All Whites qualify for 2026 FIFA World Cup after tense Oceania playoff win over New Caledonia

Monday, 24 March 2025

At Eden Park, Auckland: All Whites 3 (Michael Boxall 61’, Kosta Barbarouses 66’, Elijah Just 80’) New Caledonia 0. HT: 0-0

By his own admission, Michael Boxall’s first All Whites goal took “a long-ass time”.

But it was as important a goal as anyone has ever scored for New Zealand’s national men’s football team, breaking the deadlock in their tension-laced Oceania World Cup qualifying final against New Caledonia at Eden Park in Auckland on Monday night, which ended with them winning 3-0 and booking their place at next year’s 48-team tournament in North America.

In the 61st minute of his 55th appearance, almost 14 years to the day after his debut, the 36-year-old centre back rose at the back post to head home a corner from Francis de Vries, who had been sent on at halftime in part to deliver some of the set-piece magic that has been a hallmark of his play for Auckland FC in A-League Men this summer.

“It was an amazing moment, for him to do that for the first time for us, in this big game, when there's that little bit of pressure,” coach Darren Bazeley said afterwards.

“I felt like it was always building and coming, but ultimately, we still needed somebody to have a moment and Boxy had a moment.”

Another veteran, 35-year-old Wellington Phoenix forward Kosta Barbarouses, then doubled the All Whites’ lead just five minutes later, 12 minutes after he came off the bench, while another substitute, Elijah Just, who is some 11 years younger, iced the game with the team’s third goal in the 80th minute.

All three goals came after star English Premier League striker Chris Wood had been forced off with a hip injury he suffered when he took a heavy fall while shooting. He left the field in the 54th minute and looked crestfallen that he was unable to help his side take the final steps towards a World Cup return after 16 years away.

Barbarouses was his replacement and Bazeley revealed afterwards that he was sent on with a simple mission: “I went mate, you’ve scored 100 goals in the A-League. We need a goal. And he went and got one.”

It was just the 67-cap veteran’s ninth international goal and he celebrated the way he has celebrated most goals in recent years, by making two Ls with his fingers, for daughters Lola and Luna, the latter of whom who turned four on Monday.

For the first hour of the match, tension had slowly built amongst the 25,132 fans in attendance, as the All Whites failed to put away chances and were denied by a determined New Caledonia side, who were better organised than their four previous opponents in the short Oceania qualifying process, which offered direct entry to the World Cup to the winner for the first time, now the tournament has expanded.

After a 3-0 win over Tahiti, an 8-1 win over Vanuatu, an 8-0 win over Samoa and a 7-0 win over Fiji – in last Friday’s semifinal at Sky Stadium in Wellington – there was an expectation of another comfortable result on Monday. While the All Whites got there in the end, the first-ever Oceania playoff was a hard-fought contest, and that would have made their victory all the sweeter.

It wasn’t like they didn’t create chances in the first half – notably having three attempts cleared off the line in the space of around 90 seconds midway through it – but the longer they went without scoring, the more everyone in the stands would have begun to wonder if they were going to see the outcome they expected, a feeling that would have only been exacerbated when Wood left the field.

“I never felt at risk (of losing),” Bazeley said afterwards. “But it was definitely a little bit edgy and a bit frustrating.

“I think we all wanted to go and play like what happened Friday night. Every game is different, and it didn’t play out like that. We had some chances first half, and it just seemed to be one of them days, where you’re hitting people on the line and hitting the post, and it wasn't quite happening for us.

“They dropped into a bit of a block defensively and made it quite hard for us. I thought they were good. I thought they played really well, but we were never really at risk.”

What’s next now they’ve qualified

The All Whites now have six nine-day international windows to prepare for the World Cup, which begins on June 11 next year. The next is in June this year, where they will play Côte d’Ivoire and Ukraine in Toronto. They also have a match scheduled against Norway in Oslo in October and are understood to be playing Poland the same month.

The other two windows this year are in September and November, while the two next year are in March and in June, on the eve of the World Cup. While the All Whites are set to play away for the rest of 2025, NZ Football intends for them to play at home at least once in the first half of 2026 ahead of the tournament.

Japan is the only other country to have joined the three host nations – the United States, Canada and Mexico – in qualifying for the World Cup so far, with qualifying around the world set to play out over the next 12 months. It is expected the World Cup draw will take place at the end of this year.

This will be the All Whites’ third appearance at a World Cup, after they made it to Spain in 1982 – where they lost all three of their matches – and South Africa in 2010 – where they went undefeated with three draws, but failed to advance to the knockout stage.

Their qualification is also set to net NZ Football at least US$10.5 million (NZ$18.3 million) in prize money, with around 40% of that going to the players.

All Whites’ road to 2026 FIFA World Cup

Results

At VFF Freshwater Stadium, Port Vila; October 11, 2024: All Whites 3 (Elijah Just 2’, Chris Wood 67’ Ben Waine 89’) Tahiti 0. HT: 1-0

At FMG Stadium Waikato; November 15, 2024: All Whites 8 (Matt Garbett 11’, Chris Wood 23’ 24’, Tyler Bindon 32’, Own goal 38’, Elijah Just 74’, Sarpreet Singh 82’, Callum McCowatt 89’) Vanuatu 1 (Jordy Tasip 17’). HT: 5-1

At Go Media Stadium, Auckland; November 18, 2024: All Whites 8 (Callum McCowatt 24’, Chris Wood 28’ 34’ 60’, Marko Stamenić 62’, Francis de Vries 76’, Elijah Just 87’, Ben Waine 90’+2) Samoa 0. HT: 3-0

At Sky Stadium, Wellington; March 21, 2025: All Whites 7 (Chris Wood 6’ 56’ 60’ Sarpreet Singh 17’, Own goal 23’, Tim Payne 33’, Kosta Barbarouses 73’) Fiji 0. HT: 4-0.

At Eden Park, Auckland, March 24, 2025: All Whites 3 (Michael Boxall 61’, Kosta Barbarouses 66’, Elijah Just 80’) New Caledonia 0. HT: 0-0

Goals

9: Chris Wood

4: Elijah Just

2: Kosta Barbarouses, Callum McCowatt, Sarpreet Singh, Ben Waine, own goals

1: Tyler Bindon, Michael Boxall, Francis de Vries, Matt Garbett , Tim Payne, Marko Stamenić