All Whites vs India: Squad Yarns & Preview
International coaches often talk about the special moments of the job, the ones that make the long hours and the constant critiques and the logistical dramas all worth it... and one of the most special is when you get to make that call to tell somebody that their lifelong ambition of representing their country has been achieved. So, much like a condemned prisoner savouring their final meal, Darren Bazeley has made three such calls for his final tour as head coach of the All Whites with Corban Piper, Matt Sheridan, and Nathan Walker all included for potential debuts.
The reason he’s been able to do that is because the upcoming series against India is probably the least consequential tour of his tenure. He’s not new on the job and trying to prove himself. There’s no World Cup qualification on the line, nor World Cup preparation to be done. Just two home games – one in Auckland and one in Christchurch – against an Indian team that FIFA rankings suggest should not pose any threat to the All Whites in their own conditions (India are ranked 138 compared to NZ at 88). They won’t be pushovers since there are some decent results sprinkled around for the Indians in recent times – a 1-1 draw against Panama in Bengaluru in September certainly stands out and a 4-0 loss to Brazil in the previous window doesn’t sound too shabby either. But the last time New Zealand faced India, we won 2-1 away in the fourth and final game of the Fritz Schmid Era with this outrageous line-up:
Michael Woud; Justin Gulley, Nikko Boxall, Sam Brotherton, Libby Cacace; Tim Payne, Cam Howieson; Jai Ingham, Andre De Jong, Sarpreet Singh; Myer Bevan
Goals were scored by Andre De Jong and substitute Moses Dyer. Even including the bench players that got used (Adam Mitchell, Henry Cameron, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, Noah Billingsley, Moses Dyer), there is only one player in common from that game and this current squad eight years later and that’s Michael Woud. Cacace, Payne, and Singh have all been left out (Cacace is injured, the other two are focusing on club stuff). In other words, a team with Chris Wood and Callum McCowatt and Finn Surman and Alex Paulsen should have no issue bagging a couple of wins here.
India are ranked a few spots lower than Malaysia, who came here in October 2024 and lost 4-0, so this is arguably our biggest non-Oceania mismatch for a wee while (at least based on the rankings and let’s not be too beholden to those things). There’s no drama with that. Perfect opportunity to play some home games, including bringing All Whites football back to Christchurch for the first time since 2012, capitalising on any lingering World Cup buzz and hopefully turning this into a couple of comfortable victories to send the punters home happy. There’s also some diplomatic stuff going on to celebrate “100 Years of Unity through Sport” between the two nations. The Blackcaps vs India cricket tour is also part of that along with bowls, beach volleyball, kadabbi, hockey, 3x3 basketball, and a bit of Esports... all of which completely accidentally and definitely not on purpose coincides with the new NZ-India Free Trade Agreement that came into effect a couple weeks ago. But let’s not dwell on boring political stuff.
One curious note about India is that they’re also competing in the South Asian Football Federation championships at the same time. They sent a B-team to that event so that they could have their best blokes playing against New Zealand. The A-team still looks pretty fresh with six debutants in the 23-man group and only one player who plays outside the motherland (goalkeeper Som Kumar who represents Slovan in Slovakia, he’s one of the uncapped dudes). There are only five players with more than 20 international caps, Anirudh Thapa being the most experienced with 62 games, while Manvir Singh has also passed his half-century. Largely a rebuilt squad under coach Khalid Jamil, who is about 14 months into the job.
