The New Zealand National Team

New Zealand is back at the World Cup after a 16 year wait. Going off of rankings New Zealand is the highest ranked team sitting at 85th. That could be a good thing, New Zealand has nothing to lose. They don’t have to deal with the pressure that Spain, France, England, and Brazil face. In WCQ they had 5 clean wins, no losses or draws. They scored 29 goals and conceded just one goal against Vanuatu in a calm 8-1 victory. Chris Wood was and is their best scorer netting 9 goals. After qualifying for the World Cup they have played 11 friendly matches since and have a record of 1-8-1. They beat chile 4-1 and drew Norway 1-1. New Zealand runs a 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 formation. They are a possession based team. When they lose possession they struggle heavily, the thing is they have trouble obtaining possession. The lack creativity and technically skilled players. But what will always be a strength for any New Zealand national team is strength and ability to win physical battles. They are a tall strong team. If you’ve ever paid attention or watched New Zealand you’ll know how important Chris Wood is to this team. Being their top forward playing for Nottingham Forest, he has a tall task to really put this team on his back. He played in only 15 matches due to injuries. Wood will be looking for Old and Garbett to help him out along the wings. But, I’m not so sure if they can do that. New Zealand is in group G with Belgium, Egypt, and Iran. Belgium is the heavy favorite to top this group. I think they will, I don’t see them losing any group stage matches. I don’t see New Zealand winning any games or making it out of the group unfortunately. Like I said before, New Zealand truly has nothing to lose. With a fan base just being happy to qualify maybe New Zealand can use that to their advantage and take it to their group mates. It’s hard to say what going to happen in the future but I can confidently say the odds are against New Zealand. I wish them luck, they’re going to need it.