He won the All Whites' FIFA World Cup goalkeeper battle. Now Max Crocombe has to stop Egypt's star attackers
Friday, 19 June 2026
Max Crocombe got the nod to be the All Whites’ first-choice goalkeeper at the FIFA World Cup.
He was chosen to start ahead of Alex Paulsen in their 2-2 draw with Iran on Monday night in Los Angeles.
Now he and the All Whites face Egypt – and star attackers Mo Salah and Omar Marmoush – in Vancouver on Sunday (1pm Monday NZ time).
Max Crocombe got the nod to be the All Whites’ first-choice goalkeeper at the FIFA World Cup.
But he didn’t get over excited about winning his internal battle with Alex Paulsen to take his place in Darren Bazeley’s starting XI.
Because he had bigger external battles to come, starting with the team’s World Cup opener against Iran in Los Angeles last Monday night, which ended in a 2-2 draw.
“He names the team and you're in there, and obviously you're delighted,” Crocombe said on Thursday at the team’s San Diego hotel. “But in goal, it's not one to get super excited about. You've got a job to do, [that’s the] focus.
“I'm sure after the game you look around. I'm sure after the tournament you look back with a lot of pride, but there is a lot of focus, and you try not to get too carried away with the magnitude of everything.
“You want to do your job well first and foremost, then look back and kind of enjoy it a little bit more.”
Crocombe didn’t have a headline-making outing against Iran. He couldn’t have done much more to prevent either goal and his two saves otherwise were both straightforward.
There was one heart-in-mouth moment when he was tackled from behind during the first half as he stood outside his box to the left lining up a kick, after winning the ball ahead of an Iran runner in slightly risky fashion.
Mohammad Mohebi was frustrated not to have won a penalty as he hit the deck off the pitch, then ran back on and took Crocombe out as he prepared to kick, with centre back Michael Boxall screaming at him, trying to alert him to the danger.
No foul was given and left back Liberato Cacace then made a rushed clearance, which meant the ball fell to Iranian midfielder Saman Ghoddos, who had the whole goal to aim at from 30m out, with Crocombe still recovering. Luckily, Ghoddos missed.
Reflecting on that passage of play three days later, Crocombe said it was “weird” and was clearly frustrated he wasn’t awarded a foul: “I don’t think you’d be asking the question if [the referee] just give[s] a foul. Foul doesn’t get given, then all of a sudden I’m running back into the box. It’s just one of them [ones], really.”
Crocombe and Pauslen have been competing for the World Cup starting role for the past 15 months and the man who won said they had made a point of talking about the situation when they first came into camp in Florida at the end of May.
“We actually spent a bit of time together, just as mates, and we said, look, whatever happens, we'll just back each other.
“At the end of day, it's out of our hands, we’ve both put our best foot forward, and we're both super hard-working people – we're always doing the extras.
“He's a top lad and a pleasure to share the goalkeeping union with.”
Crocombe was first put on New Zealand Football’s radar by Paul Gothard, the All Whites’ current goalkeeping coach, when he interviewed for a job there around 2011, and passed on the information that “a friend of a friend had a goalkeeper at Oxford [in England], and he was an 18-year-old who had a Kiwi passport”.
Born in Auckland and possessing Cook Islands heritage, Crocombe has lived in England almost all his life, playing for 11 different clubs there – currently Millwall in the second-tier Championship – as well as two in A-League Men
He played for New Zealand at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup and earned the first of his 25 All Whites caps against Canada in March 2018, but only became a regular fixture under Bazeley in 2023, earning all but one of his other 24 caps in the last three years.
The All Whites were somewhat disappointed to only have come away from the Iran match with a point, having taken the lead twice through midfielder Eli Just, now New Zealand’s leading World Cup goalscorer.
They now face Egypt at BC Place in Vancouver on Sunday evening (1pm Monday NZ time), a country that has two world-class attackers in the form of Liverpool legend Mo Salah and Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush.
Crocombe said it would be important to not get too fixated on them as individuals.
“[Salah] is one of the best attackers in world football. We know all about him, we’ve watched him for many, many years.
“In international football, you can't underestimate anyone else, and can't focus on one player all too much. They're going to have loads of threats all around the pitch, so we won't be isolating one player, but obviously we know what the threats are.”
The All Whites would love Crocombe to have a quiet game in Vancouver, but the smart money is on him having a busier evening – and perhaps an even busier one still when they face Belgium in the same city five days later.
Tough matches are what World Cups are all about – and Crocombe said he had definitely taken time to let the significance of being involved in one soak in after the Iran match.
“We've seen some of the clips, schools in New Zealand stopping and everyone watching the game. Those things hit home, because those are the things that we did as kids for the World Cup.
“It is massive. It's every kid's dream to be able to do what we're doing right now. I've always had that goal personally, to be able to play at a World Cup.
“Many times it felt very distant, but I've managed to obviously get her and to play in it is just an absolute honour and a privilege.
“We're very fortunate to be where we are and you’ve got to try and soak it up as much as you can.”