Football
Wairarapa United speedster Dale Higham wasn't taking his selection in the Junior All Whites football team to contest the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Turkey next month for granted.
Higham always looked a strong possibility to make the 21-strong squad after a series of strong performances for the winning Junior All Whites combination at the Oceania under-20 championships in Fiji in March, but he admits to breathing a sigh of relief after his place in the side was confirmed late last week.
"I was pretty happy with the way things went in Fiji, but there's always the thought in the back in the mind that you might miss out ... nothing is ever guaranteed," he told the Times-Age yesterday.
Higham's next goal is to perform well enough in the lead-up games against Australia in Wollongong on June 10, Iraq in Turkey on June 13 and Egypt, also in Turkey on June 17, to force his way into the starting XI for the World Cup group games. There the Junior All Whites will play Uzbekistan on June 23, Uruguay on June 26 and Croatia on June 29, all of them in Bursa, Turkey.
Even for a player of Higham's talent, however, that will be no easy task as the Junior All Whites are a formidable line-up, as evidenced that eight of them are in fulltime professional environments and another five are training with the Wellington Phoenix's School of Excellence.
Utility Tim Payne promises to be one of their star performers. He has made eight appearances for the All Whites at senior level and has been a regular in the Blackburn Rovers reserves this season while Rhys Jordan has been playing for Bristol City in England.
And then there is Louis Fenton who has regularly starred for Wellington Phoenix in the A-League.
In company of that calibre Higham knows getting regular match time at the Turkey tourney will mean playing "out of his skin" and he is determined to make every post a winner.
"Those lead-up games are very important, I'd imagine all of us would get a fair amount of game time there and how we go will probably dictate what happens in the group matches," Higham said. "Obviously I don't want to spend most of the time watching others play, it's up to me to to make sure that doesn't happen."
As to the Junior All White's chances of advancing through the group stages of the World Cup, Higham says it is difficult to make an assessment when so little is known about the quality of the opposition.
"Age group sides can change quite dramatically year by year so it's hard to get a line on what teams like Uzbekistan have been up to ... for us it's all about going out there and worrying more about our own game than anything else."
Wairarapa United picks up extra two points in Central League, page 18.