Dreams are made in Los Angeles. They’re also crushed. What’ll it be for the All Whites at the FIFA World Cup?

Tuesday, 16 June 2026

Stuff is on the ground in Los Angeles where the All Whites kick off their World Cup campaign at SoFi Stadium.

The All Whites play their first FIFA World Cup match in 16 years against Iran in Los Angeles on Monday evening (kickoff 1pm Tuesday NZ time).

June 15, as it is in LA, is an auspicious date for the fixture.

The All Whites scored their first World Cup goals on June 15 in 1982 and earned their first World Cup point on June 15 in 2010.

But with an underwhelming record since qualifying a year ago, it remains to be seen how they will handle the step up to world football’s biggest stage.

The All Whites celebrate a goal against 10-man Chile at Eden Park in March – the only match in their last five where they've found the back of the net.

ANALYSIS: Los Angeles has always been the place to go if you’re trying to make it.

But for every person that lives their dreams and becomes a star, there’s another who gets chewed up and spat out.

The city of angels will become the sixth New Zealand has played a FIFA World Cup match in at 6pm on Monday evening local time (1pm Tuesday NZ time).

On global reputation, it is several steps above Málaga and Seville, where the trailblazers in 1982 suffered defeats to Scotland, the Soviet Union and Brazil.

Also steps above Rustenburg, Nelspruit and Polokwane, where the class of 2010 had those three famous draws with Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay.

So what’s it going to be at SoFi Stadium – a venue that has the feel of a 21st-century colosseum – when they face Iran in their group G opener?

Dreams turned to reality, or dreams crushed?

The All Whites’ first World Cup win?

Another draw after a 5835-day wait?

Or a defeat that will leave them in a hole with regard to their stated aim of making it to the knockout stage?

If you’re looking for an omen, it might be that June 15, the date of the match in Los Angeles, has been a special date for the All Whites in the past.

Darren Bazeley and Chris Wood survey SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on the eve of the All Whites’ World Cup opener.

It was on June 15, 1982 that Steve Sumner and Steve Wooddin scored the team’s first World Cup goals, in a 5-2 loss to Scotland.

On June 15, 2010, Winston Reid joined them with a header that secured the team their first World Cup point, from a 1-1 draw with Slovakia.

Whenever coach Darren Bazeley has looked out his office door at New Zealand Football’s Albany HQ over the past three years, he has laid eyes on a photo of the centre back wheeling away in celebration that covers the far wall.

On June 15, 2026, there’s now a chance for a new hero to “have a moment that will live forever,” as Bazeley put it, by scoring the goal (or goals) that give the All Whites their first World Cup win.

The coach said “the opportunity to go and do something on the world stage in the biggest tournament in the world,” was something “we’ve been talking with the players around for the last three years”.

Will it be the captain and most-capped player Chris Wood? Eli Just on the back of his stellar club season in Scotland? Sarpreet Singh to kickstart a career that has somewhat stalled?

New Zealand captain Chris Wood and his team-mates are determined to create history at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, revealing their goal is to reach the knockout stages for the first time.

At the other end, Max Crocombe is believed to have won the battle with Alex Paulsen to start in goal, and he will surely be at the centre of some big moments too.

Matt Garbett will be missed, assuming there is no miracle recovery. He relishes rising to a challenge like no-one else, but his expected absence will mean at least one change from the team that lost 1-0 to England in Tampa nine days ago.

Don’t expect any others. The England performance was seen internally as a big bounce back after the 4-0 loss to Haiti in Fort Lauderdale and Bazeley isn’t the type to tinker, especially when he’s more pleased than not, and with Ryan Thomas not yet fit to start.

The big question heading into the Iran match is whether the All Whites’ desire to be seen as a team that plays possession-based football will survive contact with the big step up that is playing at a World Cup.

Bazeley retold the story on the eve of the match about how that decision came out of discussions between staff and players in June 2023: “It was all about these moments – all about getting to this moment, right now.”.

But if you’ve watched the All Whites play in the 15 months since qualification, you will have seen a familiar pattern, one that suggests they’ve arrived at this moment short of where they need to be.

Chris Wood is set to become third All White to captain the team at a FIFA World Cup.

For all they have been relatively solid in defence against stronger sides – with a concerning tendency to let themselves down by conceding soft goals – and adept at retaining possession in the middle of the pitch, they still look bereft of solutions in the final third.

And that’s in friendlies they often take far more seriously – particularly when it comes to applying pressure off the ball – than their opponents.

They have been kept out six times in 12 matches since qualifying for the World Cup last March.

Animal predictions have become as much of a tradition as agonising shootouts, controversial refereeing calls and English failure.

They have scored one goal five times – and that was only good enough for a win on one occasion, against Ivory Coast in Toronto last June.

The other match was the one where they put four past Chile in Auckland in March, after the South Americans had been reduced to 10 men.

They’ve gone goalless in their last four outings apart from that match – and for almost 400 minutes of 11 v 11 action all told.

One win in a dozen matches since qualifying 449 days ago isn’t exactly a record that offers a lot of hope.

Bazeley’s All Whites aren’t naive. They can be pragmatic when needed. But now they’re at a World Cup, they need to ensure their desire to be seen as a team that can play with the ball doesn’t end up leaving them exposed when they lose it.

The players absolutely have the quality and the potential to rise to the occasion, but good patches in friendlies tell us little about how they will fare when the heat is on the way it will be at SoFi Stadium, in front of a crowd set to be almost 70,000-strong.

When low-ranked teams have made it to the knockout stage previously – in smaller World Cups than this 48-team monstrosity – they have generally started with wins.

Those that advanced after losing their opener were beaten by teams that were clear favourites in their group, the way Belgium are here.

The All Whites aren’t the only group G team yet to a win a World Cup match – Egypt are searching for their own slice of history too.

None of New Zealand, Egypt or Iran have ever gone beyond the group stage, but at least one of them will get the chance to this year.

The World Cup stage is where the lights shine the brightest.

The team that handles the spotlight the best will be the one that prevails.