It’s also a very fresh looking New Zealand squad, though not for rebuilding reasons. It’s merely a good opportunity to mix things up a little bit. Several players have had extremely busy years and could use the rest plus there are a number of injuries in the wider group. There also seems to have been a decision made not to drag fellas back from Europe or America only to sit on the bench. They’ve held a line like that with third-choice goalkeepers in the past, preferring to just grab one of the ALM dudes instead, but this time the policy has been expanded into the outfielders too. Looking at the squad, this feels like a pretty safe prediction for a first eleven:
Paulsen; Elliot, Surman, Bindon, FDV; Rufer, OPP; Randall, McCowatt, Garbett; Wood
Couple of A-League fullbacks in there plus Rufer in the midfield (all three of whom were in the World Cup squad) and the rest are returning from Europe or America. That leaves the following players to fill the bench:
Bayliss, Gillion, Gray, McGarry, Pijnaker, Piper, Rogerson, Sheridan, Tuiloma, Walker, Woud
A-League players. Every one of them. Consider this a three-step process where first they ruled out the guys who needed rest or were unavailable, then they picked the strongest eleven of the remaining candidates, and then they filled the rest of the squad out with locals who don’t have to travel far. Keep in mind that the first game is on Thursday night which doesn’t give much time for long-haul travel from other continents. It’s nice to have a tour like this every now and then where you can look at the depth and offer up a few debuts. That’s what this is – don’t take too many conclusions from who was picked and who wasn’t.
World Cup Squad Members Not Involved:
Michael Boxall – 38 years old now, still a worthy squad presence but the Surman/Bindon combo is the future from now on. Has also dealt with a hip issue for most of the year.
Kosta Barbarouses – Doubt we’ll see him again having signed with NPL/Pro League club South Melbourne.
Tommy Smith – Maybe he’ll turn up as set piece coach again... but he hasn’t been a playing factor in this team since he left Auckland FC (and that includes the World Cup).
Max Crocombe – Having a rotten season with Millwall and probably now very much back-up to Alex Paulsen (who in contrast has been mostly very good for Motherwell).
Tim Payne – Busy filming TV ads for McDonalds Paraguay... not actually getting many minutes there due to bias on the part of his head coach. Still first choice at RB but it’s been a whirlwind few months.
Ryan Thomas – Has indicated that he’ll take a step back from national team duty in the short term so as to keep himself as fit as possible for his club, repaying them for their lenience after he continued play for the AWs ahead of the World Cup despite battling through a few niggles.
Sarpreet Singh – Also prioritising his club at the moment. Second tier in Portugal so they play through the window, meaning he’d have to miss games. Bummer for the marketing team considering his Indian heritage.
Joe Bell – Was dealing with a persistent calf complaint leading up to the World Cup then went straight back into club footy afterwards. He’s currently playing Champions League while also engaged in a neck-and-neck title race in Norway. To be honest, his levels have dropped a bit for Viking compared to last year – all the more reason why he needs a refresher.
Elijah Just & Marko Stamenić – Arguably NZ’s two most crucial players for this upcoming cycle but clearly Swansea City have put their foot down over this one. Very rare for either of them to miss an international window.
Liberato Cacace – Hasn’t played for Wrexham since preseason due to those recurring calf troubles. Currently still injured with no timeline on his recovery.
Ben Waine – Also injured having missed the last few weeks for Port Vale with a heel thingamajig that he’d been battling through before that.
Ben Old – Busy trying to get promoted from Ligue 2 with Saint-Etienne. Has very quickly resumed his heavy workload at left-back since returning from a preseason injury. Baze must have figured it wasn’t worth the risk, though like Payne he’s fit and would have been first eleven.
This is a rare instance where a shadow squad of players not involved might actually be stronger than the squad that has been picked... so keep that in mind when watching these games. But the squad selected oughta get the job done with room to spare whilst potentially capping three new All Whites, adding to the 17 new caps that Bazeley has already given out during his tenure. That tenure will conclude after 43 games. It began with two matches against China in March 2023 and will end with two games against India in November 2026. Nestled in amongst was a World Cup appearance, famous wins against Ivory Coast and Chile, and appearances from 54 different players (which could rise to 57). It’s been fun. He leaves the team in a much better place but the decision has been made by the bosses that it’s somebody else’s turn next.
