Football World Cup warm-ups done, All Whites must switch focus

4:36 pm today

All Whites warm up at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Photo: www.photosport.nz

The All Whites have prepared for their return to the Football World Cup in the furnace of Florida, where they learnt "harsh" lessons and dared to wonder if they could match it with tournament favourites.

Now they head to the North American west coast, where their group will be based and where results will matter.

Sunday's 1-0 loss to world number four England in their final of two warm-up matches was not an unexpected result against a team that had some of the game's superstars in their squad.

Coach Darren Bazeley said the game also offered his side a bit of 'what if'.

"We will look back and wonder could we have created that one moment?" Bazeley said. "A couple of times we got into crossing positions and weren't quite good enough and [had a] few in the first half that flashed across the box.

"I think it's given us enough to go against a very, very good team with very good players. We can be compact and we can be difficult to break down, and we've got enough good players to keep our possession and get into good areas.

"Then we need players to have that moment."

All White Marko Stamenic versus England.

Photo: www.photosport.nz

The England result was in stark contrast to the warm-up game against Haiti in Fort Lauderdale, where they lost 4-0, and terms like "disappointed" and "unnecessary" were thrown about by the coach and players.

"The boys felt it was an improvement, they felt they were in the game," Bazeley said of the England match, played in 33 degrees Celsius in Tampa.

"It was hard work, but it should be. It should be hard work, international football, and when you're playing against a team ranked four in the world, it's going to be hard.

"I thought we dealt with it pretty well and now the next step for us is can we now create chances when we're playing against teams of this level?"

Bazeley has defended the All Whites' preparation for the World Cup, which will now continue at the team's base in San Diego, before their first group fixture against Iran in Los Angeles on 16 June.

New Zealand were among several teams that opted to prepare in Florida to acclimatise to the conditions they could face at the World Cup.

All Whites keeper Max Crocombe in goal against Haiti.

Photo: www.photosport.nz

Bazeley said his side followed a similar build-up to the other 47 teams in the expanded tournament by getting minutes into the full squad during the warm-up games and the most important results were yet to come.

"I think most teams at World Cups are doing this," he said. "Potentially, it would have been good to get a local game to get that first sort of game out of the way, in hindsight, but like I've said all along, Haiti, England... I'll take winning it against Iran all day."

To prepare for their Group G games against Iran, then Egypt and Belgium in Vancouver, Canada, they will only have intra-squad match-ups.

A couple of starting positions are still to be locked in, and Bazeley said the battle to be the No.1 goalkeeper, between Max Crocombe and Alex Paulsen, was a contest between two "pretty special" glovemen.

The All Whites have some downtime to settle into San Diego, before the real pressure to perform begins.

"A couple of rest days to get over this window as such, before we hit the Fifa bubble, and every day we're working, we're in meetings, there's conversations going on, there's training.

"The boys are determined to be the best they can be and show people how good they can be when the World Cup comes around."

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.