New Zealand national football team

New Zealand

Nickname(s)	All Whites
Association	New Zealand Football
Confederation	OFC (Oceania)
Head coach	Ricki Herbert, 2005-
Most caps	Vaughan Coveny (64)
Top scorer	Vaughan Coveny (28)
Home stadium	North Harbour Stadium, Auckland
FIFA code	NZL
FIFA ranking	60
Highest FIFA ranking	47 (August 2002)
Lowest FIFA ranking	156 (September 2007)
Elo ranking	55
Highest Elo ranking	39 (June 1983)
Lowest Elo ranking	95 (September 1997, February 1998)
Home colours Away colours
First international
New Zealand 3 - 1 Australia (Dunedin, New Zealand; June 17, 1922)
Biggest win
New Zealand 13 - 0 Fiji (Auckland, New Zealand; August 16, 1981)
Biggest defeat
New Zealand 0 - 10 Australia (Wellington, New Zealand; July 11, 1936)
World Cup
Appearances	1 (First in 1982)
Best result	Round 1, 1982
OFC Nations Cup
Appearances	8 (First in 1973)
Best result	Winners, 1973, 1998, 2002, 2008
Confederations Cup
Appearances	2 (First in 1999)
Best result	1st round, 1999 and 2003

The New Zealand national football team, nicknamed the All Whites , is the national team of New Zealand and is controlled by New Zealand Football.

It has reached the World Cup Finals only once, in 1982, but lost all three games. Because of the lack of a high-quality domestic league, most talented New Zealand footballers play their trade in the higher-class leagues of Europe, the United States, and Australia.

New Zealand usually battled Australia for top honours in the OFC. However, this will no longer be the case as Australia now play in the Asian Football Confederation. New Zealand have won the OFC Nations Cup four times, in 1973, 1998, 2002 and 2008. The white strip was originally based on the colour of England's strip and name is in contrast with the rugby union team, the All Blacks.

Development

Despite its large player numbers, New Zealand football struggles to compete with other sports such as Rugby union, Rugby league and cricket, financially and for media exposure. The performance of the national team is further hindered by a relatively young semi-professional domestic league, the New Zealand Football Championship having been established in 2004. However, New Zealanders are represented in professional football by Wellington Phoenix FC, who compete in the Australian A-League.

The best known current players are Blackburn Rovers defender Ryan Nelsen and Celtic striker Chris Killen. Several young players have shown promise in breaking through into the senior side, including Tampere United midfielder Chris James and Jeremy Brockie.

FIFA Tournament Participation

New Zealand has competed in one FIFA World Cup Spain 1982 and in two Confederations Cups Mexico 1999 and France 2003. In each of these tournaments, the All Whites have failed to progress past the first round. New Zealand has also qualified for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, and have the opportunity to compete in the World Cup the next year should they defeat the 5th-placed AFC nation.

New Zealand have competed in every OFC Nations Cup since the tournament was established in 1973, when New Zealand both hosted and won the competition. The All Whites have won the Nations Cup four times, including the most recent tournament (2008 OFC Nations Cup)

Year	Tournament	Result	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1973	OFC Nations Cup	Winner	5	4	1	0	13	4
1980	OFC Nations Cup	Round 1	3	1	0	2	7	8
1982	World Cup	Round 1	3	0	0	3	2	12
1996	OFC Nations Cup	Third Place (shared)	2	0	1	1	0	3
1998	OFC Nations Cup	Winner	4	4	0	0	11	1
1999	Confederations Cup	Round 1	3	0	0	3	1	6
2000	OFC Nations Cup	Runner Up	4	3	0	1	6	3
2002	OFC Nations Cup	Winner	5	5	0	0	23	2
2003	Confederations Cup	Round 1	3	0	0	3	1	11
2004	OFC Nations Cup	Final Stage	5	3	0	2	17	5
2008	OFC Nations Cup	Winner	6	5	0	1	14	5
2009	Confederations Cup	Qualified (To be played)

Match Competition Record

See also: New Zealand national football team results#All time record

Current squad

The following players have been called up for the All Whites during their 2008 World Cup qualifiers. ^[1][2].

