Key events
Morgan Rogers talks to ITV from a hot and humid Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. “So excited … it’s a young boy’s dream to be in this position, to represent my country in a World Cup … it being so close, the excitement gets bigger every day … it’s hot, as expected … we’ve got a job to do … acclimatise … get used to it and be in the best possible shape when the time comes … we’re going to have to push ourselves to the limit … strategy will be a big thing at the tournament.”
Thomas Tuchel is expected to change the entire team at half-time. A reminder that he won’t be able to call on Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka or Noni Madueke, with all four Arsenal players joining the squad late after their exertions in the Champions League final.
New Zealand are ranked 85th in the world. Their star performer is the aforementioned Chris Wood of Nottingham Forest, with 45 goals in 89 appearances for the All Whites. Motherwell winger Elijah Just will be looking for his tenth international goal tonight, Peterborough’s Matt Garbett provides graft in midfield, while Millwall’s Max Crocombe starts inbetween the sticks.
That’s quite the attack. Morgan Rogers and Marcus Rashford have both scored 15 goals for club and country this season; Ollie Watkins has 22; Harry Kane a preposterous 66. Just the 118 goals between them. Phew. It’s not the quickest midfield pairing in Jordan Henderson and Kobbie Mainoo, mind, and you’d get generous odds on them starting alongside each other against Croatia a week on Wednesday. But you can’t have everything.
The teams
England: Pickford, Quansah, Stones, Guehi, Spence, Mainoo, J Henderson, Rogers, Kane, Rashford, Watkins.
Subs: D Henderson, Trafford, Konsa, O’Reilly, Anderson, Bellingham, Livramento, Burn, Gordon, Toney, James, Scott, King, Nwaneri, Ngumoha.
New Zealand: Crocombe, Payne, Boxall, Surman, Cacace, Garbett, Bell, Stamenic, Singh, Wood, Just.
Subs: Paulsen, Woud, de Vries, Bindon, Rufer, Pijnaker, Barbarouses, Waine, Old, McCowatt, Randall, Elliot, Bayliss, Smith.
We’ve also got a guide to every single player going to North America this summer. Every last one of them just an elegant clickity-click away.
… and on that very subject, this is great fun / dangerously addictive. Fiddle around, and find out how quickly the draw can get all out of whack when just one of the leading contenders fails to win their group, as they did when I ran my model. Oh Spain, that last-minute equaliser for Cape Verde so costly! The knock-on effect was an all-Iberian quarter-final clash with Portugal, who swept them aside just as they did in the Nations League last year. Portugal went on to the final, where they were beaten by Turkey, who had surprised Germany in the semis. I had Scotland making the quarters, as well, so I wouldn’t rush out to the bookies and lump big on any of this. But yes, great fun.
… so having talked about not getting too far ahead of ourselves too soon, here’s a piece about England’s route to glory, as determined by Opta and their big calculator. Hey, we’re nothing if not a broad church.
Preamble
Let’s be honest with ourselves and each other: this really doesn’t matter that much. Not only is it a World Cup warm-up game, contested by two teams trying out a few things and making sure nobody pulls up lame, it’s also a World Cup warm-up game between England and New Zealand … and history suggests those two nations aren’t much of a match.
But first up, consider the state of play as is. England will go into the tournament as third-favourites to win, behind just Spain and France and ahead of five-time winners Brazil and reigning champions Argentina. New Zealand meanwhile made it to the finals having beaten Tahiti, Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia in qualifying, to the cumulative score of 29-1, and have subsequently lost eight of their last ten matches, the latest an embarrassing 4-0 defeat by Haiti. Their only win during that sequence was an admittedly good-looking 4-1 victory over Chile … who went down to ten men after 27 minutes.
And then there’s our good old friend The Past. England and New Zealand have officially met twice previously, both matches held within the space of five days in the summer of 1991. Graham Taylor’s team won both games, 1-0 and 2-0, Gary Lineker, Stuart Pearce and David Hirst doing the damage. There were another six unofficial games in the sixties: between June 1961 and June 1969, England won every one of them, running up an aggregate score of 35-2.
So, y’know. But then England’s last two outings weren’t that impressive – a 1-1 draw with Uruguay and a 1-0 defeat to Japan, both at Wembley – so it’s probably best for everyone not to get too far ahead of themselves. Yet despite the generally tepid nature of pre-tournament warm-ups, and with all their concomitant line-up experiments and substitutions, this game tonight should be a shoo-in for Thomas Tuchel’s team. Hey, if they don’t win, the internet won’t explode … but it may start gently rocking and convulsing with mirth. Not that anyone should be too euphoric/embarrassed. Because let’s be honest with ourselves and each other: this really doesn’t matter that much. Kick-off is at 9pm BST. It’s on!
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