Corban Piper earns his call-up after a blistering start to the A-League season in which he’s scored three times in four games and asserted himself as a starting striker under Chris Greenacre at the Wellington Phoenix. It’s been a unique journey for him. Coming up as a barnstorming attack-minded midfielder at Birkenhead United, he moved over to Ireland to play second division with Wexford where he got good minutes in more of a defensive midfield role. Was expected to return for a second season over there (probably at a different club) but had some sort of paperwork issue and it didn’t happen. Returned to Birko, did his thing in the National League, then got summoned by the Wellington Phoenix who were keen to turn him into a centre-back.
Lots of chat these days (mostly from the Aussie pundits) about Piper being a defender turned striker. He was only a defender for a short space of time and it was never his natural position... but he did play CB a few times under Greenacre for the Reserves before settling into a utility role in the A-League operating wherever the hell they asked him to. It was Giancarlo Italiano who had the idea to try him at CB. It was also Chiefy who ultimately decided that a diamond-in-the-rough striker was a better idea. However, it’s under Greenacre that he’s been allowed to properly specialise there and with Piper’s reputation for putting in the hard yards on and off the pitch, one preseason of specialising is all it’s taken for him to start looking (and scoring) like a genuine striker. An All Whites call has come quickly but with Ben Waine injured and Kosta Barbarouses off the scene and Moses Dyer not summoned from further abroad he genuinely is the next best option.
Wouldn’t necessarily say that about the other two debutants. Matt Sheridan has some parallels to Piper in that he joined the Phoenix Academy as a midfielder from Selwyn United (preceding fellow Selwyn product Finn Surman by a few months) and would be turned into a right-back when he got to the U20s. Upon reaching the first team, he quickly became a favourite of Chiefy’s for his big work-rate and versatility across various positions but the departure of Tim Payne (and also of Italiano) has allowed him to put all his focus on being the right-sided fullback and that seems to have taken him to another level. Couple delightful assists already this season. He’s playing with confidence and assuredness. Does feel slightly premature for a national team summons though that’s also down to the lack of options at RB.
It’s definitely premature for Nathan Walker. He hasn’t even started a game this season and was an unused substitute in the derby. Does have a goal and an assist off the bench though. Walker joined the WeeNix from Fencibles after competing at the 2023 U17 World Cup and was a shock week one starter in 2024-25 (much like Luke Mitchell was in 2026-27). He appeared in all but three games that year but recurring injuries meant he didn’t feature at all the following season. He’s back fit and firing now bringing searing pace and direct running off the bench for the Nix... and you’ve gotta imagine that his pace is the key aspect here because with less than 900 mins of professional footy under his belt this has to be a profile selection. Baze wants some rapidity and Walker offers that.
All Whites Debutants Under Darren Bazeley:
Callan Elliot, Kyle Adams, Tyler Bindon, Finn Surman, Jesse Randall, Alex Paulsen, Sam Sutton, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Oskar van Hattum, Fin Roa Conchie, Liam Gillion, Luke Brooke-Smith, Owen Parker-Price, Lachlan Bayliss, George Stanger, Henry Gray, Stipe Ukich [Corban Piper, Matt Sheridan, Nathan Walker]
Goalkeepers
Henry Gray – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (1/0)
Alex Paulsen – Motherwell, SCO (11/0)
Michael Woud – Auckland FC, NZ/AUS (7/0)
This is Alex Paulsen’s job for the foreseeable future, with his impressive (if occasionally patchy) work for Motherwell combined with Max Crocombe’s horror season at Millwall having flipped the dynamic in the months since the World Cup. AP has earned his chance with high-quality performances and his short passing game should also offer another aspect to how the All Whites play in possession. He made three starts in the previous window and you’d imagine he’s a chance to get both in this one.
