After a year and a half without games due to Covid, when the All Whites kick-off against The Gambia at 5am (NZT) tomorrow morning it will be the 10th match wearing the fern in just over 4 months for a lot of the players. After three warm-up games, four Tokyo 2020 matches for the Olympic side and soon to be three senior friendlies, international football is very much back.

One player who has been a part of every game across that period is midfielder Joe Bell. Two years on from making his debut against Ireland, Bell spoke to media ahead of the game about the bonds developing in the team following their return from international hiatus:

“I think a lot of people were itching to get back into it.

“As you’ve seen from some of the results so far, I think we’ve got such a tight knit group that even with such a long break we’ve come in and are building something and moving towards a bigger goal.

“It’s been fantastic to play again with a lot of friends I have played with in the past in the age group teams. It’s exciting. All the boys are excited for what’s to come”.

Bell is likely one of the players to come into the side after Head Coach Danny Hay experiemented with his wider squad for the weekend’s warm-up win against Algeria A. The 2-1 win saw a number of changes from last month’s game against Bahrain with Tommy Smith, Francis De Vries, Matthew Garbett, Elliot Collier and Andre de Jong all coming in for Liberato Cacace, Joe Bell, Elijah Just, Joe Champness and Chris Wood. 
 

Facing the All Whites for the first time tomorrow will be The Gambia.

The Scorpions may be ranked at 147 by FIFA but their recent results suggest they are dangerous. Head Coach Tom Saintfiet’s side qualified top of their group for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and will make their debut in the competition in January. They have also had wins this year against Angola, Niger and Togo, all ranked above them.

The Gambia squad is packed with players plying their trade across Europe.

Without a doubt one of their leading threats is Bologna’s Musa Barrow. The 23-year-old attacker has 21 goals in 64 games for the Series A side and can play across the front line.

Also based in Italy is centre back Omar Colley. The experienced Sampdoria defender is a regular for his side playing over 80 games for the club since joining in 2018.

One player that will very familiar to one member of the team is Sarpreet Singh’s clubmate Leon Guwara. The left-back joined SSV Jahn Regensburg at the same time as Singh and the two could end up facing each other come tomorrow morning.  

After the wins against Curaçao and Bahrain in October, Danny Hay’s side will be looking make it a hattrick but will have to improve their record against African teams. The last match being a 2-1 defeat to Kenya in 2018.

Hay wasn’t taking anything for granted against the West African side:

“They’ve got some real pace in key areas, particularly up front and out wide.

“We are going to have to be at our best, no doubt about it, to win the game.

“It’s just another opportunity for us to find out a bit more about ourselves and start driving some really high standards inside the group”

Watch the game live on Sky Sport from 5am (NZT).

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The full 20-man squad is:

Stefan Marinovic (26 Caps) Hapoel Nof HaGalil, Israel
Jamie Searle* (0 Caps) Swansea City, Wales
Michael Woud (3 Caps) Almere City FC, Netherlands
Michael Boxall (35 Caps) Minnesota United, USA
Liberato Cacace (5 Caps) Sint-Truidense VV, Belgium
Francis de Vries* (0 Caps) IFK Värnamo, Sweden
Kelvin Kalua (2 Caps) Eastern Suburbs, New Zealand (currently on trial in Europe)
Niko Kirwan (2 Caps) Padova, Italy
Nando Pijnaker (3 Caps) FC Helsingør (loan from Rio Ave FC), Denmark
Tommy Smith (40 Caps) Colchester United, England
Joe Bell (4 Caps) Viking FK, Norway
Matthew Garbett (2 Caps) Torino, Italy
Sarpreet Singh (7 Caps) SSV Jahn Regensburg (loan from FC Bayern Münich), Germany
Marko Stamenic (2 Caps) HB Køge (on loan from FC Copenhagen), Denmark
Joseph Champness (1 Cap) Giresunspor, Turkey
Elliot Collier (2 Caps) Chicago Fire, USA
Andre de Jong (6 Caps) AmaZulu FC, South Africa
Elijah Just (4 Caps) FC Helsingør, Denmark
Callum McCowatt (3 Caps) FC Helsingør, Denmark
Chris Wood (59 Caps) Burnley FC, England

*Debut senior national team call-up

Article added: Tuesday 16 November 2021