{"id":298832,"date":"2026-06-07T01:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T01:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298832\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T01:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T01:15:17","slug":"england-new-zealand-friendly-brings-early-world-cup-buzz-to-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298832\/","title":{"rendered":"England, New Zealand friendly brings early World Cup buzz to Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

In preparation for the World Cup, England\u2019s men\u2019s national team played New Zealand<\/a> in an international friendly Saturday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n

England, ranked No. 4 in the FIFA men\u2019s world rankings, shut out New Zealand, ranked 85th, 1-0. England forward Harry Kane (who else?) tallied the lone goal in the first half in front of 25,000-plus fans.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, England faces Costa Rica<\/a> in another pre-World Cup match at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The World Cup kicks off Thursday, when Mexico<\/a> takes on South Africa<\/a> in Mexico City. The tournament, hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada<\/a>, will feature 48 teams competing across 104 matches for soccer\u2019s most coveted trophy.<\/p>\n

The United States, ranked No. 16, opens play Friday against Paraguay<\/a> in Los Angeles. The Tampa Bay Rowdies will host a watch party<\/a> at Al Lang Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In preparation for the World Cup, England\u2019s men\u2019s national team played New Zealand in an international friendly Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9984,38267,8094,125710,71519,125116,4392,54604,50746,11708,37445,135,22385,137,136,9611],"class_list":["post-298832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-canada","tag-costa-rica","tag-england","tag-fifa-mens-world-rankings","tag-friendly-match","tag-harry-kane","tag-mexico","tag-new-zealand","tag-paraguay","tag-raymond-james-stadium","tag-south-africa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rowdies","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}