But how far is foreseeable? We’ve got a little under four years until the next World Cup and that’s more than enough time for Henry Gray to ascend beyond him. Gray has had a tremendous start to his time at the Wellington Phoenix, only conceding once in four games, and whereas AP will always have doubters due to his height, Gray is a perfect goalkeeping specimen. There are no major faults in his game. He’s had a superb education at Ipswich Town, he does everything well and has the attitude to match. If you saw his performance during the derby on the weekend and thought: future All Whites number one... then you were not alone. It’s less about if and more about when. But, like Paulsen before him, he will have to wait his turn and earn it over time.
Max Crocombe hasn’t gone anywhere, he’s merely dropped a spot in the depth chart. He’ll be back in the equation soon enough – at 33yo he’s got several more years left and will no doubt rebound from this current slump eventually. He remains one of our two best goalkeepers at the present moment... which makes for a sneaky duel between Henry Gray and Michael Woud for the GK3 duties in a full strength squad. They’re in equivalent positions at rivals clubs in the same league so there’s an easy comparison to be made. Bit too early to put stock in the numbers after only four games but here’s how they compare after the first month of the A-League season...
Henry Gray | Michael Woud
Minutes Played: 360 | 360
Goals Conceded: 1 (0.25 GA/90) | 7 (1.75 GA/90)
Saves @ Percentage: 10 @90.9% | 10 @ 58.8%
Goals Prevented: +3.16 | -1.55
Clean Sheets: 3 | 1
Sweeper Acts/90: 0.75 | 0.75
High Claims/90: 1.75 | 1.00
Passes/90: 8.50 @ 33.7% | 15.25 @56.5%
Gray and Woud played half a game each in the Palestine match last window, which was Gray’s international debut and Woud’s first international appearance for nearly three years. Beyond them, Oli Sail remains injured while Nik Tzanev (who only ever got two caps) has fallen out of the picture. Kees Sims is out there but isn’t doing anything at the moment to warrant consideration, perhaps a January transfer might be in order. Beyond that we’re getting into guys like Alby Kelly-Heald, Joe Wallis, Zac Jones, and Nathan Garrow. All way less established but with the potential to rise. Garrow is a curious one having made his South African Premiership debut for Stellenbosch this weekend – he’s also eligible for South Africa so we’ve gotta be careful there, although the former Auckland City gloveman played all of his footy in Aotearoa prior to moving to Stellies a few months ago.
Defenders
Tyler Bindon – Charlton Athletic, ENG (32/2)
Francis de Vries – Auckland FC, NZ/AUS (21/1)
Callan Elliot – Auckland FC, NZ/AUS (16/0)
James McGarry – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (7/0)
Nando Pijnaker – Auckland FC, NZ/AUS (25/0)
Matthew Sheridan – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (0/0)
Finn Surman – Portland Timbers, USA (22/3)
Bill Tuiloma – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (49/4)
The good news here is that the top choice centre-back combo is available. Finn Surman has recovered from the knee injury that ruled him out of the last tour at short notice and Tyler Bindon hasn’t been subjected to the same tug of war between club and country that Stamenić and Just were from the same division. Bindon turned up on loan at Charlton at a time when they’d had a great start to the season but were down a few defensive injuries and needed cover. Alas, the great start was largely down to having had some convenient opponents in the initial weeks and from there they tumbled back down the ladder with a long winless streak. Bindon lost his starting role after the international break once the incumbents returned, making just one appearance over a span of six games. But he returned to the eleven on the weekend (after this squad had been named) for a duel with his former loan club Sheffield United and what do ya know he played ninety minutes in a 2-1 victory – Charlton’s first win since August. Positive note ahead of the internationals.
Same deal with Finn Surman who returned to fitness at the short end of the expected time-frame and simply picked up where he left off, captaining the Portland Timbers to a couple of critical victories to finish the regular season. Those results raise them to seventh in the Western Conference which not only ensures postseason football again but it’s a boost for this All Whites squad because they avoid the play-in games which are on next Friday NZT and could potentially have jeopardised Surman’s involvement in the second game vs India... which is the game in Surman’s home town of Christchurch. Bindon and Surman are the CBs that this team will be building around this cycle. They’ve started 11 games together in the past, including both the 1-0 win over Ivory Coast and the 4-1 win vs Chile... as well as the 5-1 thumping by Belgium.