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 18 GK Glen Moss 19 January 1983 (1983-01-19) (age 26) 8 0 Wellington Phoenix 1 GK Mark Paston 13 December 1976 (1976-12-13) (age 32) 15 0 Wellington Phoenix GK Jacob Spoonley 3 March 1987 (1987-03-03) (age 22) 0 0 Auckland City FC 6 DF Ryan Nelsen 18 October 1977 (1977-10-18) (age 32) 34 6 Blackburn Rovers 12 DF Andrew Boyens 18 September 1983 (1983-09-18) (age 26) 5 0 Red Bull New York 3 DF Tony Lochhead 12 January 1982 (1982-01-12) (age 27) 16 0 Wellington Phoenix 2 DF David Mulligan 24 March 1982 (1982-03-24) (age 27) 16 3 Wellington Phoenix 13 DF Steven Old 17 February 1986 (1986-02-17) (age 23) 15 1 Macarthur Rams DF James Pritchett 1 July 1982 (1982-07-01) (age 27) 8 0 Auckland City FC DF Aaron Scott 19 July 1986 (1986-07-19) (age 23) 0 0 Waitakere United 5 DF Ben Sigmund 3 February 1981 (1981-02-03) (age 28) 7 1 Wellington Phoenix 7 MF Leo Bertos 20 December 1981 (1981-12-20) (age 27) 21 0 Wellington Phoenix 14 MF Tim Brown 6 March 1981 (1981-03-06) (age 28) 14 0 Wellington Phoenix MF Jeff Campbell 25 August 1979 (1979-08-25) (age 30) 19 3 Waitakere United 15 MF Jeremy Christie 22 May 1983 (1983-05-22) (age 26) 14 1 Wellington Phoenix 4 MF Simon Elliott 10 June 1974 (1974-06-10) (age 35) 50 6 Unattached 16 MF Chris James 4 July 1987 (1987-07-04) (age 22) 7 0 Tampere United 8 DF Duncan Oughton 14 June 1977 (1977-06-14) (age 32) 22 2 Columbus Crew 17 MF Allan Pearce 7 April 1983 (1983-04-07) (age 26) 1 0 Waitakere United MF Cole Peverley 2 July 1988 (1988-07-02) (age 21) 0 0 Hawke's Bay United 9 FW Jeremy Brockie 7 October 1987 (1987-10-07) (age 22) 8 0 Team Wellington FW Costa Barbarouses 19 February 1990 (1990-02-19) (age 19) 0 0 Wellington Phoenix FW Kris Bright 15 September 1986 (1986-09-15) (age 23) 0 0 Kristiansund BK FW Greg Draper 13 August 1989 (1989-08-13) (age 20) 0 0 Wellington Phoenix FW Chris Killen 8 October 1981 (1981-10-08) (age 28) 21 8 Celtic 10 FW Shane Smeltz 29 September 1981 (1981-09-29) (age 28) 17 11 Wellington Phoenix 11 FW Jarrod Smith 20 June 1984 (1984-06-20) (age 25) 11 0 Toronto FC

Caps and goals accurate as of 22 October 2008.^[3][4]

Notable Squads

New Zealand squad – 1982 FIFA World Cup 1 Wilson • 2 Dods • 3 Herbert • 4 B. Turner • 5 Bright • 6 Almond • 7 Rufer • 8 Cole • 9 Wooddin • 10 Sumner • 11 Malcolmson • 12 Mackay • 13 Cresswell • 14 Elrick • 15 Hill • 16 Adam • 17 Boath • 18 Simonsen • 19 McClure • 20 G. Turner • 21 Pickering • 22 van Hattum • Coach: Adshead

New Zealand squad – 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Batty • 2 Zoricich • 3 Douglas • 4 Bunce • 5 Perry • 6 Wilkinson • 7 Burton • 8 Lines • 9 Urlovic • 10 Jackson • 11 Ngata • 12 Atkinson • 13 Bouckenooghe • 14 Nelsen • 15 Vicelich • 16 Coveny • 17 Elrick • 18 Smith • 19 Utting • 20 Nicholson • Coach: Dugdale

New Zealand squad – 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Batty • 2 Oughton • 3 Mulligan • 4 Zoricich • 5 Hay • 6 Wilkinson • 7 Vicelich • 8 Lines • 9 Burton • 10 Jackson • 11 Killen • 12 Elliott • 13 Bouckenooghe • 14 Nelsen • 15 Smeltz • 16 Coveny • 17 de Gregorio • 18 Smith • 19 Utting • 20 Davis • 21 Hickey • 22 Wilson • 23 Paston • Coach: Waitt

Notable players

The following is a list of notable players who have achieved more than 50 A-international caps for New Zealand, been inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame, received an international award or represented more than one country at international level.

Australia vs New Zealand friendly match at Craven Cottage, London 9th June 2005

Notes and references

External links

• NZ Football
• FIFA page on New Zealand
• All Time Stats of the All Whites

Preceded by Inaugural Champions	Oceanian Champions 1973 (First title)	Succeeded by 1980 Australia
Preceded by 1996 Australia	Oceanian Champions 1998 (Second title)	Succeeded by 2000 Australia
Preceded by 2000 Australia	Oceanian Champions 2002 (Third title)	Succeeded by 2004 Australia
Preceded by 2004 Australia	Oceanian Champions 2008 (Fourth title)	Succeeded by Incumbent

Football in New Zealand
Governing body: New Zealand Football (formerly New Zealand Soccer) FIFA Confederation: Oceania Football Confederation National teams: The All Whites (Men's) · The Football Ferns (Women's) Men's age-grade teams: Under-23s · Under-20s · Under-17s Women's age-grade teams: Under-20s · Under-17s National league: New Zealand Football Championship Club knockout competition: Chatham Cup Defunct national competitions: New Zealand National Soccer League Club leagues: Northern · Central · Mainland · Soccersouth A-League representative: Wellington Phoenix FC
International football
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