On March 10, New Zealand announced its 24-man squad for the warm-up against the national football team at the end of the month. The list was reduced by two compared to the two warm-up matches against Australia last September.
Last September, New Zealand head coach Danny Hay left his post and the NZFA failed to identify a new coaching candidate. Currently, New Zealand U20 national youth head coach and NZFA technical director Bazere is leading the team for the time being.
Wood, New Zealand's biggest star, striker and captain, is back in the squad this time after losing out to injury last September. Wood joined Newcastle in January last year for an all-time record of €30 million for a New Zealand player, but entered the Premier League on loan at Nottingham Forest earlier this year. This season, he has made 24 appearances in the Premier League, scoring only three goals, including one goal in six matches after hiring Nottingham Forest in January, and his form has not been good.
Wood has made 70 appearances for New Zealand, his fourth with the national soccer team. In the past 12 years, New Zealand has played the national soccer team three times, all in 1-1 draws, and Wood has played in all of them: in Wuhan in March 2011, he played half the match; in Shanghai in November 2012, he played the full match and scored the equalizer; and in Nanchang in November 2014, Wood made his first captain's appearance and scored the equalizer again.
Apart from Wood, New Zealand has another Big 5 player in the form of Empoli's Kakase. The left back, who has Italian roots, started out as a substitute for Empoli. Since the end of January, he has gradually been given more chances, making three starts in the last six games in Serie A.
The No. 3 star behind Wood and Carcasses is New Zealand-born Chilean shot-stopper Rojas. He has been selected again after a nine-month hiatus and the 31-year-old is currently playing for Colo Colo in Chile.
Looking at the roster, it is clear that this time, New Zealand took it very seriously and did their best. of the 24 players, only Howison (Auckland City) plays in the local league. 31-year-old Croatian goalkeeper Marinovic has just lost his job. Of the Tel Aviv workers who played for Israel before that, the other 22 play in overseas leagues, six in the Australian Super League, and five of them play for the Wellington Phoenix, based in New Zealand.
In addition, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy have a total of 11 men playing in the Europa League. Denmark has the most (four), with midfielders Bale (Brondby) and Stamenic (Copenhagen) being the most notable of the mixed Serbian and Samoan midfielders. They were the main back partners in last year's warm-ups to Peru and Australia. Dutch Breda's 20-year-old youngster Garbett was born in London before emigrating to New Zealand with his parents. joined Torino after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and was loaned to Breda at the start of the year.
In addition, New Zealand has three other players playing in the U.S. 34-year-old center back Beauchard plays for Minnesota United in the North American Conference, while defenders Wayne and Adams play in North America's second-tier usl league.
Born in Holland and now playing in the Irish league, center back Pynak has been one of the main defenders New Zealand has focused on in recent years.
In the Danny Hay era, New Zealand has predominantly played 4 backs, but last year tested 3 backs against Asian and North and South American teams as well. Although there are many players from Europe and America, New Zealand's overall strength is average. Last year, we played consecutive warm-up matches and WC play-off matches against Asian and American teams. In total, there was only 1 draw and 5 losses in 6 matches, Jordan 1-3, Peru 0-1 in June, Oman 0-0 draw, Costa Rica 0-1 defeat in the World Cup, and Australia rotated two starting lineups in September.
New Zealand's defense is acceptable, but the offense is weak. Last year it scored only one goal in six matches. 2021, apart from Oceania, the last time it beat its opponents, it beat Bahrain 1-0 and Gambia 2-0 respectively.
New Zealand hasn't officially played a game for half a year, and last year's record against Asia and North and South America was not good. The national soccer team has a hope to win this warm-up, although the opponent tried his best.
