Soccer: World Cup chance for All Stars hopefuls

All Whites coach Ricki Herbert. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Ricki Herbert is continuing to offer the prospect of World Cup selection to players who missed out on the national camp.

As fragile as their hopes might be, Herbert is adamant the forgotten few will be on a level North Harbour Stadium field with the national squad members come Sunday afternoon. And the New Zealand coach is so determined to get a bird's eye view of the final trial against the NZFC All Stars that assistants Brian Turner and Raul Blanco will run the national squad this week.

The battle for the final places is the soccer story of the moment, yet unless injury strikes deep in South Africa, these fringe dwellers are unlikely to see World Cup match action. Regardless, their contribution elsewhere will be important.

Herbert is also keen to get these selections right for future All Whites sides, whether he remains in charge or not. For up to a dozen players, the soccer opportunity of a lifetime will hinge on what happens this week. As young striker Costa Barbarouses put it, this opportunity may never come again even for youngsters such as himself.

The New Zealand camp took a day out from training yesterday to attend the second leg of the O-League final between Waitakere and PNG's Hekari United in West Auckland.

The All Stars are due to be named today with three certain selections - Chad Coombes, Jason Hayne and Allan Pearce - rated by Herbert as still having World Cup chances. They will be battling for the four or five remaining spots in Herbert's World Cup party with about six players from the national squad, and the British-based Steven Old and Kris Bright.

At the weekend, Herbert revealed he will not necessarily stick to his initial pledge to select the 18 players who prepared for the matches against Bahrain. Defenders David Mulligan and Aaron Scott are most at risk.

Wing-back Coombes, who made his debut against Mexico in Los Angeles in March, and front-runner Hayne, who was on the bench in that game, played for Auckland City against the national squad at Kiwitea St on Saturday.

Pearce played up front for Waitakere in yesterday's O-league final. Out of fairness to the players, and to remove any clouds from his own judgment, Herbert will keep his distance from the national side this week and even steer clear of the dugout on Sunday.

Apart from being a national trial, Football New Zealand also wants to use the All Stars to showcase the league's talent through the inclusion of players such as Waitakere's Solomon Islands star Benjamin Totori, and give a couple of the best young prospects their chance at this level.

As for the World Cup itself, Herbert didn't bother offering any romantic notions. The fringe selections in his 23-man squad, he admitted, would be likely to see no World Cup action.

"We've got 10 players based overseas and they could all be in the starting lineup," he said.

Meanwhile, Saturday's match at Kiwitea St in Sandringham was a satisfactory workout for Herbert's squad, who lack recent football action.

Playing in the alternative black World Cup strip, they received scant applause for each of their five goals from a crowd of a few hundred. The loudest cheer, by a long way, was reserved for Auckland City's only goal. World Cup fever had clearly yet to bubble over local loyalties in the city's soccer heartland.

The air at the match was thick with importance and short on romance elsewhere. Media cameras were barred from the game although one Sunday newspaper man was obviously underwhelmed by the dictates of the incredible World Cup journey and - perched on a box - clicked away from behind the perimeter fence.