International friendly: All Whites v Peru
Where: RCDE Stadium, Barcelona, Spain; When: Monday, June 6, 3.30am [NZ time].
Live coverage: Sky Sport 1
OFC Football
Danny Hay was excited looking forward to the All Whites’ World Cup playoff against Costa Rica.
All Whites coach Danny Hay is set to have a full squad available for his side’s friendly against Peru in Barcelona on Sunday [Monday NZ time].
That’s the case even though star striker Chris Wood hasn’t trained fully this week in Marbella in the south of Spain, as he is still “carrying a little bit of a niggle” in his Achilles.
Hay said the word from the medical team and Wood himself on Friday was that he “was going to be participating fully in training,” two days out from the match that is set to be the All Whites big test before their World Cup qualifying playoff against Costa Rica on June 14 [June 15 NZ time].
He added that Wood was “pretty confident that it’s not going to hold him back when we get to that big show”.
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“We’ll just monitor that over the next session or two,” Hay said.
“We’ve still got two more sessions before the Peruvian fixture, and we’ll make some decisions based off what the players are feeling like in terms of their mental and physical preparation.
“Obviously we don’t want to take any risks with this game, particularly with such a massive fixture in Costa Rica only 11 days away from us.”
The All Whites are a win away from securing a place at this year’s World Cup, which would be their third appearance, after previously taking part in 1982 and 2010.
They will move from Marbella to Barcelona on Saturday, then from Barcelona to Doha, Qatar – the neutral venue for the playoff – on Tuesday. A second friendly against Oman, behind closed doors, is scheduled for Thursday [Friday NZ time].
Hay has now been in Spain for the best part of two weeks, working with a group of players that started small, but has grown as their club commitments have come to an end – or been put on pause for the international window, which began on Monday.
He said the camp had “been really good to date”.
“We’ve had a core group that has been with us for the best part of 10 days now, and we’ve got some really good work done with those players.
“Obviously a number of them were coming from the southern hemisphere, so the ability to get them into our time zone and into good sleep patterns then training at intensity has been really valuable.
“They sort of set the bar for when the rest of the players joined around the start of the window period.
“We’ve had now two sessions with the entire squad together and been really pleased with the progress so far. “
The match against Peru is set to be the All Whites’ first in front of a crowd since 2019 and Hay is expecting it to show how well his side is prepared to cope with the pressure they will face in their win-or-go-home playoff against Costa Rica.
Peru are preparing for their own intercontinental playoff, against either Australia or the United Arab Emirates, the day before the All Whites’ match.
New Zealand and Peru met in the intercontinental playoffs ahead of the last World Cup, in November 2017.
NZ FOOTBALL/Supplied
The All Whites have been training in Marbella in the south of Spain ahead of their World Cup qualifying playoff against Costa Rica later this month.
The two teams had a 0-0 draw in Wellington, but Peru prevailed 2-0 at home in Lima to qualify for the 2018 event in Russia.
Fifa changed the format of the playoffs to a one-off match in Qatar, the host of this year’s World Cup, last November.
All Whites – warm-up matches and World Cup playoff
Squad
Goalkeepers: Matthew Gould, Stefan Marinovic, Oli Sail
Defenders: Michael Boxall, Liberato Cacace, Francis de Vries, Dane Ingham, Niko Kirwan, Tim Payne, Nando Pijnaker, Winston Reid, Tommy Smith, Bill Tuiloma
Midfielders: Joe Bell, Matt Garbett, Elijah Just, Clayton Lewis, Marco Rojas, Marko Stamenic
Forwards: Kosta Barbarouses, Joey Champness, Alex Greive, Callum McCowatt, Logan Rogerson, Ben Waine, Chris Wood
Fixtures (NZ time)
Monday, June 6, 3.30am: v Peru; RCDE Stadium, Barcelona, Spain
Friday, June 10, TBC: v Oman; TBC, Doha, Qatar (behind closed doors, untelevised)
Wednesday, June 15, 6am: v Costa Rica; Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Doha, Qatar
