All Whites fail to take first-half chances in groundhog day defeat against Poland
Friday, 10 October 2025
At Stadion Śląski, Chorzów: Poland 1 (Piotr Zielinski 49’) All Whites 0. HT: 0-0
You could call it groundhog day.
The All Whites rise above their station, produce an impressive performance, but ultimately come away without a win as a reward for their efforts.
A failure to take first-half chances cost world No 83 New Zealand against world No 36 Poland at Stadion Śląski in Chorzów on Thursday (Friday NZ time).
Just as it did in the first match of the previous international window, when they rued misses before losing 1-0 to Australia’s Socceroos in Canberra.
There have been plenty of other occasions where a similar story has unfolded during coach Darren Bazeley’s three-year tenure.
The 3-1 loss to the Socceroos that followed in Auckland a month ago was one of them, albeit to a lesser extent than match one.
The loss to Egypt and draw with Tunisia at the start of last year were two other missed opportunities, as was the draw with the Republic of Ireland at the end of 2023.
Bazeley said after the match that that the All Whites’ latest defeat was “tough to take”.
“I feel like I keep saying it, in the changing room with the players and then to the media – there's a lot of good things from the game. We do a lot of good things within the game, in and out of possession.
“We have to have our moments. We have to be more clinical, and we have to be ruthless, and we've got to start rewarding ourselves for some of the possession and some of the play that we have now.”
Star English Premier League striker Chris Wood only entered in the 83rd minute and Bazeley confirmed after the match that he was being careful with his minutes.
“We have to help him manage his loadings and make sure that he's 100% at all times, so that we get him for the big games.”
Bazeley’s opposite number, Jan Urban, didn’t call on his star striker, Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, at all.
Poland’s winning goal came four minutes after halftime in Chorzów, after they moved the ball swiftly up the left flank then switched play to the right, where substitute right wingback Pawel Wszolek worked the ball into the box.
He then cut it back for Piotr Zielinski – one of the only first-choice players in Urban’s lineup – who used his fist touch to evade his marker, Sarpreet Singh, before firing a rocket of a shot past Alex Paulsen into the crossbar and down into the goal.
Zielinski had threatened in the ninth minute, stealing the ball when Matt Garbett had a bad first touch and racing towards goal on the byline on the right. Choosing to go himself, he shot into the side netting, though Paulsen appeared to have an on-target effort covered.
The All Whites went down the other end and threatened immediately, when a long ball from Marko Stamenić fell to Callum McCowatt, whose shot was straight at goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski.
After another long ball created chaos in the 21st minute, allowing Ryan Thomas to lay the ball off for Ben Waine, whose deflected shot looped up threateningly and had to be palmed behind the crossbar by Dragowski.
Three minutes later, a Tim Payne free kick on the left made its way to Garbett out the back, whose initial shot thundered into Finn Surman and came back to him. His second was then kicked away by Dragowski as Poland breathed a sigh of relief.
Paulsen was called on to make a save from Michal Skoras on the left in the 40th minute then got in the way as Sebastian Szymanski followed up, but the referee flagged that the second effort had come from an offside position.
The All Whites would have gone into the changing rooms at halftime the happier of the two teams and found themselves with a new man to beat after the break, as Poland swapped Dragowski for Kamil Grabara in goal.
New Zealand didn’t test him nearly as much.
Singh came close to cancelling out Zielinski’s go-ahead goal when he finished a sustained period of possession with a curled shot from the top of the box in the 59th minute that only just went over the bar.
Bazeley resisted making changes until the 72nd minute, when he introduced Andre de Jong and Ben Old for Waine and Garbett.
Owen Parker-Price made his debut off the bench in the 82nd minute, replacing Thomas, while Lukas Kelly-Heald and Bill Tuiloma provided fresh legs at fullback in place of Francis de Vries and Payne, before Wood came on for McCowatt.
Poland were the better side in the second half, but didn’t test Paulsen enough at the end of their attacking moves.
De Jong laid the ball off for Stamenić in the box in the 86th minute, whose shot deflected out for a corner. After another corner was won, Tuiloma sent a header at the near post wide.
The All Whites have now lost their last four matches since beating Ivory Coast 1-0 in Toronto in June, though all four have been against stronger opponents.
They now move to Oslo to play Norway next week (kickoff Wednesday 5am NZ time).
Their last win against European opposition came on the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, when they beat Serbia 1-0 in Austria.
The All Whites will return to the World Cup for the first time in 16 years next year in North America.