December 5, 2025 • 7 mins
All Whites coach Darren Bazeley insists they won't be intimidated by any opponent at next year's Football World Cup.
New Zealand have been placed in Group G alongside eighth-ranked Belgium, world number 20 Iran and 34th- ranked Egypt.
Bazeley believes if circumstances fall in their favour they can advance into the new round of 32.
He told Piney that they are the lowest ranked team in the tournament, but both they and the players know that they are a good team, and they can pose a challenge.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
All Whites coach Darren Baisley is with us out of Washington,
d C. Where he was present this morning to see
the draw play out. What do you make of it? Bays, Iran,
Egypt and Belgium. How do you stack that up as
a group for the All Whites next year?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I think I think it's a good group.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
You know, we knew coming into it, you know that
any group was going to be challenging. You know, they're
all good teams there, but I think you look across
at some of the other groups or when we got
to the pot, you know, some of the other groups
were probably a little bit tougher, you know, but we
know it's going to be a challenge there.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
They're good teams.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
They're all good teams, and we had to wait till
the very last ball coming out to eventually find out
where we were going to be, which is they made
us wait.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
But yeah, it's good. It's a good group, exciting group.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
As you say.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
The way the draw played out, the groups are filled
from Pot one, two and three and then down to
Pop four, where New Zealand was So did you look
across the makeup of the groups after three pots were emptied,
and did you see one liked and onesie that will
shove us.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
I'm not sure we want to be in there.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
There was definitely a couple of there was a couple
of really tough groups, yeah, really really tough groups, and
a couple of groups go that would be a good one.
That would be a good one. And you know, I
think we ended up in I suppose we end up there.
We're supposed to be And this is what the challenge
we now face. You know, we've got one of the
big teams, but you know, potentially they're not you know,
the top three or four in the world. You know,
we didn't get Argentine in Brazil or Spain, Germany, England, France,
(01:35):
you know, you know, so we've we've got Belgium and
they're very good, you know. And then the Pop two
and Pot three teams. We missed common Ball, so we
didn't get a South American team and we did only
got one ua FA team, So that was probably if
you if you could have asked me for warhand, what
do you not want? It would have been a Common
Ball team and two U AA teams because that could happen,
and I think some of those some of those groups
(01:57):
are probably a little bit tougher.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So when you look at the three matches you have
to play, and I guess you're ranked them by Pot
more than anything, don't you. Belgium or and Pot one,
I Rama and Pot two, and Egypt were on Pot three,
and that fits with the rankings at the moment. So
do you naturally target the game against Egypt, for example,
as the one which is most winnable or or is
that not your mindset going in?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I mean we'll go into every game trying to win
that game, you know, whether it's in Belgium, around or Egypt.
I think they're all going to be slightly different games,
different challenges. But you know, we've got a lot of
time now to do a lot of work on the
opposition and you know, find all their strengths and weaknesses
and who the players are and everything. So you know,
we've got a bit of time to ensure that we're
as planned and prepared as.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
We can be.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And as far as the schedule is concerned, you don't
know the venues ship, but you do know the order.
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Will it be I run Egypt Belgium. Is that the
order of the game.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
I think, as far as I know, that's right, I
think you're right with that. And we know that we're
going to be either La Seattle or Vancouver as our basis.
We don't know the exact one yet, but yeah, I
think it's really good location for us as well. Obviously
direct flights from New Zealand, which is great into and Vancouver,
so that's a real bonus. I think it makes things
a little bit easier for fans and potentially the climates
(03:13):
in those sort of three areas. You know, I think
Mexico would have been a tough, tough ask. You know,
going there would have made that slightly more harder with
altitude and heat some of the southern states. And also
you know, when you look at Atlanta and Houston, Dallas,
you know that that's really difficult to train and play
in those sort of areas. So yeah, and we may
have got West Coast maybe maybe suit us a little
(03:34):
bit more.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Here and up till now. I mean, you're qualified in
March Bays. We're in December now, so you've known you're going,
but the state's been in the diary is Okay, we're
going to find out who we play. Have you been
able to plan in any way, any significant way up
till now or did you really have to wait until
those balls came out today before you can really start strategizing.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It's I mean, it's so random.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
There were so many different equations that could have been there,
could be there, could be there. I think the probabilities
were like, yeah, endless of huge feen so we have
somebody looking at it. But yeah, I think it was
you draws are pretty random. I think if you did
the simulator, you did that a number of times, we
always got a different group.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So yeah, it was a case of let's wait till.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
The last name coming out of the last ball coming
out of the pot for us to know exactly we're
even though I think with two balls left we sort
of knew, okay, they can't go there they so we're
going to be in that pot. So we sort of
did know your two balls out, But yeah, I kept
waiting for our name to come out earlier, earlier, but no,
right till the end.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Now we know that.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Now we know the draw, I can ask you about
you know, ideals and things like that. Did any part
of you, given you your background, kind of hope that
England and New Zealand might be in the same group.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Not really.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I mean, we knew we were going to get one
of the big teams, you know, Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Germany, Spain,
Portugal in there as well, and we got Belgium, So
I didn't really have a preference. I suppose you're always
looking for, you know, the group that we can get
that gives us the best chance to get results. You know,
I suppose realistically, you know, the bigger the team in,
(05:13):
the harder that becomes. So you know, I think they're
all going to be challenging. You know, we are the
lowest ranked team in the tournament, so they're probably looking
at us. But I think we also know and the
players know that on our day we're a very good
team and we can post challenges for these other teams.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Any curious ub Builgian, Egyptian or Iranian media been on
to you since you were drawn with them.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, we've done a few. Yeah, it's been pretty crazy
since the draw, and you know, so many media here.