They’ll be ably supported by Bill Tuiloma and Nando Pijnaker who were both excellent in the derby. Pijnaker especially – he needed that performance because AFC are going to be relying heavily on him this season after both Dan Hall and Jake Girdwood-Reich departed. And the story with Tuiloma is that he’s much fitter this season and should be happier and more settled too now that he’s actually gotten his match fitness back following a couple years in America where he barely played. Tuiloma will earn his 50th cap with his next appearance.
Isaac Hughes would have had a chance at this squad had it not been for his recent injury. Beyond the ALM, George Stanger is now a minted All White and will be competing with Pijanker and Tuiloma for selection. Gotta see if Michael Boxall gets a new contract at Minnesota United after they missed out of the playoffs. He wants to keep playing but time will tell if his appearance vs Japan in October was his last for the national team. Lukas Kelly-Heald and Ronan Wynne could be blokes to keep an eye on across the A-League term, both of whom can also give you good minutes at fullback.
It’ll be A-League only in the fullback positions against India. No Tim Payne or Ben Old or Libby Cacace or Dalton Wilkins. We’ve also seen Sam Sutton drop out with both Francis de Vries and James McGarry available this time. They’ll duel it out on the left side, with FDV bringing his crossing and composure while McGarry offers more mobility and roughness. Both had had impressive starts to their club campaigns. And it’s also one each from the Nix and AFC on the right edge with Callan Elliot and Matt Sheridan being the two nominees. Elliot played on the wing against the Phoenix, harkening back to his earlier days, while Sheridan had more assists in the opening month of this season than he did in his 55 previous A-League appearances. Realistically, the fullback areas are the weakest in this squad... but that does give us a chance to have a look at what we’re working with beneath the main dudes.
Midfielders
Lachlan Bayliss – Auckland FC, NZ/AUS (7/0)
Matt Garbett – Peterborough United, ENG (38/5)
Owen Parker-Price – Örgryte, SWE (5/1)
Alex Rufer – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (30/0)
Little bit surprising to see Matt Garbett here. He’s only recently back from the hamstring surgery that ruled him out of the World Cup and it was only after this squad was announced that he finally returned to the starting eleven for Peterborough (in a 5-0 FA Cup thumping by Reading). In a window where basically anyone who needed a rest has been given one, Garbett is going to fly halfway around the world with limited match fitness. S’pose he’s keen to make up for lost time. He won’t miss any Posh games because they’ve had their game vs Oxford Town postponed... ironically because of international call-ups for the other team.
Callum McCowatt was awesome playing in the midfield against China last window so perhaps he should be in this section too. Gets a lot of midfield repetitions over in Denmark, where both Silkeborg and AGF often enjoy a bit of 4-3-3 with the ol’ inverted triangle midfield (one holding, two more advanced)... same as he and Elijah Just combined for ahead of Marko Stamenić in that China game – before McCowatt got a head knock and missed the rest of the camp. Ordinarily, Bazeley likes two deeper mids but the more attacking shape against China should foretell something similar here against India. Rufer sitting deeper and then McCowatt and Garbett would do some numbers. Not like Baze has anything to lose, might as well go out with a bang.
Garbett and Lachlan Bayliss are the attacking options. That’s where Bayliss does his best work, as we’ve seen in glimpses during his first month with Auckland FC (although he’s yet to recapture the brilliance of his debut). Garbett is more versatile and could play eight, ten, or as a winger. Owen Parker-Price used to be more of an attacking midfielder but since moving to Örgryte he’s been wonderful sitting deeper and setting the tempo. Similar player to his Ole Academy alum Ryan Thomas. OPP’s only national team start came in the untelevised game vs Palestine so this series oughta be a good opportunity for him to let the casuals know what’s up.
