‘We’re here to play Football’: All Whites keep focus on World Cup opener

All Whites captain Chris Wood and New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley face questions ahead of opening Football World Cup game against Iran.

Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

All Whites captain Chris Wood says the outside noise fades away once footballers cross the white line.

With so much attention on New Zealand's opening game of the Football World Cup against Iran, Wood and coach Darren Bazeley have put on a united front that the team's only focus is football.

While Iran's striker Mehdi Taremi said: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and we respect them, but we are here to bring joy to the Iranian people. We do not get involved in politics. We are here to play football."

Wood and Bazeley also would not be drawn on the politics or the perceived advantage the All Whites had by having players playing club football up until late last month while Iran's domestic competition had been on hold since February.

New Zealand's leading goalscorer could see "pros and cons" in both the All Whites' and Iran's build up to the World Cup.

"I think it can help them in a certain way that they've had time off. They've been able to prepare longer for the competition," Wood said.

"Us as players we've been able to play all the way through to May, which will help us, but we've only had three weeks together to get that team cohesion."

The All Whites are the underdogs for their first game of the tournament, as they will be for any game they play over the coming weeks, and are not likely to be fan favourites on Tuesday.

"Once the game starts, sometimes the crowd disappears and you get playing," Bazeley said.

"And that's the place we need to get to where we're playing our game.

"There's going to be a lot of distractions around and I want the players to enjoy that. You should enjoy that big crowd, that's why you play football, to be at these big games and these big occasions and the challenge is to go and perform."

Los Angeles Stadium ahead of the All Whites opening game at the World Cup against Iran.

Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

Wood has played at the 2010 World Cup and in the Premier League and his biggest concern was how his teammates who have not played on the sport's biggest stages yet will react.

"Until you play on a proper big stage or a big World Cup game, you don't really know what it's like," Wood said.

"That'll be the big thing, how the boys can overcome that and still apply their footballing ability and show the world what we can actually do as individuals and as a team.

"So I think we'll be focusing on just calming the boys, keeping them ready and keeping them positive to play their own game."

The All Whites' style of play had been developed since Bazeley first took the reins in 2023.

The coach described it as "a journey" that lead to a style in and out of possession born out of discussions about how the players wanted to be seen and what they wanted their "identity to be seen on the world stage".

"We've managed to just gradually build it and build it, tweaked it along the way and it was all about these moments, all about getting to this moment.

"We have to keep improving every time we play. We're in a good place the players know what's expected they all know their roles and responsibilities in each moment of the game and it comes down to decision making now.

"They've got the ability, they've got the physicality, can we go and make decisions under a pressure game with a big crowd on the big stage and go and have some moments that can be remembered forever?"

The All Whites squad will be battling for match day spots.

Photo: www.photosport.nz

Just who will have a chance to potentially write their name into the history books in the 16th game of the tournament will not be released until a couple of hours before kick-off, but Bazeley was clear he had "some challenging decisions and some tough conversations" when settling on his match day squad.

After watching some of the other games during the World Cup Bazeley was making selections with plans beyond just the starting 11.

He had only one new injury concern with midfielder Matt Garbett missing training after picking up a hamstring injury.

"As we've seen in World Cup games so far, subs are coming on and changing games, scoring goals and winning games of football.

"It's a really important job, the starting line-ups, they get the chance to go out there and set the tone for us, give us a real good base to try and win the game and then the subs are going to come on and try and win the game for us."

Wood said the team was prepared for the challenges Iran would pose.

"We know a lot about them. We've studied them and we've taken on board what they're able to do.

"They're not top 20 in the world for no reason. They're a very good side, we know what we're going to come up against.

"We're going to try and find the weaknesses they have and exploit them and hopefully come out on top in our way."

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