Why the All Whites’ fifth FIFA World Cup goal was unlike any of the four before it
Thursday, 18 June 2026
The first of Eli Just’s two goals for the All Whites against Iran was unlike any of the four the team had scored previously at a FIFA World Cup.
Their two goals in 1982 and their two in 2010 came after a combined total of four passes.
No passes – as Steve Sumner pounced on an opposition error – and two passes in 1982 and one pass on each occasion in 2010.
Just’s first goal against Iran came after 17 and coach Darren Bazeley called it a “really good team goal”.
ANALYSIS: The All Whites’ first four FIFA World Cup goals came after a combined total of four passes – no passes and two passes in 1982 and one pass on each occasion in 2010.
Their fifth World Cup goal – the first of Eli Just’s two in their 2-2 draw with Iran in their 2026 opener in front of a 70,000-strong crowd on Monday night at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles – came after 17.
On the biggest stage possible, with everyone on the pitch except captain Chris Wood gracing it for the first time, New Zealand’s national men’s football team scored a goal that made the world take notice.
It was hailed in some corners as the best of the World Cup to that point, with 15 matches completed and the 16th only seven minutes old.
Maybe it will end up on some of the top 10 lists when all is said and done.
Perhaps the All Whites will construct another that beats it.
With nine of the 11 players on the field having a touch, it was “a really good team goal,” as Darren Bazeley told Stuff a day later – the kind coaches at every level want to see their side score.
It unfolded over the course of a minute, from the moment Max Crocombe snaffled up the shot that Arya Yousefi sent straight at him.
The All Whites goalkeeper rolled the ball out to Joe Bell ahead of him, who advanced it all the way up the field to just inside Iran’s half, where he decided against trying to release Sarpreet Singh in behind down the left.
Bell backtracked and laid it off to Michael Boxall, now just 15 metres from halfway, rather than deep inside his own box.
Nominal right winger Callum McCowatt dropped deep, receiving the ball, giving it back, then getting it back from Marko Stamenić, who had dropped between Boxall and left back Liberato Cacace – one of two players not to get a touch, along with right back Tim Payne.
McCowatt decided he didn’t like his options going forward and gave the ball to Bell behind him to the right, then jogged back to his flank after Bell opted against giving it back and instead passed to Stamenić to his left, at which point Iran were pretty much back in their 4-4-2 shape.
But not for long, because as that was happening, Singh made an arcing run from high on the left to just in front of Stamenić, while Just moved inside from the left, dragging Iranian right back Ramin Rezaeian with him.
As Rezaeian handed Just off to centre back Shojae Khalilzadeh, Wood found a pocket of space in the left-hand channel behind him, while the ball went from Stamenić to Boxall to his fellow centre back Finn Surman, then to Bell and back to Crocombe.
The All Whites had held on to the ball for 45 seconds and taken an early breather, but with Wood unmarked and Just and Singh free underneath him, as Bell and Stamenić had stretched the pitch and drawn Iran’s central midfielders up the field, they were poised to pounce.
Crocombe kicked for Wood with six minutes and 28 seconds on the clock, with the striker timing his run to catch Rezaeian on the hop.
Later in the game Iran’s defenders would be all over New Zealand’s English Premier League striker, but here they decided to drop deep, to the point where Wood almost looks surprised at how little pressure was being placed on him.
One central midfielder recovered to keep him honest as he ignored Singh’s run past him to the right, then – after seven touches – released the ball to Just, just in time for him to get in front of the other central midfielder and start running forward.
Just passed to Singh on his right with his second touch as Khalilzadeh came out to challenge him, then – bizarrely – stuck out his left hand as Singh curled the ball around the corner with a first-time left-footed pass.
Later, Just said it was because he didn’t realise Wood was there, but that didn’t suddenly make it a game of basketball.
Fortunately, Just didn’t get a touch with his hand and Wood was indeed there, chesting the ball down into his team-mate’s path, where he flicked it up with his left foot, then smashed it past Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand with his weaker right foot.
The last five passes came in 15 seconds and the All Whites were 1-0 up.
Just pulled out the binoculars celebration he first produced when he scored against Chile in March, then found himself face-to-face with Wood, both of them screaming in delight.
Coach Darren Bazeley is not one for wild sideline celebrations, but there were plenty as he celebrated a special goal.
The kind of goal his side have been trying to score every time they step foot on the pitch, playing a way they have been encouraged to going back before his tenure to 2019 – an inflection point in All Whites football.
Bell, Just and McCowatt all made their All Whites debuts that November against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin under Danny Hay, on a night where Boxall, Cacace, Singh and Wood all started as well – seven of Bazeley’s starting XI against.
That May, the five younger players there – Bell, Cacace, Just, McCowatt and Singh – had been part of the same national squad for the first time – under Des Buckingham at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland, where their performances helped usher in a paradigm shift as to what was possible from Kiwi footballers on the world stage.
On Monday at SoFi Sadium, those five players helped the All Whites score two eye-catching goals – the second after a five-pass counter-attack – that were seven years in the making.
New Zealand’s four World Cup goals before them weren’t any less special – any goal at a World Cup is – but they were cut from a different cloth.
The gloss was taken off these ones slightly by the lapses that allowed Iran to score two equalisers and forced the All Whites to settle for a point.
Now – against Egypt in Vancouver on Sunday (1pm Monday NZ time) – they will go again, chasing that elusive first World Cup win.