And Alex Rufer is Alex Rufer. Big personality in the squad whom Bazeley obviously respects. Didn’t get on the pitch at the World Cup – he’s a distant alternative behind the Bell, Thomas, Stamenić midfield cohort – but he has proven himself a solid enough presence when those guys aren’t around, including in the most recent games vs Panama and Japan. Feels like Rufer gets a bad rap sometimes. He probably caps out as a very good A-League midfielder but, take a look around, that’s largely the level we’re dealing with for this tour. He’ll be a very prominent figure in these two games and don’t be surprised if he wears the captain’s armband at some stage... although Finn Surman should be the first alternative whenever Chris Wood isn’t on the pitch.
The stink thing here is that (travel aside) this would have been a great chance to get Matt Dibley-Dias into the squad for a debut... and he was playing well enough to warrant it at Newport County up until he got injured a couple of weeks ago. He’s now back at parent club Fulham for his rehabilitation but the good news is that he’s expected back within “weeks rather than months” according to Newport coach Hayden Mullins. No Dibs for this tour though. Considering our three best midfielders are all absent (four if you count Elijah Just), we’re doing alright with this group. Cam Howieson is also injured or else he’d have been a shout. To be honest, it’s a pretty strong midfield cohort considering the guys that are missing. Never in history has New Zealand had this much depth in this position... not even close.
Forwards
Liam Gillion – Western Sydney Wanderers, AUS (2/0)
Callum McCowatt – Aarhus, DEN (37/4)
Corban Piper – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (0/0)
Jesse Randall – Dundee United, SCO (18/3)
Logan Rogerson – Auckland FC, NZ/AUS (22/2)
Nathan Walker – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (0/0)
Chris Wood – Nottingham Forest, ENG (95/45)
The Woodsman has not scored an international goal in 2026. In fact he has only scored two senior competitive goals for Nottingham Forest this calendar year and one of those was a penalty (albeit in a Europa Cup semi-final). He bagged one in an U21s game as part of his comeback from the knee injury and he did get a couple in preseason but those don’t really count... so even with a few famous assists at the World Cup you can bet he’s anxious to put a few in the back of the onion bag against India. Maybe more than a few.
Wood has two goals in 795 minutes for Nottm Forest since his knee injury and he has not scored at all this season, albeit he’s hardly been given a chance having gotten stuck on the bench behind Liam Delap... who had been missing chance after chance until scoring a spectacular brace in the win vs Man City on the weekend so there goes any hope of that situation getting flipped. With Wood on an expiring contract, it’s worth wondering if a January loan might be in the reckoning. His coach Oliver Glasner has made it known that he massively values Wood’s presence in the squad... yet he doesn’t seem to want to play him. However, this goal drought spills into the All Whites too because 17 goals have been scored since Wood last netted one. This is fantastic for the team, having finally developed some proven international goal scorers beyond the Woodsman, but nine caps without a goal is long enough for Chris Wood.
Ben Waine is injured and Kosta Barbarouses probably won’t add to his 76 international caps (third all-time behind Wood and Vicelich), while Moses Dyer dips out as part of the geographic rotation policy. Therefore Corban Piper should have a clear run as Wood’s deputy centre-forward... and with Wood not having stretched his legs for more than 25 minutes in a Premier League match this season you can bet he won’t be doing full nineties in Aotearoa.
Piper might be the most improved player in the entire A-League right now. He played a lot of striker last season but it was chaos football. Heavy touches and poor decisions masked by sheer irrepressible physicality. But one strict preseason of hard mahi, putting all his energy into becoming a genuine striker, and now he’s finishing chances and he’s making smart runs in the channel and he’s connecting with teammates with his hold-ups and lay-offs. Having a former striker in Chris Greenacre to mentor him as no doubt helped. Now he’s going to get a week working with Chris Wood. For a guy like Corban Piper whose game is built around strength and power, getting to learn the art from Chris Wood is like having Pablo Picasso as your art teacher, it’s like Albert Einstein tutoring you ahead of that physics exam, it’s like getting guitar lessons direct from Jimi Hendrix.
