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New Zealand Qualify for 2026 World Cup with 3-0 Win Over New Caledonia

New Zealand's team celebrate after their victory during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Oceania qualifiers group final football match between New Zealand and New Caledonia at Eden Park Stadium in Auckland on March 24, 2025. (Photo by DAVID ROWLAND / AFP)
New Zealand's team celebrate after their victory during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Oceania qualifiers group final football match between New Zealand and New Caledonia at Eden Park Stadium in Auckland on March 24, 2025. (Photo by DAVID ROWLAND / AFP)
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New Zealand Qualify for 2026 World Cup with 3-0 Win Over New Caledonia

New Zealand's team celebrate after their victory during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Oceania qualifiers group final football match between New Zealand and New Caledonia at Eden Park Stadium in Auckland on March 24, 2025. (Photo by DAVID ROWLAND / AFP)
New Zealand's team celebrate after their victory during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Oceania qualifiers group final football match between New Zealand and New Caledonia at Eden Park Stadium in Auckland on March 24, 2025. (Photo by DAVID ROWLAND / AFP)

New Zealand qualified for the 2026 World Cup on Monday as veterans Michael Boxall and Kosta Barbarouses scored in a second-half burst to beat New Caledonia 3-0 in Auckland.
Centre back Boxall scored his first goal for New Zealand in his 55th international with a header on the one hour mark at Eden Park before Barbarouses volleyed over the goalkeeper five minutes later.
Substitute Elijah Just capped the win with a third goal in the 80th minute as the All Whites celebrated the nation's third World Cup appearance after 1982 and 2010.
While New Zealand won the regional qualifying round for the last three tournaments, they missed out on the finals after losing in the intercontinental playoffs.
For 2026, whichever team topped the table in Oceania had an automatic berth in the finals for the first time.
New Zealand become the second team to qualify, with Japan - competing in the Asian region - booking their ticket with a 2-0 home win over Bahrain last week.
Injury soured New Zealand's victory slightly with captain Chris Wood limping off early in the second half.
Ranked 152nd in the world and dominated by amateur footballers, the Pacific territory of New Caledonia battled hard to keep the All Whites from scoring for more than 60 minutes before Boxall's header proved the breakthrough.
New Caledonia will have another chance to qualify for 2026, which is being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, in the intercontinental playoffs.

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Norris Feels ‘Nowhere Near’ His Best as Formula 1 Title Contest Heats up Inside McLaren 

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
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Norris Feels ‘Nowhere Near’ His Best as Formula 1 Title Contest Heats up Inside McLaren 

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)

Lando Norris may be top of the F1 standings, but he feels like he's driving "nowhere near" his best and can't work out why.

After placing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix — won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri — Norris said he felt far more confident last year, when he lost out on the drivers' title to Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

"I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes," Norris said. "I have no doubt about that, that I’m good enough, but something is just not clicking with me in the car."

Norris, who qualified sixth for Sunday's race, saw Piastri close to within three points of him in the standings.

"As soon as you're not gelling (with the car), then you're going to be in issues, and that's what I have at the moment," Norris said.

Even though he's still leading and won the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia last month, Norris said he hasn't felt comfortable all year with McLaren's car — widely considered the fastest on the grid.

Last year, "I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year could not have felt more opposite so far," Norris said.

"Even in Australia, I won the race but never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say."

Norris and Piastri combined to help McLaren win the constructor title in 2024, the team's first since 1998.

Teammate battles which shaped F1

The years when F1 has been dominated by a single team have produced some of the most bitter rivalries, as McLaren witnessed in the late 1980s with a feud between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

More recently, the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg turned sour during their championship fight at Mercedes in 2016.

Norris and Piastri are keeping things civil, though there were awkward moments last year when Norris was asked to make way for his teammate in a race.

McLaren has faced tests from other teams, with Verstappen winning in Japan last week for Red Bull and Mercedes' George Russell competing with Norris and Piastri on Sunday. Still, the pace of the other teams seems to be fluctuating from race to race, and McLaren's isn't. The gap of 58 points on the constructor standings to second-place Mercedes after just four races is vast.

"We haven't had a consistent challenger week-in, week-out," Piastri, a 24-year-old Australian, said. "As long as we have the best car, it's going to be tight between Lando and I."