AUCKLAND – Thai Airways Junior All Whites coach Stu Jacobs is looking to light the fire in the belly of his New Zealand players ahead of the Oceania U-20 Championship opener against Fiji in Tahiti on Sunday.

New Zealand play Fiji, New Caledonia and hosts Tahiti in the five day tournament with all eyes on the prize of a place at next September’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt.

Jacobs has named a side full of NZFC-calibre players with Wellington Phoenix strikers Greg Draper and Costa Barbarouses adding extra professionalism up front, but the coach sees passion and drive as the catalysts to successfully blend individual skills into collective success.

“We spoke about passion as a team during the week, because if there’s one thing we lack here in this group it’s that little bit of drive. They’re a quiet bunch but we need them to drop into Tahiti, know what they need to do, and go achieve it.”

Memories of last year’s heated 3-2 win over Fiji – that helped the last group of  Junior All Whites pip Fiji for a place in the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada – still burn fresh in the minds of Jacobs and his opposite, Uruguayan Carlos Buzzetti, and Jacobs for one is expecting more of that emotion this time round.

“What you get with Fiji is what you get previously with them, they’ll be pretty passionate about the game and Carlos will have them fired up and pretty organised. That’s the way they normally play and they’re always hard to play against because of that.

“We just need to be organised and out-passion them really.”

Jacobs said two midweek games – a last minute 0-1 loss to Waikato FC on Tuesday and a 3-0 win over Waitakere United’s Academy on Thursday – had helped him settle on a formation before the side flew out for Tahiti on Friday,  while he also indicated his starting 11 was “pretty close” to being finalised.

Question marks remained over two Olympians with Draper sitting out the Waitakere match with a groin injury and newly-elected Captain Ian Hogg exiting that match with a tight hamstring.

New Zealand and Fiji kick off the tournament in mid-afternoon heat at Stade Paea with Tahiti and New Caledonia following with a French Polynesian derby later on Sunday night (NZT).

Story courtesy of NZF Media. For more visit www.nzsoccer.com