Source: Radio New Zealand
All Whites football training ahead of the FIFA Series. Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
The All Whites want to leave a lasting impression in their final two games on home soil before the Football World Cup.
Fifa Series games against Finland on Friday and Chile on Monday at Eden Park will be the last chance for many New Zealand football fans to see the team live before the global tournament in June and the opportunity to showcase what the All Whites can do is not lost on the playing group.
“For a long time we didn’t think we were going to have another game before the World Cup,” midfielder turned left back Ben Old said.
“So it was a great surprise for me and a lot of these boys to be able to come back to New Zealand.
“Being the last tour before the World Cup, I think it’s a cool send-off to show our quality and where we are as a team and hopefully build a bit of excitement for the World Cup.”
Old and many of his teammates shared the view that the upcoming two games are about performance as well as results.
“At the World Cup it’s ultimately about winning games. You can perform as well as you want, but to push on and create history we’re going to have to win games.
“So I think these are some great opponents, but also a great opportunity for us to be able to perform and show that we can win games as well.
“On previous tours we often seem to have one quite good game and then we maybe drop in another.
“So we’ve been working on that a lot and I think for us to be able to show some consistency in two games is going to build us a lot of confidence for the World Cup.”
Joe Bell playing against Colombia. Carl Kafka/www.photosport.nz
The All Whites have played eight games in the year since qualifying for the World Cup for one win, one draw and six losses.
All games have been against high-ranked opponents and world number 75 Finland and world number 55 Chile will provide two different playing styles for the world number 85 All Whites to test themselves against.
Several players in the Finland squad have never played so far from home.
“We have players that have been in the national team for many, many years and they have never played against opponents outside Europe, so of course it is a big experience for everybody, it seems that the players is coping really well with that part of travelling so far,” coach Jacob Friis said.
Nothing can replicate the pressure the All Whites will be under at the World Cup but experienced midfielder Joe Bell said the Fifa Series, against opposition who missed out on qualifying for the World Cup, was a good warm up.
“There’s not so much we can do as players in terms of deciding who we want to play against but we’ve always demanded to try play against the best opposition we can and I think we get that with Finland and Chile, I think that’s a huge huge benefit for us because I think it replicates the games we’re most likely going to experience at the World Cup.
“We need more than just one draw or one win at the World Cup we need to get back-to-back results and that’s something we’re working on [but for this series] obviously there’s the physical component to it as well, we play Friday, Monday so it’s going to be difficult to put out two teams that are the same.”
Midfielder Eli Just recognised winning in Auckland would be a boost for the team but the bigger picture was more important.
“If you win all your games leading up to the World Cup and lose at the World Cup it means nothing
“We’ve definitely been focusing as a group each game just learning, trying to work out where we can get better and how best to prepare for the World Cup.
“You can’t guarantee anything but I think the squad we’ve got is definitely in a really healthy position and we have expectations on ourselves that we want to go and achieve something at the World Cup.”
All Whites captain Chris Wood will not play in the Fifa Series. © Bildbyrån Photo Agency 2025 © Photosport Ltd 2025 www.photosport.nz
The All Whites are without six players due to injury for the Fifa Series but defender Finn Surman said there was still a level of familiarity amongst the players who were involved in this international window.
“We are all essentially on the same page about how we want to play as a team. We’ve been doing a lot of work over the last two, three years on that.
“So we all know what is expected of us when we come into camp.
“It’s just about fine-tuning those little details and things when it comes to different players playing together and all that sort of stuff.”
Coach Darren Bazeley has welcomed being at home for this international window.
“Any game in football, across club football or international football the home team has an advantage, the conditions, the crowd, and it’s been tough for us we travel a lot and play away games a lot and deal with crowds in opposition environments so we’ve got used to doing that but this is the first time really that we’ve been able to play competitive ranked teams here in New Zealand and I think the rankings of Finland and Chile they’re good competitive games that are going to be a challenge for us.”
General view of Eden Park ahead of FIFA Series Alan Lee / www.photosport.nz
All Whites squad for FIFA Series
Kosta Barbarouses (70 caps, 9 goals) Western Sydney Wanderers, Australia
Lachlan Bayliss (debut) Newcastle Jets, Australia
Joe Bell (28/1) Viking FK, Norway
Tyler Bindon (20/3) Sheffield United, England (on loan from Nottingham Forest)
Max Crocombe (19/0) Millwall, England
Andre De Jong (11/2) Orlando Pirates, South Africa
Francis De Vries (15/1) Auckland FC, New Zealand
Callan Elliot (7/0) Auckland FC, New Zealand
Eli Just (38/8) Motherwell, Scotland
Callum McCowatt (28/4) Silkeborg IF, Denmark
James McGarry (3/0) Brisbane Roar, Australia
Ben Old (18/1) AS Saint-Étienne, France
Alex Paulsen (5/0) Lechia Gdańsk, Poland (on loan from AFC Bournemouth)
Tim Payne (48/3) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Jesse Randall (5/1) Auckland FC, New Zealand
Logan Rogerson (16/2) Auckland FC, New Zealand
Alex Rufer (22/0) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Marko Stamenic (33/3) Swansea City, Wales
Finn Surman (13/2) Portland Timbers, USA
Ryan Thomas (23/3) PEC Zwolle, Netherlands
Bill Tuiloma (45/4) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Ben Waine (26/8) Port Vale, England
Michael Woud (6/0) Auckland FC, New Zealand
Fixtures
- Friday, March 27, 7.15pm: v Finland; Eden Park, Auckland
- Monday, March 30, 7.15pm: v Chile; Eden Park
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
