Chris Wood Leads New Zealand's World Cup Charge

Chris Wood, the enduring heartbeat of New Zealand’s attack, will stride into a third World Cup carrying both the captain’s armband and a nation’s hopes – and he knows exactly how long the wait has been.

“Sixteen years,” he said from Auckland, beamed in via video link as the squad was unveiled. “I can’t wait to share the moment with this team and hopefully create some history.”

For the All Whites, ranked 85th in the world and the lowest-seeded side at this expanded tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, history has usually meant survival, defiance, the odd famous draw. This time, Wood insists, the bar is higher.

Wood back from the brink

A month ago, his World Cup was in doubt. A knee injury had wrecked most of his Premier League season with Nottingham Forest, and for a player who has carried New Zealand’s goal threat for more than a decade, the timing looked cruel.

He made it back.

Now the numbers tell their own story: 45 goals in 88 internationals. A teenager off the bench in 2010, a seasoned Premier League striker in 2026, and still the man New Zealand turn to when they need a moment.

He remembers the last World Cup well. Three games, three draws, no defeats – against holders Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay – yet still eliminated in South Africa. Unbeaten, but gone. It remains one of the World Cup’s quirks that a side who never lost in the group finished bottom.

This time, the task is Iran in Los Angeles on June 15, then Egypt and Belgium in Vancouver on June 22 and 27. No soft landing. No illusions.

Wood, though, is adamant New Zealand now have the depth and quality to truly test Group G.

“I hope that we can do everybody proud and show the world what we’re capable of,” he said. There was no bravado in it, just a blunt statement from a player who has spent his career punching up.

A veteran from the fifth tier

If Wood is the obvious pillar of the squad, Darren Bazeley’s most eye-catching decision sits at the other end of the glamour scale.

Tommy Smith, 36 years old and now with Braintree Town in the fifth tier of English football, is going back to the World Cup.

He started all three matches in South Africa. Sixteen years on, he returns as the wise head in a 26-man group that will lean heavily on experience off the pitch as much as on it.

“With a squad of 26, not everybody is going to play,” Bazeley said. “So we added Tommy because his leadership is great. He’s going to be so important for the players keeping everybody on track. We’ll lean on him a lot.”

Smith’s selection underlines what Bazeley wants this squad to be: a blend of hardened professionals and emerging talent, guided by those who have walked this road before. The former England youth international may not log heavy minutes, but his presence in the dressing room will carry weight.

European core, A-League spine

Around Wood, Bazeley has built a core of European-based midfielders who must control games if New Zealand are to unsettle higher-ranked opponents.

• Joe Bell (Viking FK)
• Marko Stamenic (Swansea City)
• Matt Garbett (Peterborough United)
• Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle)

They are the ones who must hold the ball when the pressure comes, who must find Wood’s runs and calm the tempo when the game threatens to run away.

Sarpreet Singh and Alex Rufer bring the familiarity of the A-League, while Ben Old offers a French flavour from Saint-Etienne. It is a group more scattered across the football map than in previous eras, and that spread gives Bazeley options.

Ten players arrive from the Australian A-League, eight of them from the two New Zealand clubs, Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix. That domestic spine matters. It gives the squad a shared understanding, a day-to-day rhythm, and a base that has grown used to expectation in front of home crowds.

At the back, Tyler Bindon of Nottingham Forest and Michael Boxall of Minnesota United join Liberato Cacace, now at Wrexham, in a defence that will have to endure long spells without the ball. Finn Surman (Portland Timbers) and Nando Pijnaker (Auckland FC) add further depth.

Up front, Kosta Barbarouses, Elijah Just, Callum McCowatt, Jesse Randall and Ben Waine will be asked to support Wood, stretch defences and, when chances are scarce, be ruthless.

From Oceania to the world stage

New Zealand arrive at this World Cup the hard way, as they always do: through Oceania’s qualifying gauntlet, which they navigated successfully in March. It is a path that rarely offers glamour but often builds resilience. Long travel, modest pitches, awkward opponents. You earn your ticket.

This will be their third appearance on the global stage. In 1982, they lost all three games in Spain, overwhelmed but not broken. In 2010, they left unbeaten and with the respect of neutrals, yet with the nagging sense of what might have been.

Now they come as outsiders again, lowest-ranked in the field, up against three nations with deeper histories and bigger reputations. Iran, Egypt, Belgium: three very different tests, three chances to shock.

Bazeley has made it clear who his leaders are. Wood up front. Bell, Stamenic, Garbett and Thomas in midfield. Smith in the background, the voice in the huddle when the noise around them swells.

The stage is bigger, the stakes higher, the margins thinner. But for a group that has waited 16 years to return, that is exactly the point.

New Zealand World Cup squad

• Goalkeepers: Max Crocombe (Millwall), Alex Paulsen (Lechia Gdansk), Michael Woud (Auckland FC)
• Defenders: Tyler Bindon (Nottingham Forest), Michael Boxall (Minnesota United), Liberato Cacace (Wrexham), Francis de Vries (Auckland FC), Callan Elliot (Auckland FC), Tim Payne (Wellington Phoenix), Nando Pijnaker (Auckland FC), Tommy Smith (Braintree Town), Finn Surman (Portland Timbers)
• Midfielders: Lachlan Bayliss (Newcastle Jets), Joe Bell (Viking FK), Matt Garbett (Peterborough United), Ben Old (Saint-Etienne), Alex Rufer (Wellington Phoenix), Sarpreet Singh (Wellington Phoenix), Marko Stamenic (Swansea City), Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle)
• Forwards: Kosta Barbarouses (Western Sydney Wanderers), Elijah Just (Motherwell), Callum McCowatt (Silkeborg IF), Jesse Randall (Auckland FC), Ben Waine (Port Vale FC), Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest)

The lowest-ranked team in the tournament will walk into Los Angeles on June 15 with a fit Chris Wood, a veteran from Braintree, and a quiet conviction that this time, the story does not have to end in the group.