New Zealand, fifth country to qualify for 2026 World Cup
New Zealand will play at the 2026 World Cup after beating New Caledonia 3-0 on Monday in the final of the Oceania confederation qualifying series.
The New Zealand “All Whites” reached the World Cup for the third time after qualifying in Spain in 1982 and South Africa in 2010. They join hosts Canada, the United States and Mexico and Japan, which last week became the first team to qualify for the 48-team tournament.
New Caledonia still has a chance to qualify through a six-team inter-continental playoff involving teams from the Asian, African, North and Central American and South American confederations.
New Zealand had a setback when its captain, Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood, was forced from the field with a hip injury in the 53rd minute with the score still 0-0.
Wood is the focus of the New Zealand attack, scoring three headed goals in New Zealand’s 7-0 semifinal win over Fiji on Friday.
Up stepped an unlikely star in Wood’s absence. In the 62nd Michael Boxall, the 36-year-old center back from Minnesota United, scored his first goal in 55 international appearances to finally break the deadlock. Boxall met Francis de Vries’ corner at the far post and headed it home.
Four minutes later the 17-year international veteran Kosta Barbarouses, who replaced Wood, ran onto Tim Payne’s pass and chipped the ball over Nyikeine to make it 2-0.
Finally, Denmark-based Elijah Just scored from Barbarouses’ assist in the 80th to clinch New Zealand’s place at the World Cup.
New Caledonia shocked pundits when it held New Zealand scoreless at halftime, mostly through the extraordinary efforts of goalkeeper Rocky Nyikeine. New Zealand threatened at set pieces from which they looked for Wood, who has scored 18 goals in the English Premier League this season.
Oceania is the smallest of FIFA’s six confederations, made up of 11 full member nations, mostly small island states from South Pacific.
After Australia moved to the Asian Football Confederation from Oceania following the the 2006 World Cup, New Zealand, ranked No. 89 and with a population of 5.2 million, became the largest and highest-ranked nation in the confederation. New Caledonia, with a population of 280,000, is ranked 152.
This edition for the first time the Oceania qualifying series winner was granted direct entry to the World Cup, without having to face an inter-continental playoff. That bonus came with the expansion of the tournament to 48.
In 1982 New Zealand played 15 matches and travelled 55,000 miles in its qualifying campaign. In 2010, it qualified after a two-game series with Bahrain.—AP
