The All Whites will kick off the longest FIFA international window ever with a historic friendly against Palestine, but only those in Longxing Football Stadium, Chongqing, China will witness it.
The first ever game between the two nations begins the new World Cup cycle and marks a period of change for both teams. Though it is expected both sides will use Thursday’s match as a bit of training run and make use of the 11 available substitutes.
With FIFA expanding the first international window after this year’s World Cup to allow four games, rather than the traditional two, this fixture was hurriedly added to the All Whites’ schedule which also includes a game against China on Monday and two matches in the Kirin Cup in Japan from 1 October.
The game between the world number 86 New Zealanders and the 95th-ranked Palestine will not be internationally broadcast. Instead New Zealand Football said it would share snippets from the ground on social media.
Coach Darren Bazeley said the opening match of the window was important, “but it is a bit more of a balance to make sure that we don’t overload people too much too early”.
Tommy Smith at the 2026 Football World Cup.
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It will be 89 days after exiting the World Cup in North America at the group stage that the All Whites will return to the field without 12 of the players who were at the global tournament. One of those players, Tommy Smith, has transitioned to the coaching staff as a set piece coach.
After the World Cup, where he did not play a game, centre-back Smith joined English football club Bury Town in August. Based in Suffolk, Bury is a lower league club that does not stop for an international window.
Over more than 15 years as an All Whites player Smith made 56 appearances and was in the 2010 and 2026 World Cup squads but from now on Smith’s involvement with the national team will be from the dugout.
At the opposite end of the experience scale, 19-year-old striker Stipe Ukich will make his debut in China.
He is one of three All Whites players for this international window who are yet to get a senior cap. The others are defender George Stanger and goalkeeper Henry Gray.
Bazeley said all three players will be capped during these four matches.
All White Marko Stamenic.
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Senior All White Marko Stamenic said after leaving the World Cup in June the playing group had debriefed in the intervening months as well as the last couple of days in camp.
“I think we went through a lot of hurt from the World Cup. Obviously, we wanted to achieve a lot more than we did, but there was a lot of positives that came out of the World Cup, a lot of learnings as well,” Stamenic said.
Stamenic is approaching 50 games with English Championship club Swansea City and is one of the 16 players in the 24-man squad for this window that has been playing regular football since the World Cup.
“I think in our normal club environments, we have a tendency to forget from the last game and move on to the next game and I think that’s kind of the same mentality we’re going into this [window with].
“We’ve learned what we needed to learn from the World Cup and we’re going to try and apply that for the next four games.”
While Stamenic stayed with the same club after the World Cup, nine of his World Cup team mates have moved clubs during the transfer window. Seven of those players are on this tour, including Eli Just who joined Stamenic at Swansea.
The other movers on tour are Callum McCowatt, Alex Paulsen, Jesse Randall, Lachlan Bayliss, Tyler Bindon and Smith.
Callum McCowatt has switched club teams since the World Cup.
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Sarpreet Singh, who moved to Portuguese club Farense, was left out as was Tim Payne who signed with Club Olimpia.
Bazeley also made the decision to leave the experienced Ryan Thomas and Joe Bell out of this squad as they “managed their bodies” and Bell played Champions League with Viking FK.
Bazeley was using this window as an opportunity to spread the playing minutes.
“We’ve got a good group of players that played most of the World Cup games, that core group. Then we’ve got a group of players that were at the World Cup and didn’t get as much game time as they wanted, it gives them something to prove, we’ve got some players that weren’t selected for the World Cup, again, it’s an opportunity for them to prove and show themselves.
“What we need is some players to really grab this opportunity they’re going to get and perform. We need to go and win games and that would be the challenge we set for them.”
Auckland FC player Nando Pijnaker misses out on chance for All Whites game time.
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One player who was unlucky to not get an opportunity to impress over the next few weeks was Auckland FC defender Nando Pijnaker who picked up a rib injury in a pre-season match on the eve of flying out for the tour.
“[It] was a real shame for Nando because he’s had to wait quite a while to get his opportunity, and he was going to get some good minutes on this on this tour.
“So that was really tough for him. Part of football, we all understand, but tough for him. So actually, we had to make a quick decision there on replacing him.”
Wellington Phoenix player Bill Tuiloma, who missed out on World Cup selection, benefited from Pijnaker’s misfortune.
Centre forward Moses Dyer was also a late addition for the tour, returning to the national team for the first time since 2018, as cover for All Whites captain Chris Wood who will only be a part of the Japan leg of the tour.