Here’s what Jesse Randall has been up to...
It was a 1-1 draw between Dundee United and Motherwell so honours were even on the whole... but assuming that NZF sorted out their travel itineraries there’s a good chance they sat next to each other on the plane trip back home. Hilarious set of circumstances.
For Randall, this simply continued his fine start to footballing life in Scotland. Three goals and three assists thus far. He’s the leading goal contributor for Dundee United and in a deep squad with lots of rotation going on, he seems to be the one guy among the forward who is commanding a starting spot every week. The jump from the A-League to Europe has proven tricky for many (including Alex Paulsen, though he’s much more settled now at Motherwell) but Jesse Randall has been an instant hit in the Scottish Premiership.
Callum McCowatt hasn’t had the same highlight moments since moving to AGF although he has quickly nestled into a pretty regular starting spot (admittedly they are rotating a lot as they balance Superliga and Europa Conference League games) and the team has had a notable upswing in results since his arrival. The defending champs were drowning in the relegation zone not so long ago. Now they’re steadily rising towards getting into the top-half for the league split. When he returns from internationals, he’ll have eight games in 28 days before the two-month winter break brings respite.
Then there’s Logan Rogerson, Liam Gillion, and Nathan Walker competing for ‘fast guy off the bench’ minutes. All three are in curious spots. Rogerson is by far the most established and by far the best defensive contributor of the three... but he’s also lost his touch in the attacking third. Nine goals and two assists in 2024-25... but only two goals and one assist in the season and a bit since. That wasn’t too much of a drama last term when Jesse Randall was banging in goals but AFC need a lot more out of Rogerson this term and so far there’s not a lot of evidence that’ll happen. The concern is that his xG per90 didn’t drop very much between season one (0.31) and season two (0.28) so the quality of chances was similar yet the conversion rate was terribly worse. His chances created per90 also more than halved (from 1.25 to 0.61).
That’s not form that’ll keep him in stronger All Whites squads, even if he was the guy summoned to replace Matt Garbett at the World Cup. That in turn leaves room for Liam Gillion and Nathan Walker and whoever else to step up to the plate. Gillion already has a goal for Western Sydney and has started all four games. Walker has only been a substitute so far yet still has a goal and an assist in just 100 minutes of action. Gillion played against Vanuatu and Samoa in November 2024 for his only previous caps. Keep in mind that Garbett and Bayliss might also see time in the wide positions.
Anyone from outside this squad to be aware of? Well, there’s Stipe Ukich and Luke Brooke-Smith for sure. Two of the very brightest professional prospects we’ve got at the moment and both already capped. Moses Dyer is back in the picture again now, supposing he can continue his stellar scoring record at Phnom Penh Crown (that’s a level where he’s got to be astounding to stay in the mix – and Piper’s emergence might be bad news for him). Since we’re only looking at A-League depth here, the local alternatives would have been guys like Riley and Jonty Bidois, Matt Elllis, Isa Prins, Luke Mitchell, Aaron Cartwright, and Van Fitzharris. Coming into his third year as a full professional, Walker is more established than any of them except for Riley Bidois and he’s more of a striker than a winger, plus is still in his return-to-play phase after spending a few months out injured dating back to when he was with Monterey Bay in America. And so Nathan Walker got this opportunity... but all those guys are on the right track.
Same as with the midfield, you’d have to say there’s some very useful depth in the forward positions all of a sudden. To still have the options we do for a squad that doesn’t include Elijah Just, Sarpreet Singh, Ben Waine, Ben Old, Dalton Wilkins, Stipe Ukich, Luke Brooke-Smith... we’re doing alright. Of course, it looks a lot better for games against India at home than it would for World Cup calibre opponents and a lot depends on how some of these fellas progress across this next cycle. Particularly Ukich and LBS. But we’re in a good place. Now let’s go score some goals.
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