Soccer: All Whites in good shape

Danny Hay

The All Whites, who face world champions Brazil in Geneva on Monday morning (NZ time), notched a confidence-inspiring 1-1 draw against Estonia in a friendly soccer match in Tallinn earlier today.

Captain Danny Hay slammed home an equaliser after Estonia opened the scoring in the third minute when striker Ragnar Klavan raced past the defence before beating goalkeeper Ross Nicholson.

Hay hauled New Zealand level 24 minutes later with a powerful shot which gave keeper Artur Kotenko no chance.

All Whites coach Ricki Herbert told NZPA from Tallinn that while Hay had given a standout performance, the rest of the team, featuring six new players thrown into the deep end had responded well.

"It is getting hard to find words for Danny's performances," Herbert said.

"If you could say his game is going from strength to strength, you are probably underestimating what he's achieved in the series so far from his leadership qualities and the way he's got his side really believing with confidence in the game.

"... and then step up and score a goal tonight which is great."

The All Whites opened their European campaign with a 0-2 loss to Hungary, then beat Georgia 3-1 at the weekend.

"I'm really pleased with tonight's result ," Herbert said.

"I guess if you look at the three games leading into the game against Brazil and the way things panned out for us with us getting the result against Georgia and playing six new players tonight, to come away with a 1-1 result against the second-highest ranked team out of that group of three -- that's fantastic for us."

It had given the (coaching) team a lot of confidence in the quantity of players they had now as well as the quality.

"We created seven or eight goal scoring opportunities against Georgia and probably tonight, we created three and they had two themselves."

Goalkeeper Nicholson had very little to do and Estonia muffed a late chance by blasting the ball over the crossbar.

Herbert said one of the things the team was trying to achieve was to be a hard side to beat and " we proved that tonight".

Herbert said he would have a full squad from which to pick the team to play Brazil.

Midfielder Tim Brown still had a hamstring niggle from the Hungary game but Herbert expected him to be fit for selection.

He would name the almost immediately to prepare them to take on the five-time world champions.

Herbert said strategies tried in the three matches so far had determined potential styles to play, instead of the one-dimensional side they had been when the team left New Zealand.

"It'll be fair to say the next three days are going to be pretty intense on what we would like to do in the Brazil game," Herbert said.

"We have been quite brave to try things as far as systems are concerned and tonight, using a whole raft of new players, again speaks volumes for what the players are able to achieve.

"I think from the (playing) systems point of view, we are a little clearer about Brazil but we are going to need the next three days to really fine tune -- get the best possible outcome from that game that we can."

- NZPA