Roughly nine months after Danny Hay’s tenure as All Whites coach ended, New Zealand Football have finally announced his replacement: former assistant and interim coach Darren Bazeley

For a game that technically didn’t happen, for which caps won’t count and there was no completed result, this one will be remembered for quite a long time.

For roughly ninety-percent of the game against Sweden in Stockholm, the All Whites held their own. There was some impressive football on display and they certainly didn’t look like the rank underdogs that they should have been

The European club season is pretty much doneskees so with that in the rearview it’s time to squeeze in an international window. One in which the All Whites will play twice, hooray

All we really needed from these All Whites vs China games was to see these players live in Aotearoa again and for them to score a goal or two. Ideally with a couple of wins. We didn’t get all of that at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland on Thursday night but we did manage to tick all the boxes at Sky Stadium in Wellington three days later.

Danny Hay is no longer the All Whites head coach. His contract runs up at the end of the month and he’s chosen not to reapply for the gig. He was invited to do so after a routine review into the World Cup cycle was completed but it’s often a bit frisky inviting an incumbent to reapply for their own job…

Well, that’s not how it was supposed to go down. The All Whites drew an impressive crowd of just a shade under 35k to Eden Park but weren’t able to turn that into a rare victory against the Socceroos

Danny Hay’s made it clear in recent weeks that he wants this All Whites team playing as often as possible and he isn’t at all chuffed about them likely skipping out on the next few windows. Chris Wood was emphatic in saying that Australia vs Aotearoa should be a footballing fixture at least every four years

Talk about timing. To be playing the Socceroos again after so many years and they happen to be the first games since the All Whites failed to make the World Cup thanks to that brutal and controversial 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica

It has been exactly three weeks since the dream of watching an All Whites team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup was shattered over ninety minutes of enticed agony. One single game to decide the final qualifier for the tournament

Even more than a regular friendly match, this one was all about preparation. For both teams in fact because while All Whites were obviously preparing for their World Cup qualifying playoff against Costa Rica nine days after this match, Peru were also amassing their forces ahead of an intercontinental game

Mission accomplished. Objective complete. Level clocked. The All Whites had plenty of dramas around this OFC World Cup Qualifying tournament but ‘twas nothing they couldn’t handle

That was gruelling. But from somewhere amidst a fog of fouls, Liberato Cacace popped up with his first senior international goal to give the All Whites a 1-0 win over Tahiti in the semi-finals of the Oceania World Cup qualifiers

Imagine being New Caledonia coach Dominique Wacalie. There’s twenty minutes to go in your game against New Zealand, the lads have served up a pretty commendable account of themselves to have things at 3-1 and you turn around to see this…

The theme of game one’s article was not to worry about anything other than the three points... and game two showed exactly why. Chuck Chris Wood and Marko Stamenic into the pot and it’s an entirely different stew.