New Zealand head coach Darren Bazeley looks on during a men's group A match between Guinea and New Zealand at Nice Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Nice, France. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

By The Canadian Press

New Zealand coach Bazeley leaning on relationships ahead of FIFA World Cup

Mar 24, 2026 | 3:00 AM

New Zealand is set to return to soccer’s biggest stage for the first time in 16 years this summer — and the man guiding the nation’s efforts is on the cusp of history.

When Darren Bazeley takes his place on the sidelines at the FIFA World Cup, he’ll become the first head coach to manage at the U-17 World Cup, the U-20 World Cup, the men’s Olympic tournament and the senior World Cup.

“It’s an amazing stat,” he said on a video call. “It’s been a long journey.

“I was lucky enough to when I finished playing, I got straight into coaching. I always say that coaching is the next best thing to playing. It’s not quite playing, but you still get to be in the changing room and on the training ground, and you still have those games. … So lucky enough to have been through the ranks and sort of worked with a lot of the current group of players in different age group teams.”

New Zealand, currently No. 85 in the FIFA rankings, hasn’t played in the World Cup since 2010 when it drew all three of its group stage games against Slovakia, Paraguay and Italy.

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The team didn’t advance to the knockout stage, but the performance was still a “major catalyst” for soccer in the country, Bazeley said, as it inspired many of the squad’s current players.

The coach has long worked with many of the athletes. He remembers selecting Callum McCowatt, now a midfielder with Denmark’s Silkeborg IF, for a U-12 team. Others he first met when they were 13, 14 or 15 years old and helped develop for age-group World Cups or Olympic teams.

“Every player I’ve got a slightly different history with. And we would have moments where we’ve worked together at a younger age,” said Bazeley, a former defender for Wolves and Walsall.

“I think I’ve been able to draw on a lot of those relationships now. They know me, I know them pretty well. I know what drives them, how to get the best out of them, and that’s really helped.”

Several fixtures on the national team grew up playing together, he added, which creates a strong cohesion among the group.

New Zealand may need to lean on that cohesion as it prepares for the 2026 World Cup.

The national team is missing six starters as it gathers in Auckland for training camp and a pair of friendlies this week.

Among the absent are Nottingham Wood striker Chris Wood, who’s recovering from knee surgery, and Liberato Cacace, a left-back for Wrexham, who’s dealing with a hamstring injury.

All six of the injured players are expected to return before the World Cup kicks off in June, but the absences make it more difficult for New Zealand to prepare in the March window, Bazeley said.

“Obviously, we’re not a nation that’s got lots of players playing in top leagues around the world,” he said. “When you lose some players like Chris Wood, Libby Cacace, some of our players that have played a lot of football for us, and good, good players, it makes it a little bit harder.

“It’s a little opportunity for some other players to push themselves forward and stake a claim, you know, so we treat it like that.”

Bazeley’s group will go up against some tough competition over the next few months, starting with a pair of friendlies in Auckland this week. New Zealand will face No. 75 Finland on Thursday and No. 55 Chile on Sunday.

Their final test before the World Cup begins will come on June 6 when they battle fourth-ranked England.

Taking on higher-ranked teams has been part of New Zealand’s preparation for over a year, Bazeley said. They’ve already faced Poland, Norway, Ecuador and Colombia, and come close in many of those matchups.

“I think what it’s done, it’s created a lot of belief in our team that one, there’s a lot more to come from us,” the coach said.

“We’ve actually never been able to probably put our best team on the pitch due to different players’ availability at different times. So I feel like there’s still more to come from us as a squad. But also, we’re getting closer. And we know that if we perform to our best on a day, we can compete with teams ranked in the top 20 in the world. And we can, if everything goes our way, we can win those games.”

New Zealand is set to open its World Cup campaign against Iran in Los Angeles on June 15.

Question marks loom over whether the game will go ahead as scheduled due to the United States’s current campaign against Iran, but Bazeley said he and his team are approaching the match like any other.

“Obviously, a lot of rumours, but right now, that’s the fixture in place,” he said. “Until we get told otherwise, we’ll just keep planning for Iran on (June) 15th in L.A. That’s the game we’re planning for.”

New Zealand will then head to Vancouver for group-stage games against Egypt on June 21 and Belgium on June 26.

With the tournament being held in 16 cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico, New Zealand was lucky to get its group-stage fixtures on the West Coast, Bazeley said.

The locales mean the team and fans alike can get direct flights to both L.A. and Vancouver, and the climate will suit the group better than some other host cities, such as Houston or Mexico City.

The coach is particularly happy with where he and his team will be spending a good chunk of time.

“Vancouver is one of my favourite cities,” he said. “And I was actually there a couple of weeks ago doing the visits to the training ground and the hotel and the stadium. And it’s a really, really cool city.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2026.

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press