"We did it, Mom." Three words through a chain-link fence at SoFi Stadium, and Jenny Bindon knew exactly what they meant. Her son Tyler had just made history — and so had she.
When the 21-year-old All Whites defender came off the bench against the United States in Los Angeles, the Bindons became the first mother-son duo to compete in a FIFA World Cup. Jenny played in two — 2007 and 2011 — for the Football Ferns. Now she was in the stands watching her son write his own chapter.
"Just when he said that, it really dawned on me like, we did it, we're the first and that's unbelievable," she said.
A football family from the start
This didn't happen by accident. Tyler has been inside the football world since he was three months old — at Ferns training sessions, travelling with the squad, watching his mother balance international football and motherhood in an era when very few women were doing both. There's a photo Jenny still talks about: Tyler, barely walking, cheering her on with "let's go, Mommy" as she warmed up.
His father, Grant, is a former New Zealand volleyball captain. Athletic genes aren't the issue here. What's striking is how deliberately this family built toward this moment across two generations.
Tyler was born in Auckland, moved to California at 12 when Jenny took a coaching role at UCLA, and came through the LA FC academy before signing with Nottingham Forest — where All Whites captain Chris Wood is also on the books. Last season he was on loan at Sheffield United. He's 21. The career is just starting.
What it means on the pitch
New Zealand drew the game, which keeps their World Cup campaign alive and gives Tyler's debut real context — this wasn't a garbage-time cameo. The All Whites face Egypt next in Vancouver, and a player who just made history in front of a sold-out LA crowd will be carrying plenty of momentum into that one.
Jenny and Grant are traveling the tournament. Soccer mom, she calls herself now — though that title undersells someone who played 15 years of international football and is now watching the next generation carry it forward.
Tyler Bindon, 21, Nottingham Forest, first mother-son World Cup pairing in history. The record books don't hand those out often.
