KEY POINTS:
A one-off clash with Costa Rica was never going to be easy but coach Ricki Herbert has had more than his share of hurdles in preparing the All Whites for tomorrow's game in San Jose.
First veteran striker Vaughan Coveny announced his retirement and then a clutch of
players were lost to injury before Herbert named his 20-player squad.
If that was not enough, two of his most experienced internationals, Simon Elliott and Ryan Nelsen, pulled out before the team assembled.
Herbert's patience has been tested but he has resisted the temptation to call for late replacements and has just 18 players to select from.
With just a couple of days to prepare for the match, which will be played on the artificial pitch at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Ayma, Herbert's build-up was further disrupted when Ivan Vicelich and Chris James missed connecting flights in New York and were delayed 24 hours.
Nicknamed Los Ticos, the Central Americans will be a real test for the All Whites.
After beating the United States 3-0 to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, the Costa Ricans struggled in Germany losing the tournament opener to the hosts 4-2 and followed that with losses to Ecuador (3-0) and Poland (2-1) to crash out after the first round.
Their world ranking dropped alarmingly from a high of 19 in 2005 to 68 post-World Cup but has since climbed back to 50, well ahead of New Zealand at 129.
But as the All Whites have shown in recent outings, statistics do not count for much.
On their last tour they compiled a solid record with an historic 3-1 win over Georgia and a 1-1 draw with Estonia on a trip which also included a hard-fought 2-0 loss to Hungary and a 4-0 loss to Brazil in their World Cup warm-up outing.
Since then the All Whites have played just the three matches in the UK (last August) where they drew 1-1 with Premier League side Charlton Athletic before losing 5-0 to Blackburn Rovers and a tour-ending 5-1 loss to Spanish giants Sevilla.
With limited training time - the team only arrived in Costa Rica from Chile late on Thursday (NZ time) - Herbert will almost certainly stay with a tested starting 11.
Costa Rica v NZ
San Jose, Costa Rica. Tomorrow 2pm. (NZ time) live Sky Sport 1
Likely 11: Mark Paston, Danny Hay (c), Che Bunce, Steven Old, Tony Lochhead, Noah Hickey, Tim Brown, Ivan Vicelich, Leo Bertos, Jeremy Brockie, Shane Smeltz.
