AUCKLAND – The All Whites will begin their biggest season in 27 years with most of their big names on board, after Ricki Herbert named a strong 18-man squad for the March 28 friendly in Thailand.
New Zealand’s match against Thailand in Bangkok is the first outing in a busy season for the All Whites with the June’s FIFA Confederations Cup and a home-and-away World Cup playoff the obvious highlights.
New Zealand Football expecte to secure a second match in the region on April 1 to replace a friendly against Indonesia cancelled by the Indonesian FA for security reasons on Monday.
Wellington Phoenix pair Ben Sigmund and Leo Bertos are the most notable absentees as both recently underwent off-season surgery to respective hip and leg injuries.
Sigmund is almost certain to miss the Confederations Cup in June and Bertos is likely to face a 10-week recovery.
Head coach Ricki Herbert said the Thailand trip was a great way to begin the All Whites momentous year that ends with another trip to Asia as part of a World Cup playoff.
“It’ll be good to get 2009 underway. Thailand have recently drawn with Iran, so the game gives us a good cross section of where we need to be come October and November,” Herbert said.
“Whilst some of the squad are at the back-end of their season and have had a bit of a break it’ll be really good to get the squad together again.
“It’s good to have all the players on board and looking forward to a long a challenging 2009.”
Belgium-based utility Christian Bouckenooghe makes his first travelling squad since March 2007, while uncapped Waitakere United fullback Aaron Scott – an unused substitute when an under-strength New Zealand side lost to Fiji in November – is given another chance to impress.
“We’ve included Aaron Scott as someone we can have a little bit more of a look at, since we didn’t get to see him play in the Fiji encounter.
“We would’ve liked to seen Kris [Bouckenooghe] during World Cup qualifiers but from an injury point of view we weren’t able to do that, so it’ll be good to bring him back into the fold now before we make further decision leading into the bigger competitions.”
Blackburn’s Ryan Nelsen regains the captaincy – Ben Sigmund lead New Zealand against Fiji – and Tim Brown returns as vice-captain.
Glen Moss is free to play in the South East Asian friendlies, despite being sent off in New Zealand’s last international against Fiji.
As that game was a World Cup qualifier, the lengthy four-match ban imposed by FIFA will apply to World Cup matches only, ruling him out of the Asia-Oceania playoff in October and November, and the first two matches of either the 2010 FIFA World Cup or New Zealand’s 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Story and photo courtesy of NZF Media
For the full squad and fixture list schedule please visit www.nzfootball.co.nz