The All Whites have played their first match since the World Cup, and it ended in a 2-2 draw with Palestine in Chongqing, China, after a new-look New Zealand side twice took the lead and twice let it slip.
Ben Waine scored in the fifth minute and Jesse Randall in the 35th, but Palestine answered both times through Assad Al Hamlawi and Oday Dabbagh. All four goals came in the first half of the friendly, which kicked off at 9.30pm New Zealand time on Thursday and was not broadcast or streamed live, according to Friends of Football.
Head coach Darren Bazeley said the result mirrored a problem that followed the team through its World Cup campaign in North America. “There was a lot of positive football but the difficulty is we took the lead with a great goal from Ben Waine, and then we conceded. And then we took the lead again and then we conceded,” Bazeley told RNZ.
“So similar to our feelings from the World Cup. We weren’t able to hold onto a lead, which is something we need to look at and understand why,” he said.
New Zealand went into the match ranked 86th in the world, with Palestine 95th. On paper it was a game the All Whites expected to win, and Bazeley said as much. “But we need to find a way to win. They’re (Palestine) a good team but they’re a team we should beat,” he said.
The opening goal came quickly. Debutant George Stanger, the Kilmarnock defender, played a ball over the top that found Waine running through, and the Port Vale striker finished at the near post, NZ Sports Wire reported. Palestine levelled in the 27th minute when Al Hamlawi headed in a corner from Waidi Nabhan for his first goal for his country.
Eight minutes later New Zealand were back in front. The All Whites won the ball high up the pitch, Lachlan Bayliss crossed into the box, and Randall was first to react in the scramble that followed. The lead lasted four minutes. Palestine won the ball in transition, crossed and found Dabbagh, who finished for his 18th international goal to send the sides in level at the break.
The second half was quieter. Bazeley rang the changes, using ten substitutes under new FIFA rules that allow up to 11 in friendlies, and neither team created much in the way of clear chances.
The match was always going to be about trying new players as much as the result. Bazeley picked a completely different starting side from the one that lost 5-1 to Belgium in Vancouver in late June, the game that ended New Zealand’s World Cup. Three players won their first caps. Stanger played the full 90 minutes, Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Henry Gray replaced Michael Woud at half-time, and 19-year-old striker Stipe Ukich, who plays his club football in Croatia with NK Istra 1961, came on for Logan Rogerson in the 66th minute.
Woud, fresh from a title-winning season with Auckland FC, was making his first start in goal for New Zealand since November 2023. Alex Rufer captained the side, and the substitutes included Moses Dyer, recalled after an eight-year absence, and Callum McCowatt, who joined Danish champions AGF earlier this month.
“This was very early in the window so we used the opportunity to give a lot of minutes to players,” Bazeley said.
Several familiar names were missing. Striker Chris Wood and centre-back Finn Surman are only joining the squad for the second half of the trip, and winger Ben Old was left out of the matchday squad after arriving late in China because of commitments with his French club Saint-Étienne. Friends of Football noted in its preview of the window that club commitments, injuries and load management had kept 11 World Cup squad members out of this group.
There is plenty of football still to come. This is the first time FIFA has run an extended September and October international window, and New Zealand have four matches in it. The All Whites stay in Chongqing to play China, ranked 91st, with kick-off at 12.35am on Monday New Zealand time. China are rebuilding after another disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign and have called 11 uncapped players into a 30-man squad.
The team then heads to Japan for the Kirin Cup, an invitational tournament Japan has hosted on and off since 1978. New Zealand meet Panama in Yokohama next Thursday at 7.10pm, the first meeting between the two countries. Panama are ranked 44th and failed to score at the World Cup. The final round is in Tokyo on 5 October, where the All Whites will play either Japan or Ecuador. Both reached the last 32 of the World Cup, and Ecuador beat New Zealand 2-0 in Houston last November.
Kirin Cup games that are level after 90 minutes go straight to a penalty shootout, so the All Whites cannot rely on a draw there.
The window also matters for the coach. Bazeley’s contract runs out at the end of 2026, and the results over the next ten days, along with the two home games against India in November, will be part of the picture when New Zealand Football decides what comes next.
For now, the positives are real enough. Three new internationals got their first taste of the team, and a starting side completely changed from the last World Cup match scored twice against a well organised opponent. The concern is the old one. Twice in front and twice caught, the All Whites again found that holding a lead is harder than taking one.
“But throughout the game, there was so much good football,” Bazeley said.
Was this a useful run-out for the next generation, or should the All Whites have beaten Palestine? Who impressed you among the debutants? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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