New Zealand — 2026 World Cup Squad

Start with the number nobody else in Group G can match: 82. That is Chris Wood, sharpened by a season of leading the line for Nottingham Forest, and he is the reason New Zealand belong in the conversation at all. Almost every plan the All Whites carry into this tournament ends the same way, with a ball arriving in his area and a forward who has spent a career punishing exactly those moments.

What surrounds him is honest, stubborn defending rather than spectacle. Michael Boxall and Tyler Bindon form the spine of a back line that treats its own box as sacred, with Bindon's Forest education complementing Boxall's MLS miles at Minnesota United. Liberato Cacace, now at Wrexham, is the release valve, breaking from the left to give a deep-sitting side somewhere to run. Behind them all, Max Crocombe of Millwall has earned the gloves to keep New Zealand within one set-piece of any result.

Joe Bell does the unglamorous covering in midfield from his base at Viking, and that captures the whole project. Nobody expects flair here. They expect a fight, a long throw, and Wood lurking. Reaching the knockouts would be historic; staying genuinely competitive is the honest aim.