FIFA World Cup 2026: New Zealand disappointed but proud after exit
New Zealand were ahead against Iran before falling to a 2-2 draw, and they opened the scoring against Egypt before falling to a 3-1 defeat.
Bazeley said the World Cup experience would be valuable for his team.
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Bazeley told a media conference: “I think when you saw the draw and we knew we were going to play Belgium last, you probably expected them to be on six points anyway and maybe that could be in our favour… We needed to pick up the points in the first two games and we gave ourselves the opportunity to do that and we didn’t take it.” said Bazeley at a media conference.
“We tried to get back into the game, we weren’t going to leave this World Cup with a 2-0 defeat, we wanted to try and score, get back into the game but unfortunately we got penalized a few times.”
New Zealand managed to pull a goal back when Elijah Just scored his third goal of the tournament, but Belgium scored two more goals in the closing stages to complete the defeat.
“A lot of these guys are going to come back in four years and they’re going to be better at it, and if we’re going to get to where we all want to go, which is knockout games, they need to be better,” Bazeley said.
“They will definitely learn from this. This is a great group of players with a great future, a bright future both individually and with the clubs. They will definitely get better because it will hurt and it should because we are in the World Cup and now we are going home.”
Forward Chris Wood, who was part of New Zealand’s 2010 squad, said there had been marked improvement during his time with the team.
“You always want to play with the best teams, that’s how you progress and that’s how you get better. I think we showed that against Egypt and Iran,” he told reporters.
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“We have raised our level to this level but unfortunately tonight we could not raise our level to Belgium. They are a top-level team, but if we can get our players to bigger leagues around the world that will help too.”
