The World Cup is not just about established global superstars — it is a chance for those who do not always get to dine at football’s top table to test themselves against the very best.
The Athletic spoke to players whose teams were in Pot 4 of Friday’s draw, and will therefore take on underdog status in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next summer…
New Zealand are looking forward to only their third showing at a World Cup, following previous appearances in 1982 and 2010.
They avoided some of the biggest hitters, but being placed alongside Belgium, Egypt and Iran will make progress beyond the group stage tricky.
Tommy Smith, a veteran of the New Zealand squad who also played at the 2010 World Cup, tells The Athletic of his excitement that New Zealand will come up against top players from Belgium and Egypt, with Iran offering a potentially winnable game.
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The 35-year-old watched the draw along with his two children, aged five and two (he allowed them to stay up late).
Tommy Smith with New Zealand head coach Darren Bazeley (Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)
“It feels real now,” he said. ‘We’ll now figure out where our training base will be and where the games will be held. That will be another bit of excitement, to see where we’ll be located. You can then start putting some tentative plans into place.’
Smith, 35, who plays for Braintree Town in the National League — the fifth tier of English football — said the new format offered extra hope for countries such as New Zealand to progress.
With 48 teams now at the World Cup, eight teams from 12 groups who finish third will reach the final 32 of the competition.
“One good result, with the way the format is at this World Cup, could get you out of the group,” he said. “Obviously, the goal for us is to make it to the knockout stages. We know it’s not a foregone conclusion by any stretch, it will be history being made if we can do that. But we’re quietly confident, with the ability we’ve got within the group, that we can do that.”
Goalkeeper Max Crocombe was born in Auckland but moved to England at a young age and now plays for Millwall in the Championship. He will have the job of trying to stop the likes of Mohamed Salah and Romelu Lukaku next summer.
“It looked like it could be England there for a minute, I don’t know if I feel relieved or not,” he jokes.
“We always knew whoever we drew was going to be really difficult and obviously that’s not changed since the draw has been made, but that’s the excitement of it.”
Crocombe said the big objective for New Zealand is to achieve their first win at a World Cup.
Max Crocombe during a friendly against Australia in September 2025 (Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
In 1982, the first edition that was expanded from 16 teams to 24, they lost all three of their group matches. But in 2010 they put in a credible showing, drawing all three group games in South Africa, against Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay. They ended up as the only team in the competition to finish unbeaten, as eventual winners Spain lost their first match to Switzerland.
“For us, it’s about trying to get the first win at the World Cup, that would be huge,” Crocombe says. “Everyone is focused on trying to get out of the group and then taking it from there.”
New Zealand have been given a confidence boost by some impressive results this year, such as beating Ivory Coast 1-0 in a friendly in June, and holding Norway (admittedly without Erling Haaland) to a 1-1 draw in Oslo in October.
“We’ve had some really close games in the last 24 months against some big nations,” he adds. “The rankings put us 86th in the world, we probably feel we’re a little bit underrated in that sense.
“But the underdog tag is fine for us, we’ll be going there genuinely backing ourselves and hopefully upsetting some teams.”
“I’m so excited.”
That was a message from Cape Verde and Columbus Crew defender Steven Moreira before the draw took place. So how did he feel after the first-time qualifiers were grouped with Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia?
“It’s a tough group,” he tells The Athletic. “When we qualified, we were very happy and proud of what we had achieved. But we didn’t really realise what we had done, in that moment
“But now we know who we’re going to play… it’s much more real. I was in front of my TV but I realized like, OK, we’ll play against Spain. I can start to think ‘damn, we qualified for the World Cup. It’s not a dream.’”
Steven Moreira in action for Cape Verde against Mohamed Salah and Egypt in 2024 (Mohamed Elshahed/Getty Images)
After digesting the draw and the reality of their position, Moreira — a right-back — started to think about who he will be facing when the game against Spain comes around.
“I’m with two friends right now and they were making some jokes — ‘you’re lucky you don’t play on the same side as Lamine Yamal’ — but like… they have Nico Williams too.
“You want to play the best players in the world. You want to prove yourself, so it’s very exciting.”
Moreira’s domestic season finished a few weeks ago and he has been on holiday since then. But watching the ceremony has made him want to get back to it.
“Honestly, before the season end, I was happy to have holidays, but like right now I just want to go back to the training ground.”
Moreira, who was born in France, ideally wanted to face the country of his birth, or maybe Portugal, given that Cape Verde was part of that nation until the 1970s. Because of the way the draw works, Irish-born and raised Cape Verde defender Pico Lopes knew his side would not be facing the Republic of Ireland — in the first round at least.
“I was speaking to John O’Shea, the assistant manager of Ireland, earlier,” he tells The Athletic, “and he was saying it was a shame we couldn’t be in the same group. I said that’s one for the knockout rounds instead.
“You can’t get much bigger than Spain, and then you have Uruguay thrown into that mix as well, which is a fabulous game to look forward to. And Saudi Arabia is really interesting as well. I don’t think we could ask for much more.
“I’m absolutely buzzing.”
The realities of who he will be facing started to hit home pretty quickly too.
“It’s funny because when they did the draw, I forgot who plays for Spain, then someone goes, they have Lamine Yamal. I was like, ‘oh yeah, he’s not bad’.”