Hey guys, Piney here with an extra little addition of football fever for you. At chat to Chris Wood the morning after New Zealand qualified for the World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico next year. Chris would of course going off injured in the game against New Caledonia last night, so I started by asking him about the injury and how serious it might be.
To be fair, I can't say too much because I don't know at the moment. I get it checked out today and get some scans on and things like that, but hopefully it's nothing too serious. Landed awkward awkwardly, I think, and I've just got to deal with what comes out now.
So it's your hip, What part of the specific part of your body is it? Yeah?
Hip and rib It's just one of those that just felt a lot of pain and couldn't push off with it through my leg and once it happens, I can't run and the best thing is to get off and let someone else do a job, because I'd be letting the team down.
Yeah, what are the emotions of that time? Because I'm sure you want to stay on right, you want to guide your team to the to the World Cup. What of the emotions that go through your head. Is your better with that, but also with what's best for your body and for the team.
Yeah, I think I think you have to think about the team first. I was doing nobody in any favors. I couldn't couldn't move, couldn't couldn't defend, and couldn't help any info those one or two minutes that I tried to stay on and things like that, I was letting the side down just not being able to do what we needed to do, and especially in a big game where everybody had to be counted for. So, yeah, you have to do the right thing. And I think Base
called it very early. He saw it, and I think it was the right thing to do.
So describe how it was on the bench before the first goal. You're sitting there, you can't unpack the game anymore. It's still nil nil. Do you then become a bit of a fan like like us and get a bit nervous? Not? Not really.
I think the longer the games goes on, probably we've got a bit more nervous. But I still had a huge belief in our team. We've done well in the first half. It just didn't go in for us second half. We were doing well and started well and we believed there was always going to be a goal. Were just to make sure we weren't doing anything wrong at the other end, and the defense was fantastic in that sense. And yeah, and when box he put that goal, and I mean when when kind of felt like here we go,
we're ready to kick on now. And he's been been a champion of all ways for a long period of time, so it's special that he was a score his first goal on that big occasion.
If there was a sweepstake and you could pick, you know, your your favorite top goal scorer, I think your eyes would have passed over Michael Boxer, wouldn't they.
Yeah, potentially with us with with this history record of it, but special goals, special moment, special man. So yeah, it's fantastic for him, and yeah, we're very happy for him.
And there's a lot of talk about the young players and this team and rightly so. But then you look at Costa barbarusis another guy and as mid thirties he comes on, you know, in unexpected circumstances he provides a goal, So you know there's a there's a bit of this experience thing, isn't there?
Yeah, definitely, that's I think that's a good balance we have between this team and I'm costed unfantastically while coming on, especially after the heartbreaker last time and him then and getting simtap and things like that. I'm sure he desperately wanted to achieve something great and be a part of history and do something in the right note. And he done in both games, scoring in both games, and in the semi final and final to put us Aside through
to the World Cup. It's fantastic. So he's going to be very proud of himself.
Do things like this sinking immediately, Chris, or like, do you sit here You're going to a World Cup next year? Has that sunken?
I think it's sins In overtime you get snippets of it all, and I think it's going to be just continuous now until the World Cup. Got a lot to look forward to. When more teams get get qualified. You see your names with them and you're thinking, ah, could we be drawn with them? Drawn with them? And then when December comes around we find out where we're going to be based and who we're going to be playing. That's the true excitement.
Yeah, and regardless of who it is. I know you're on record as saying we're not just going to make up the numbers. We're not just the forty eighth team there. You want to win matches and get out of that group, right.
Yeah, I believe, I believe we can. I have the belief in this team, and the team's got more than enough quality and experience to be able to do something. And yeah, we want to. We want to do as well as the two and tim team, but even go one better. It's not gonna be easy. It's the world stage and it's just one of those we have to believe in and make sure. Right, that's what we've been working the last two years.