Chris Wood Leads New Zealand's Underdog Journey in World Cup

Chris Wood will walk into this World Cup as the face of the rank outsiders – and he would not have it any other way.

New Zealand, 85th in the FIFA rankings and the lowest-seeded team in the tournament, are heading to the United States, Canada and Mexico with a striker who has spent a career thriving on being underestimated. At 32, the Nottingham Forest forward is the spearhead of a squad that knows the odds and is happy to stare them down.

“It’s been a long time, 16 years, since we’ve been in the World Cup,” Wood said via video link at the squad unveiling in Auckland. “I can’t wait to share the moment with this team and hopefully create some history. I hope that we can do everybody proud and show the world what we’re capable of.”

Those are not throwaway lines. Wood has lived the gap between New Zealand’s last World Cup and this one. He was a teenager in South Africa in 2010, used only from the bench, part of a side that left without a win yet without a defeat – three draws, including that famous 1-1 against holders Italy. Now he returns as captain, record scorer and standard-bearer: 45 goals in 88 internationals, the man everything in the final third will orbit around.

Only a month ago, his place was in doubt. A knee injury had stripped him of most of Forest’s Premier League season and cast a shadow over his World Cup hopes. He made it back in time. For New Zealand, that changes the entire picture.

From Spain to South Africa to North America

The All Whites’ World Cup story has always been a grind. In 1982, on debut in Spain, they lost all three group games. In 2010, they left unbeaten yet still eliminated, stuck behind Paraguay and Slovakia despite those three stubborn draws.

This campaign comes with a different kind of challenge. Group G reads like a gauntlet: Iran in Los Angeles on June 15, then Egypt on June 22 and Belgium on June 27, both in Vancouver. Every opponent is ranked higher, every game a test of discipline and depth.

Wood believes that depth finally exists.

New Zealand booked their ticket by winning the Oceania qualifiers in March, and coach Darren Bazeley has built a squad that leans heavily on European-based experience in midfield and the domestic A-League core at home. Ten players come from the Australian A-League, eight of them from the country’s two clubs, Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix. Around them, Bazeley has added a layer of know-how from Europe.

He namechecks the men he will lean on: Wood up front, and in the middle of the pitch Joe Bell, Marko Stamenic, Matt Garbett and Ryan Thomas. That central spine will decide whether New Zealand can turn stubborn resistance into something more ambitious.

A veteran recall from England’s fifth tier

The boldest call sits in defence. Tommy Smith, 36 and now playing in England’s fifth tier with Braintree Town, is back in the World Cup squad. He started all three matches in South Africa 16 years ago; now he returns as a different kind of presence.

“With a squad of 26, not everybody is going to play,” Bazeley said. “So we added Tommy because his leadership is great. He’s going to be so important for the players keeping everybody on track. We’ll lean on him a lot.”

Smith’s selection underlines Bazeley’s thinking. This is not a group built purely on form charts and club pedigrees. It is a group built for tournament life – for long days between games, for young players needing a voice in the dressing room when pressure bites.

Around Smith, there is a blend of steady professionals and emerging talent: Tyler Bindon of Nottingham Forest, Liberato Cacace at Wrexham, MLS defender Michael Boxall, and a cluster of Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix players who know each other’s games instinctively.

In midfield, Bell (Viking FK), Garbett (Peterborough United), Stamenic (Swansea City) and Thomas (PEC Zwolle) bring European tempo and technique. Sarpreet Singh and Alex Rufer carry the Phoenix heartbeat into the national side. Up front, Kosta Barbarouses, Ben Waine and others will be asked to support Wood, chase lost causes and turn half-chances into something more.

Lowest ranked, not easily dismissed

On paper, New Zealand should struggle. Iran’s organisation, Egypt’s pedigree and Belgium’s talent pool dwarf what Bazeley has at his disposal. The All Whites have never won a World Cup match. They arrive as the team everyone expects to beat.

But this is a nation that once left a World Cup unbeaten. A country that has grown used to qualifying the hard way, through Oceania’s narrow path, then facing giants with limited resources and a deep reservoir of stubbornness.

The task is clear: survive Iran’s intensity in Los Angeles, then step into Vancouver with something still to play for when Egypt and Belgium loom. One result could change everything – for the group, for the narrative, for a generation that has never seen New Zealand in this tournament.

Wood, fully fit again and carrying the weight of a footballing nation that rarely gets this stage, wants more than gallant exits and plucky stories.

Sixteen years ago he watched history from the fringes. Now he walks into North America as the man expected to make it.