It's you know, it's a real frenzy. And you know,
we did we did quite a few different different places
media wise, So that's been cool, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And they don't do anything small in the United States,
do they. Base You know, the walls didn't start coming
out to about ninety minutes after the thing had started
with Page and Tree. But Andrea Bcelli, I know you're
a big fan. That would have been quite cool to
see him open it.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So open with him was amazing. There's such a great voice. Yeah,
it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
And we were quite close to the front, you know,
where he was obviously performing, So that was calling. Not
really the sort of thing you expect a football draw
to have these high profile performers, you know, right in
front of you, and we had Robbie Williams and Nicole
Scherzinger and Lauren Hill came on, and you've got Kevin
Hart there. We've had to clumb and yeah, it was
(06:29):
it was. It was quite quite crazy.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
All right, Well, now you can start planning. We know
that you're white to be home in March for games
and a FIFA series. We wait to see who those
opponents are. But what are the most important things now
for you and your coaching team and your players between
now and when you do hop on the plane to
get to the United States next year.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, I think you know, competition's heating up for players.
What we need, what we need is everybody fit and
available when we get to the World Cup. You know,
we've we've built some depth over the last couple of
years with different positions, but we know for us to
be at our best, we need all of our players
available and all of our players fully fit.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
The last few windows, you know, we've we've had players
missing Chris Word, Luby, you know, we miss Joe Bow
and a couple of the couple of the games, and
so we need everybody available.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Exciting time space. You know who you're playing there, you
know where you're going to be based. Tomorrow we'll find
out the exact locations of these matches. Thanks for joining us.
I know you've had a busy old day there in Washington,
d C.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Travel safe. We'll see you back home.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
This bit cold here as well, we've had about snow
this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well it's nice and fine in Auckland, I can tell
you for the Derby today, So looking forward.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
To lovely Yeah, yeah, I'm going to try and catch
that later. I love it good.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
A jet base fining For more from Weekend Sport with
Jason Fine, listen live to news talks it'd be weekends
from midday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
All Whites coach Darren Baisley is with us out of Washington,
d C. Where he was present this morning to see
the draw play out. What do you make of it? Bays, Iran,
Egypt and Belgium. How do you stack that up as
a group for the All Whites next year?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I think I think it's a good group.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
You know, we knew coming into it, you know that
any group was going to be challenging. You know, they're
all good teams there, but I think you look across
at some of the other groups or when we got
to the pot, you know, some of the other groups
were probably a little bit tougher, you know, but we
know it's going to be a challenge there.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
They're good teams.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
They're all good teams, and we had to wait till
the very last ball coming out to eventually find out
where we were going to be, which is they made
us wait.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
But yeah, it's good. It's a good group, exciting group.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
As you say.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
The way the draw played out, the groups are filled
from Pot one, two and three and then down to
Pop four, where New Zealand was So did you look
across the makeup of the groups after three pots were emptied,
and did you see one liked and onesie that will
shove us.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
I'm not sure we want to be in there.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
There was definitely a couple of there was a couple
of really tough groups, yeah, really really tough groups, and
a couple of groups go that would be a good one.
That would be a good one. And you know, I
think we ended up in I suppose we end up there.
We're supposed to be And this is what the challenge
we now face. You know, we've got one of the
big teams, but you know, potentially they're not you know,
the top three or four in the world. You know,
we didn't get Argentine in Brazil or Spain, Germany, England, France,
(01:35):
you know, you know, so we've we've got Belgium and
they're very good, you know. And then the Pop two
and Pot three teams. We missed common Ball, so we
didn't get a South American team and we did only
got one ua FA team, So that was probably if
you if you could have asked me for warhand, what
do you not want? It would have been a Common
Ball team and two U AA teams because that could happen,
and I think some of those some of those groups
(01:57):
are probably a little bit tougher.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So when you look at the three matches you have
to play, and I guess you're ranked them by Pot
more than anything, don't you. Belgium or and Pot one,
I Rama and Pot two, and Egypt were on Pot three,
and that fits with the rankings at the moment. So
do you naturally target the game against Egypt, for example,
as the one which is most winnable or or is
that not your mindset going in?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I mean we'll go into every game trying to win
that game, you know, whether it's in Belgium, around or Egypt.
