Phoenix will hold nothing back

Wellington Phoenix and the New Zealand under-20 men's soccer team will be playing for keeps when they meet in Masterton on Sunday.
While the game has been billed as a "practise game" for two sides preparing for major assignments in the not-too-distant future, their management are adamant the teams will be holding nothing back on the field of play. For Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert the outing represents the first time he will have seen his side play in a serious vein.
His intentions are to field the full complement of players who the Phoenix have contracted for their inaugural season in the Hyundai A-league, including Brazilains Daniel Lins Cortez and Felipe de Souza, Australians Royce Brownlie and Karl Dodd and New Zealand internationals Vaughan Coveny, Jeremy Christie, Tony Lochhead, Steve Olds and Glen Moss. The Masterton game comes just under a month before the Phoenix travel to Gosford in Australia to take on the Central Coast Mariners in the first round of the Pre-Season Cup, a competition which precedes their debut in the Hyundai A-league That Gosford game will be on July 14 and will be followed by the Phoenix's first home in the Pre-Season Cup, which will be against the well-performed Sydney FC at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on July 21. Herbert, who is also the current All Whites coach, says the final scoreline on Sunday might count for nothing but he was keen for his players to show their skills, both individually and collectively, under pressure situations. The forming of combinations would therefore be a major priority this weekend. The national under-20's who are coached by Herbert's assistant at the Phoenix, Stu Jacobs, have two good reasons to make a favourable impression in the Masterton match which will kick off at 11am. It will play a big part in their preparations for the Under-20 World Cup in Canada in July, where they are drawn in the same pool as Portugal, Gambia and current world under-17 champions Mexico, and it will also be a royal chance for the country's best young talent to impress Herbert and Jacobs as possible All White and Phoenix material. Sunday's game is a major coup for the Wairarapa soccer fraternity and a big crowd seems certain to watch the two combatants go through their paces at the Pugh Sportsbowl. The Phoenix will use the opportunity to build their support base in the Wairarapa as well with various club items being made available to the general public.