After 525 days All Whites are back to action

It took several months but finally the New Zealand National Football Team will be back in action. They will travel to Europe to face Ireland and Lithuania playing in these respective countries. The last time New Zealand played an official match was in 7th June, 2018 – exactly 525 days space from this match and when they will enter the pitch to face Ireland – when they won India by 2-1 with goals from Andre de Jong and Moses Dyer. New Zealand made an alternative call-up for this friendly tournament played in India, where they won Chinese Taipei, India and lost to Kenya. Experienced players as Chris Wood, Marco Rojas and Michael Boxall did not play in the International Cup, as the competition was called.

Much things have changed from this date: Fritz Schimid, the Swiss coach of the All Whites, resigned from his position after coaching the national team for only four matches. The New Zealand federation took some time but decided to give the place to the former Leeds United, Walsall and All Whites defender Danny Hay. Hay was the coach of Eastern Suburbs that won the last edition of ISPS Handa Premiership, breaking the alternate dominance of Auckland City and Team Wellington.

Hay is having in his side the former Waitakere United partner and winner of OFC Champions League Neil Emblem. Emblem also had experience coaching the OlyWhites and will took part in an important role in New Zealand Football staff. Another important appointment is the former All Whites forward Rory Fallon as assistant coach. Fallon has plenty of experience of playing in Scottish and English football, also took part in the last World Cup appearance of New Zealand in 2010 – Fallon scored the winning goal against Bahrain that qualified the All Whites for their second time to a FIFA World Cup.

The squad called up for these friendly matches has seven possible debutants: Nando Pijnaker, Elliot Collier, Callum McCowatt, Max Mata, Elijah Just, Joe Bell and James McGarry. You can check the full squad of the All Whites here. The absence of the Sydney FC striker Kosta Barbarouses will be certainly the biggest miss for New Zealand – the player decided to focus in his matches in A-League since he signed recently for Sydney FC after departing Melbourne Victory.

The best news for New Zealand and Oceania football fans is that Winston Reid and Ryan Thomas are back to football. After very serious knee injuries, both of them were out of football for more than one year. Reid is not yet completely fit for first team football in his club West Ham, while Thomas already debut after injury in Eredivisie giants PSV.

The All Whites main striker Chris Wood is just four goals away from the all-time top scorer of the national team: Vaughan Coveny scored 28 times for the country and Wood already scored 24. Chris has still plenty of time to surpass the record since he is still 27 years old. Currently he is tied in the second position of the records alongside former Wellington Phoenix, Sydney FC and Perth Glory striker Shane Smeltz – one goal he scores for his side will make him the undisputed 2nd all time top-scorer for his country.

The Burnley striker will be playing against three teammates when he enters the pitch in Dublin to face Ireland: Jeff Hendrick, Robbie Brady and Kevin Long. The Irish side is mainly composed by Premier League and Championship players – a very good test for this mixed of young and experienced players of the New Zealand side.

New Zealand will also feature some young promising players and one of them is rising star Sarpreet Singh, recently signed by Bayern FC coming from a very good season at Wellington Phoenix. Various players of the good generation that played this year at U20 World Cup were called up: the defenders Nando Pijnaker and Liberato Cacace, the goalkeeper Michael Woud, the midfielders Elijah Just and Joe Bell and the forwards Max Mata and Callum McCowatt.

The team also have players with more than 30 caps for the national team: the experienced defenders Tommy Smith and Michael Boxall, both playing today in MLS, the midfielder Marco Rojas who recently departed Netherlands to play in Danish Superligaen and the veteran Central Coast Mariners midfielder Michael McGlinchey that holds 53 caps for the national team.

The full back Louis Fenton had a shoulder injury when playing for Wellington Phoenix in A-League; he was replaced by his teammate Tim Payne in the call-up. This was the only injury miss of the team Danny Hay called for the two friendly matches.

Certainly it will be two important matches for New Zealand; especially for having a new coach in charge and after so much time without action. Ireland is without a doubt the most qualified team New Zealand will face in their tour to Europe. Lithuania comes from five defeats in a row in their last win was against Armenia in March, 2018 in a friendly. Despite these bad records, Lithuania played against World Cup teams as Serbia and Portugal – oppositions level New Zealand does not play against so often – and they can also be an interest test to measure the what this new team of Danny Hay can do when they are theorically favourites for a win.

New Zealand begins their new run next Friday – 15th November – against Ireland at 8:45am NZT. The match against Lithunia will kick-off at 3am NZT in the Monday – both matches being telecasted by SkySport.