I think they're all going to be slightly different games,
different challenges. But you know, we've got a lot of
time now to do a lot of work on the
opposition and you know, find all their strengths and weaknesses
and who the players are and everything. So you know,
we've got a bit of time to ensure that we're
as planned and prepared as.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
We can be.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And as far as the schedule is concerned, you don't
know the venues ship, but you do know the order.
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Will it be I run Egypt Belgium. Is that the
order of the game.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
I think, as far as I know, that's right, I
think you're right with that. And we know that we're
going to be either La Seattle or Vancouver as our basis.
We don't know the exact one yet, but yeah, I
think it's really good location for us as well. Obviously
direct flights from New Zealand, which is great into and Vancouver,
so that's a real bonus. I think it makes things
a little bit easier for fans and potentially the climates
(03:13):
in those sort of three areas. You know, I think
Mexico would have been a tough, tough ask. You know,
going there would have made that slightly more harder with
altitude and heat some of the southern states. And also
you know, when you look at Atlanta and Houston, Dallas,
you know that that's really difficult to train and play
in those sort of areas. So yeah, and we may
have got West Coast maybe maybe suit us a little
(03:34):
bit more.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Here and up till now. I mean, you're qualified in
March Bays. We're in December now, so you've known you're going,
but the state's been in the diary is Okay, we're
going to find out who we play. Have you been
able to plan in any way, any significant way up
till now or did you really have to wait until
those balls came out today before you can really start strategizing.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It's I mean, it's so random.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
There were so many different equations that could have been there,
could be there, could be there. I think the probabilities
were like, yeah, endless of huge feen so we have
somebody looking at it. But yeah, I think it was
you draws are pretty random. I think if you did
the simulator, you did that a number of times, we
always got a different group.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So yeah, it was a case of let's wait till.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
The last name coming out of the last ball coming
out of the pot for us to know exactly we're
even though I think with two balls left we sort
of knew, okay, they can't go there they so we're
going to be in that pot. So we sort of
did know your two balls out, But yeah, I kept
waiting for our name to come out earlier, earlier, but no,
right till the end.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Now we know that.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Now we know the draw, I can ask you about
you know, ideals and things like that. Did any part
of you, given you your background, kind of hope that
England and New Zealand might be in the same group.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Not really.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I mean, we knew we were going to get one
of the big teams, you know, Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Germany, Spain,
Portugal in there as well, and we got Belgium, So
I didn't really have a preference. I suppose you're always
looking for, you know, the group that we can get
that gives us the best chance to get results. You know,
I suppose realistically, you know, the bigger the team in,
(05:13):
the harder that becomes. So you know, I think they're
all going to be challenging. You know, we are the
lowest ranked team in the tournament, so they're probably looking
at us. But I think we also know and the
players know that on our day we're a very good
team and we can post challenges for these other teams.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Any curious ub Builgian, Egyptian or Iranian media been on
to you since you were drawn with them.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, we've done a few. Yeah, it's been pretty crazy
since the draw, and you know, so many media here.
It's you know, it's a real frenzy. And you know,
we did we did quite a few different different places
media wise, So that's been cool, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And they don't do anything small in the United States,
do they. Base You know, the walls didn't start coming
out to about ninety minutes after the thing had started
with Page and Tree. But Andrea Bcelli, I know you're
a big fan. That would have been quite cool to
see him open it.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So open with him was amazing. There's such a great voice. Yeah,
it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
And we were quite close to the front, you know,
where he was obviously performing, So that was calling. Not
really the sort of thing you expect a football draw
to have these high profile performers, you know, right in
front of you, and we had Robbie Williams and Nicole
Scherzinger and Lauren Hill came on, and you've got Kevin
Hart there. We've had to clumb and yeah, it was
(06:29):
it was. It was quite quite crazy.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
All right, Well, now you can start planning. We know
that you're white to be home in March for games
and a FIFA series. We wait to see who those
opponents are. But what are the most important things now
for you and your coaching team and your players between
now and when you do hop on the plane to
get to the United States next year.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, I think you know, competition's heating up for players.
What we need, what we need is everybody fit and
available when we get to the World Cup. You know,
we've we've built some depth over the last couple of
years with different positions, but we know for us to
be at our best, we need all of our players
available and all of our players fully fit.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
The last few windows, you know, we've we've had players
missing Chris Word, Luby, you know, we miss Joe Bow
and a couple of the couple of the games, and
so we need everybody available.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Exciting time space. You know who you're playing there, you
know where you're going to be based. Tomorrow we'll find
out the exact locations of these matches. Thanks for joining us.
I know you've had a busy old day there in Washington,
d C.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Travel safe. We'll see you back home.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
This bit cold here as well, we've had about snow
this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well it's nice and fine in Auckland, I can tell
you for the Derby today, So looking forward.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
To lovely Yeah, yeah, I'm going to try and catch
that later. I love it good.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
A jet base fining For more from Weekend Sport with
Jason Fine, listen live to news talks it'd be weekends
from midday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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