The All Whites set the bar high against Iran in their FIFA World Cup opener. They must be better against Egypt
Friday, 19 June 2026
The All Whites were set to train as a full team for the first time since their 2-2 draw with Iran on Thursday morning in San Diego.
Players not involved their FIFA World Cup opener had a session the day after the match on Tuesday, but the team had a day off on Wednesday.
The All Whites came away from their first-up draw – the country’s fourth in a row at World Cups – emboldened, but well aware they have to improve defensively.
Egypt have two standout attacking threats in the form of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush.
The All Whites were set to draw a line under their opening 2-2 draw with Iran on Thursday morning in San Diego, as they resumed training ahead of their second FIFA World Cup match against Egypt in Vancouver on Sunday (1pm Monday NZ time).
Darren Bazeley’s side delivered their strongest attacking performance yet, both in his tenure, relative to the strength of their opposition, and in their short history at World Cups – seven matches across three tournaments, the last four of which have ended with the scores tied.
But they know their first win was within their grasp at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles as midfielder Eli Just twice gave them the lead – once in each half – and Iran twice came back to equalise.
And they know they will have to be better defensively at BC Place against Egypt, who possess two standout attackers in the form of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush.
“Moving forward, the bar has been set,” Bazeley told Stuff after the team completed their recovery and review process the day after the Iran match. “That’s the standard the players have gone and set – that we can play that type of football in these games at a World Cup, which is great for us.”
The All Whites enjoyed a day off on Wednesday local time. A few were headed for the hotel pool when Stuff visited to talk to new arrival Logan Rogerson, who has flown in from his Bali holiday to replace Matt Garbett after he was cruelly ruled out of the World Cup with a hamstring injury suffered two days out.
They will now be getting stuck into three days of preparation for Egypt – an opponent they faced as recently as March 2024, losing 1-0 in Cairo on a night when they didn’t have Chris Wood and The Pharaohs didn’t have Salah and the goal they conceded was a penalty from the boot of Mostafa Mohamed, who is not in the squad here.
They also have a three-hour flight from San Diego to Vancouver to make after the middle training session on Friday local time.
Centre back Finn Surman was looking forward immediately in the wake of the Iran draw – the first World Cup he and every other All White except captain Chris Wood had ever played.
“We still think we can be better. We know we can be better,” he said down under SoFi Stadium.
“There’s a lot of positives from today’s performance and it’s potentially changed a lot of people’s views on us and what they expect from us.
“I still think there’s things we need to improve and of course we’re going to look at that stuff and take those into the next game, but I do think that overall,we can be positive about this performance and come away knowing we’ve got a point from a World Cup game.”
World No 29 Egypt drew 1-1 with Belgium, now ranked 10th, in their opening match, taking the lead through Emam Ashour in the first half, but conceding an own goal in the second against their better-fancied opponents,
The upshot was that all four teams in group G have one point after their first match, with the world No 82 All Whites at the top of the standings by virtue of picking up no yellow cards to Iran’s one, after those teams scored more goals than their two rivals.
Sunday’s match will pit two teams against each other who are searching for their first World Cup win – Egypt after eight attempts where they’ve managed three draws, the All Whites after seven where they’ve managed four.
If one of them finally gets that win when they go head to head, it will propel them towards the knockout stage as well, but a draw will be better for Egypt, who still have world No 24 Iran to play, than the All Whites, who finish the group stage against Belgium.
“It’s a game that we’re not scared of,” Bazeley told Stuff. “It’s a funny one, because they've got names like Salah and Marmoush – very good players, they're world stars name wise – but we played them a couple years ago, and we were missing Woodsy, Joe Bell didn't play, Payney didn't play – we ere missing quite a few that day – and we gave them a really good game.
“It's going to be tough. We know that every team here at World Cup is trying to do well. These guys – and Belgium – they've got some very, very good players standing in our way that we need to be able to deal with defensively.
“That's the challenge. It always was the challenge, but we have come here, and we're trying to win every game we play and accumulate as many points as we can.
“We want to make history. We're disappointed we didn't make history [on Monday] night by winning our first game, but it was good for us to get a point. We're on the board, we're in the game, the group's level, and now we've got this opportunity to go again and we've got to get to the same level quickly.”