympics, too.

In 2023, he was rewarded with the big job: senior team head coach. He was the one tasked with getting New Zealand back to the World Cup. Few could understand the weight of that task more than Bazeley, largely because he had that first-hand look at the heartbreak the country experienced in past pursuits of World Cup glory.

Italy v New Zealand: Group F - 2010 FIFA World Cup

World Cup history

New Zealand have played in the World Cup just twice. Only one of those has come in the last 44 years. That run in 2010 is still remembered as legendary. That summer in South Africa, the All Whites crashed out in the group stage, but they crashed out with a unique distinction: they were the only team to go unbeaten at the tournament. Draws against Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia made the country proud. They also lit a fire.

"That was a major catalyst for the country, for younger players to start playing football," Bazeley says. "We've got players currently with our team who remember that moment: qualifying against Bahrain for that World Cup. The team at the World Cup drawing Italy, that was the moment that really inspired them to be the best footballers they could be. I think that's the opportunity in front of us.

"We've got some good sports here in New Zealand. The All Blacks, in rugby, are world-class, but football here is the No. 1 participation sport. Football's really growing every year."

That growth has coincided with a new-look World Cup. It comes at the right time for the country, too. The kids who watched that Italy draw are now senior internationals. They, too, can now have their moment.

Chris Wood New Zealand

Building a player pool

Despite the pride in his program, Bazeley can admit reality: New Zealand aren't a powerhouse. This isn't his native England by any stretch.

"We're a small nation," he says. "There are only five million people in the country. We don't have that many professional players around the world. I think we track about 60 players."

So what makes Bazeley believe? Why does he think that New Zealand can play with groupmates Belgium, Egypt, and Iran this summer? Familiarity. He doesn't just know his national team's players; he's known them since they were teenagers.

"What we do have is really strong cohesion," he says. "A lot of our players grew up together. A lot of our players played club football together, school football together, Under-17 football together, and Under-20. They've had this cohesion, and they've done it together, a lot of them. We've got players that have played at three age group World Cups, two Olympic games, and have 30-40 national team caps. We're quite a young team with quite a good international age group experience together."

When you combine that familiarity with the experience of players like Chris Wood, Kostas Barbarouses, and Michael Boxall, you get a program that isn't afraid. No, New Zealand doesn't feature players playing for Barcelona or Manchester United, but the team does feature players who are competing at fairly high levels. The bet Bazeley is making is that the talent gap won't be too big and that whatever gap there is can be overcome by chemistry.

"We don't have a lot of players playing in the Premier League or Serie A or Ligue 1, but we do have really strong cohesion and a really good culture that we can lean on every day," he says. "We're a good team with some really good young players, but maybe people don't really know a lot of them yet. Players like Joe Bell playing in Norway, Callum McCowatt in Denmark, Eli Just in Scotland doing so well up at Motherwell. We have players in the Championship.

"When we do come up against these top teams, and they've got Premier League players, they might look at some of our players and the leagues that they play in and see Liberato Cacace at Wrexham or Marko Stamenic at Swansea or Tyler Bindon at Sheffield United and think, 'Okay, they've got players playing at a lower level,' but these are good young players forging careers. When you put them all together with some of the relationships and history they've had together, it makes us a stronger team."

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The journey

Over the last year or so, Bazeley has challenged his team. New Zealand has played Australia, Poland, Norway, Colombia, Ecuador, Finland and Chile since the start of September. After losing all but one of the first eight games, a draw against Norway, New Zealand broke through in March, battering Chile, 4-1, in Auckland to conclude World Cup preparation on a high.

There is still one more friendly to play, though, and it'll surely be a special one for Bazeley. On June 7, eight days before the All Whites open the tournament against Iran at SoFi Stadium, New Zealand will face England in Tampa. It'll be a meeting of Bazeley's homeland and his adopted home. It'll no doubt be meaningful.

Bazeley isn't really looking at that, though. Instead, he's looking ahead at a bigger picture. What can New Zealand accomplish this summer, both on the field and off of it? How many can the team inspire? What does the next step on this great journey look like?

"I'm not sure it will really hit home," Bazeley says, "Until we probably get on the plane and arrive at the actual World Cup."

New Zealand are going to the World Cup. So, too, is Bazeley. The journey continues, then, and, based on what that journey has looked like over the last two decades, it's hard to predict where it will lead next.