New Zealand’s wait for a return to the World Cup could end this week. This is everything you need to know.

It’s been 15 years since New Zealand last featured at a FIFA Men’s World Cup. In a week’s time, that drought could end as an All Whites squad brimming with A-Leagues talent prepares for their final two games on the road to automatic qualification to the 2026 edition of the major tournament.

New Zealand have never qualified directly through the Oceania Football Confederation to a Men’s World Cup but after the expansion of the tournament from 32 nations to 48, the OFC now has a direct entry slot which the All Whites are eager to claim in the March international window.

Thanks to the expansion of the World Cup, the qualification equation is simpler than ever before for New Zealand: win the OFC phase, and seal a place at the 2026 tournament.

Since the 2010 World Cup, the All Whites have endured several heartbreaks via the intercontinental playoffs, with none more so gut-wrenching than a 1-0 loss to Costa Rica that denied the Oceania nation a place at the 2022 edition of the major tournament.

Having played the role of David in battles against many of the Goliaths of world football down the years, suddenly the roles are reversed as New Zealand look to use the significant boost of home support to seize this month’s glorious opportunity to bury the demons of the past and book a place at the World Cup for the first time since 2010.

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180 minutes of football could be all it takes to get them there, beginning with an OFC qualification semi-final against World No.148 Fiji in Wellington.

The significance of the opportunity at hand is not lost on New Zealand head coach Darren Bazeley.

“It’s a great avenue for us,” Bazeley told the Between Two Beers Podcast.

“The changes that (have) happened makes it a lot easier. You look back and go: Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, and we haven’t been able to get past those games, and missed those World Cups because they’re pretty tough games against good opposition. And in each of those moments we had won OFC to get to that game. Now we’ve just got to win OFC, which is a lot easier – we know that.

“We’re not taking it for granted. We know it’s a game of football and anything can happen within a game. So we just need to make sure we do our jobs.

“We know we should win, if everything goes to plan. It would take something pretty awry for us not to win these games. But we know it’s a game of football, so we’re not taking it easy.”

The road to 2026 and the A-Leagues stars at the heart of it all

Having topped their four-nation group in the second round of OFC qualifying, New Zealand progressed to the semi-finals where they’ll face Fiji at Sky Stadium in Wellington on March 21. Should the All Whites defeat Fiji, they will play the final against either New Caledonia or Tahiti at Eden Park in Auckland on March 24, with a spot at the 2026 World Cup up for grabs.

New Zealand are ranked 89th in the world, ahead of Fiji (148), New Caledonia (152) and Tahiti (153).

The winner of the third-round final will earn automatic qualification to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in an historic moment for the OFC, and there’s plenty of Isuzu UTE A-League talent eager to help the All Whites get there.

Head coach Darren Bazeley has picked 23 players for international duty this month – 11 of which currently play for teams around the Isuzu UTE A-League.

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Six players from Auckland FC have linked up with the national team this week, including AFC Bournemouth loanee Alex Paulsen and young forward Jesse Randall who is the only new addition to the 23-player squad from the group that beat Vanuatu and Samoa in November.

Paulsen and Randall are joined by Black Knights teammates Logan Rogerson, Nando Pijnaker, Francis De Vries and Tommy Smith in the squad.

Wellington Phoenix trio Kosta Barbarouses, Tim Payne and Alex Rufer have also been selected alongside Australian-based Kiwis Oli Sail and Storm Roux who play for Perth Glory and Central Coast Mariners respectively.

Together, the 11 Isuzu UTE A-League stars make up nearly half of a 23-player squad led by Nottingham Forest marksman Chris Wood who will look to carry his career-best form in the Premier League into the international camp and fire his nation to a World Cup for the first time in 16 years.

Pain of the past pushing the All Whites onwards

This year’s qualification path to the 2026 World Cup occurs against the backdrop 2022, and a controversial 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in Qatar that sent the Central American nation through to the major tournament at the expense of the All Whites.

After playoff defeats to Mexico in 2013 and Peru in 2017, the loss to Costa Rica cut deep; Joel Campbell scored three minutes into the game for Costa Rica before two contentious moments prevented a New Zealand comeback.

Chris Wood equalised for New Zealand before half-time – or so he thought. A VAR review of the equalising moment led to referee Mohammed Abdulla ruling out Wood’s goal for a foul from Matthew Garbett in the build-up.

VAR came into play once again in the second half when a Kosta Barbarouses tackle on Francisco Calvo that initially earned a yellow card was upgraded to red, as New Zealand finished the 1-0 defeat with 10 men on the park.

Heartbroken and outraged, the All Whites were forced to watch the 2022 World Cup from afar. Current head coach Bazeley says the hurt still remains within the squad, but it’s now being used as motivation to succeed in the current qualification campaign.

“I look back at the Costa Rica game and I think we were really unlucky,” Bazeley said on the Between Two Beers Podcast.

“It was maybe one of the best games we’ve played… we came back and played and had good chances, and then we had this disallowed goal which I still think was the wrong decision, a sending-off and more chances that we had.

“Ultimately we weren’t successful but that really hurt, that moment. Everybody afterwards felt the same. We talked about it and the players talked about it.

“Obviously (Winston Reid) was there… and he talked about: remember this feeling, remember this because we never want to feel like this again. Next time, this is not going to happen again.”

All Whites keeper Oli Sail at the end of the heartbreaking playoff loss to Costa Rica.

The qualification process has been overhauled since New Zealand’s last campaign. Now, an intercontinental playoff will be avoided if the All Whites take care of business at home against Fiji in the OFC semi-finals, and a final against either New Caledonia or Tahiti.

Speaking to FBC Sports, Fiji assistant coach Marika Rodu defined the clash as a David v Goliath battle; New Zealand are accustomed to playing the role of Goliath in the OFC but never before has their path to a World Cup ended at the OFC phase, making this month’s historic qualification window an unusually straightforward proposition for Bazeley’s side to approach.

World No.148 Fiji is a team composed of mostly amateur and semi-professional players; Fijian superstar and A-Leagues icon Roy Krishna has a knee injury and is unavailable for selection in a squad featuring several players who, away from football, work as policemen, builders and transport workers.

This is a golden opportunity for New Zealand to end the nation’s decade-and-a-half wait for a World Cup berth since the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Just two players remain from the 2010 squad in the current group contending to qualify for 2026: Premier League star Chris Wood, and Auckland defender Tommy Smith.

Fuelled by the hurt of defeat to Costa Rica in the 2022 playoffs, Smith is expecting a special atmosphere at week’s OFC semi-final and a potential final on March 24 as New Zealand looks to qualify for the World Cup in front of home fans.

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“I wasn’t part of the qualifying (campaign for) the 2010 World Cup,” Smith told New Zealand Football.

“So to be a part of the process all the way through would be something that would be really special to me.

“To be able to do it on home soil in front of friends and family would be amazing, because obviously we lost out against Costa Rica last time around in Qatar. It wasn’t really the atmosphere you want for World Cup qualifying. The disappointment that came with losing to a team we thought we were good enough to beat.

“Listen, we know it’s not going to be easy here but we need to be disciplined and focused. But it would be really special to be able to qualify on home soil.

“Kiwi football has come on in leaps and bounds. You see it just by the squad depth, and the number of high-quality players that don’t make the squad now.

“The quality of players that New Zealand produces now is brilliant and hopefully if we do qualify for this World Cup, it can be the catalyst again for the next generation and the generation after that to continually produce high-level footballers.”