{"id":481833,"date":"2026-06-17T11:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481833\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:33:20","slug":"eli-justs-former-coach-teammate-unsurprised-by-two-goal-stunner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481833\/","title":{"rendered":"Eli Just’s former coach, teammate unsurprised by two-goal stunner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elijah Just\u2019s stunning FIFA World Cup double<\/a> against Iran in Los Angeles has the football world on notice.<\/p>\n

But his meteoric rise to prominence<\/a> comes as no surprise to the football coach who helped nurture his talent<\/p>\n

Former All White Declan Edge played an instrumental role in developing Just, along with Marko Stameni\u0107, Callum McCowatt, Matt Garbett, Ryan Tomas and Nando Pijnaker at the Ol\u00e9 Academy in Porirua.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been watching Eli do that, what you saw yesterday<\/a>, for the last 10 years,\u201d he told Breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was amazing to see him then go and execute that on a world stage. He’s been doing that for a very, very long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like I wrapped my own Christmas present up. I knew what it was inside it. So I wasn’t surprised, but I was overjoyed for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eli<\/p>\n

Eli Just celebrates his second goal against Iran (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

The large group of Ol\u00e9-trained All Whites have been close for a long time now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re all best mates over a long period of time, and they’ve all come through the system that we put in place at Ol\u00e9. And New Zealand football is obviously getting the rewards for their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edge expects New Zealand will enjoy the development of those players for some time to come, with many approaching \u201ctheir peak at 27, 28, 29\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stephen O\u2019Donnell, Just\u2019s teammate at Motherwell FC in the Scottish Premier League, wasn\u2019t as privy to his talents as Edge before he signed with the club.<\/p>\n

\"Eli<\/p>\n

Eli Just (11) celebrates scoring against Iran (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first when I met him, and maybe the first couple of training sessions, I was a wee bit worried about how he’d fit in in the Scottish game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s quite physical, it’s fast-paced, then this boy comes in, don’t know much about him, he’s quite slight in stature.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut after one or two games, then you realise what a talented and great player he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell backed Just to go on to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, unless you’re at Real Madrid, there’s always a bigger fish out there.<\/p>\n

\"Motherwell's<\/p>\n

Motherwell’s Elijah Just (L) celebrates with Callum Slattery (R) after scoring to make it 1-0 during a William Hill Premiership match between St Mirren and Motherwell (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he will go somewhere. Somewhere like Spain, I think, would really suit him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s technically very gifted, picks up some incredible spaces, and I can only imagine him finding better players and finding them in those spaces with better quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Just \u2013 and the All Whites – rightly received plaudits for a brave performance, Edge spared a thought for Garbett, ruled out of the tournament<\/a> before kick-off with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the game yesterday, that was one of the very first players that I got in contact with and made sure he was okay. [I had] some conversations with him around it; it’s football, that’s how it works. <\/p>\n

“Get back to work, keep going, you’re going be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch all matches at the World Cup with an event pass on TVNZ+<\/a> | All Whites games free-to-view on TVNZ1 and TVNZ+<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a minister’s anger over a failed $30 million Immigration NZ technology project and a new political poll showing a Green Party surge. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elijah Just\u2019s stunning FIFA World Cup double against Iran in Los Angeles has the football world on notice.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2965,2966,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-481833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-whites","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}