All Whites leave clubs and celebrations for World Cup camp

By Felicity Reid of RNZ

The All Whites’ return to the football World Cup after 16 years will begin with a balancing act in Florida for coach Darren Bazeley – blending players coming off championships, playoffs, active club seasons and extended breaks into a squad capable of competing on the game’s biggest stage.

When the World Cup squad was announced in Auckland on May 14, the club season was over for more than a third of the players.

In the following weeks, the remaining players took the field for clubs based in Auckland, the United States, England, Norway, Poland, Denmark, France and the Netherlands before officially being released to the national team on May 25.

In total, Bazeley will have the full All Whites squad for about two weeks before the first World Cup game against Iran.

For the early finishers, Bazeley ran a camp in Florida last week to try to ensure players were fit and firing for the showpiece event.

“We can’t have players that haven’t trained for a month coming into a World Cup so [we’ve got] a lot of work going on behind the scenes on an individual basis ... some of those players that are not currently training with their clubs will start in a pre-assembly training block in Miami before everybody comes into camp in north Florida for [May] 27th, it’s a bit of a step process,” Bazeley said.

Five Auckland FC players who won the A-League Championship on Saturday will be among the late arrivals. They flew out on Wednesday after days of celebrations.

The quintet of Michael Woud, Francis de Vries, Callan Elliot, Jesse Randall and Nando Pijnaker were aware what was ahead of them and tempered celebrations accordingly.

“I had to hold myself back a little bit, I wasn’t part of the group of four or five that did a three-day bender as such because the World Cup is one of the pinnacles of football so I think that’s slightly more important than the celebrations,” Pijnaker said.

de Vries and Randall enjoyed the “vibes” of the celebrations but were happy to be focusing on the World Cup.

“For me, it was the perfect situation that we were allowed to have three days before we went away [to the World Cup] also for us to get away from it a little bit, celebrate with the team, but get a bit of quiet time at home,” de Vries said.

“I think it’s really important to have that little reset before camp again when it’s just all full steam ahead.”

Pijnaker and de Vries had injuries in the latter stages of the A-League season, however both were back to fitness and had some game minutes in the final series which will help in their preparation for playing for the All Whites.

“I haven’t been involved in the national team for about a year now so I just wanted to get my body right and luckily towards the end of the season it managed to come right at a crucial time,” Pijnaker said.

“I’m quite fresh I’ve had so many injuries that I feel like I’m just getting fit now so I’m in a really good place.”

Other later arrivals will include Major League Soccer players Michael Boxall and Finn Surman as well as Joe Bell who plays in Norway are part of competitions that pause for the World Cup so will continue their club seasons once the World Cup is over in mid-July.

Ben Old has also reportedly been given permission to stay with French club AS Saint-Etienne as one of the biggest clubs in the country is involved in a playoff to get promoted back to Ligue One.

Defender Callan Elliot expected the players would be put through their paces as soon as they touched down for the training camp.

“It will be tough at the start to get the boys back into that game pace as a lot of the boys have had a bit of time off and then leading into the first game it will sort of calm down and then during the tournament it will probably be a bit more settled, a bit more tactical based,” Elliot said.

All 26 players should be in camp before the All Whites’ first warm-up game against Haiti on June 3 (NZT). The game against the side ranked two places ahead of world No 85 New Zealand was the last piece of the preparation puzzle that New Zealand Football locked in.

The clash in Fort Lauderdale at Chase Stadium will be the first time the two sides have played each other at senior international level and comes before Haiti returning to the World Cup for the first time in more than 50 years.

Four days later in Tampa, the All Whites will play world No 4 England in their final game before the World Cup kicks off.

It will be the highest-ranked opponent the All Whites have faced in 17 years and the first time the All Whites have played England since 1991.

The England squad assemble a few days after the All Whites on June 1 and the game against New Zealand is their first pre-tournament game.

Keeping the training camp and warm-up matches in the same part of the United States limits the internal travel for players who arrive in camp from all over the world.

“Having both games in Florida is hugely beneficial as it means we don’t lose any of our preparation time with travel days, and the players can properly rest and recover between matches,” Bazeley said.

Following the two pre-tournament games, the All Whites will travel to San Diego, their official team base camp for the World Cup.

– RNZ