“Once you live in New Zealand for a while, it’s very hard to go somewhere else.”<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need to spend long in Darren Bazeley\u2019s company to realise the depth of feeling he has for his adopted country.<\/p>\n
The former England Under-21 international defender first made the move from his homeland to join then A-League club New Zealand Knights in 2005. Bazeley would end his playing days in the country and now, almost two decades later, proudly coaches the men\u2019s senior national team and Olympic side.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a family, we settled here straight away,\u201d says the 51-year-old, with a distinct Kiwi intonation detectable in his accent. \u201cIt\u2019s just such a beautiful country. Where I live now, we’re ten minutes away from about eight different beaches. The weather is great, the people are great. My daughters have grown up here and we all have New Zealand passports. When I look back, it was a great decision to emigrate. My wife has actually never been back to England in 20 years!\u201d<\/p>\n
On a professional level, Bazeley\u2019s career has flourished and over the past 15 years he has held several key roles in the New Zealand set-up. He has led the nation\u2019s U-17 and U-20 teams and, in 2023, was promoted to head coach of the All Whites senior side.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a position he combines with coaching the U-23 team which will compete in the Men\u2019s Olympic Football Tournament Paris 2024. Bazeley believes the synergy between the senior and Olympic squads offers significant benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty we have is that the two teams are very close,\u201d he says. \u201cOur Olympic side will be a shadow All Whites team. There is a potential when we get to the Olympics that we’ll have maybe 10 players that have played in the seniors.<\/p>\n
“Our competitive advantage is our cohesiveness. We have many players who have played at the U-17 and U-20 World Cups together, so they’ve got a really good connection. I’m lucky I’ve been a part of that as well. I’ve forged great relationships with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bazeley describes New Zealand\u2019s style of play as \u201ccourageous and possession-based\u201d. He is convinced this front-foot mindset \u2013 combined with the side\u2019s competitive spirit, togetherness and star quality \u2013 can provide a foundation for success at Paris 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a small nation like New Zealand, some of our players are a little bit unknown,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople don’t realise how good some of them are. Marko Stamenic, for example, is a young midfielder playing at Red Star Belgrade who is going to be a very, very good player.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s just one of several talented individuals we have \u2013 and we want to play exciting football. We\u2019re also a team that’s got good experience at international level. When we get to the Olympics, we\u2019ll have players who have played some pretty big games in the senior team.\u201d<\/p>\n
All Whites captain and talisman Chris Wood is expected to be among that number. The powerhouse Nottingham Forest striker has expressed his desire to be part of Bazeley\u2019s Olympic side as one of their three permitted overage squad members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWoodsy is just so passionate about New Zealand, he wants to play every game,\u201d says Bazeley. \u201cThat\u2019s great for us because he’s our captain and our all-time top goalscorer. He’s said in the media he wants to go to the Olympics, which is awesome. He\u2019s an ultimate professional and has a fantastic influence on the young guys in the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood was part of the New Zealand team which reached the quarter-finals at Tokyo 2020. That was their best-ever performance at the Men\u2019s Olympic Football Tournament \u2013 but Bazeley is setting his sights even higher in France.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving grown up watching the Olympics, can you imagine what it would be like to win a medal? That potential is amazing. It’s going to be a really big challenge but, on our day, we’re a very good team. If it all comes together at the right time, I’m a big believer anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Olympic Games represents another important staging post for a young group of New Zealand players whose ultimate goal is FIFA World Cup 26\u2122 qualification. Bazeley is aiming to become the third coach to lead the nation at the global finals, with the All Whites\u2019 only previous appearances coming in 1982 and 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we get together, we’re building towards the World Cup,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re building our style of play, building our culture. The thing that excites me most is seeing these players develop. There’s a core group aged between 20-24 who are all sitting on between 15-20 caps. They could stay together for the next 10 years and end up with 100 caps, which would be amazing. We’re a good team now \u2013 but I think we’re going to be a great team in a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Football in New Zealand must battle for the sporting headlines with the nation\u2019s iconic All Blacks rugby team, their outstanding cricket side, and several world-class athletes from Olympic disciplines like swimming, rowing and cycling.<\/p>\n
Even against that backdrop, however, football has emerged as the No1 team participation sport in the country \u2013 and Bazeley explained how co-hosting the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup\u2122 last year sparked a further surge in popularity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe compete with some pretty big hitters, but football is in a good space,\u201d says Bazeley. \u201cThe quality of football at the Women\u2019s World Cup was so good that it changed a lot of people’s perceptions about the sport in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
“I remember when our Football Ferns beat Norway 1-0 in the opening game\u2026 it was just amazing. The whole country got behind them and I think that really set the World Cup rolling. It was such a great tournament and I believe the growth from that will be enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bazeley\u2019s men\u2019s Olympic side will aim to similarly capture the nation\u2019s attention at Paris 2024. They will be led by a coach born in bred in England, but whose New Zealand allegiance is absolute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is something special about representing your country at a global event, and I\u2019m a Kiwi now,\u201d he says. \u201cMy family and I are all New Zealand citizens and I couldn\u2019t be prouder to lead this team. There’s no reason why we can’t make a mark on the world stage. I have so much belief in these players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Once you live in New Zealand for a while, it’s very hard to go somewhere else.” You don\u2019t need to spend long in Darren Bazeley\u2019s company to realise the depth of feeling he has for his adopted country. The former England Under-21 international defender first made the move from his homeland to join then A-League […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":952136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-952135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/952136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}