All Whites asked about doing haka

The All Whites take on Russia on Sunday. Photosport

'Why don't you dance before the game?'.

That was the question put to All Whites striker Shane Smeltz today by local Russian media pressing to find out if the New Zealand football side were to do a haka ahead of Sunday's Confederations Cup clash against the hosts.

"You want us to dance?" a dead-panned Smeltz responded to the query whether the All Whites produce a Maori war dance.

"I can tell you that we are all very good dancers."

The local media will be disappointed to find out that no, the All Whites won't be emulating the likes of the All Blacks and Kiwis by performing a haka at Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg.

It might be a way for the team to get noticed at the tournament.

Smeltz says the team has no problem with the low expectations on them heading into the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The 35-year-old evergreen forward, who is attending his third FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, said the All Whites are looking forward to surprising a few people when the tournament kicks off this Saturday (Sunday 3am NZT) in the opening game.

New Zealand has never won a game at a FIFA Confederations Cup. Their best result remains a 0-0 draw with Iraq in 2009 and Smeltz said this team has set its sights on making history in the 'Tournament of Champions'.

"There are probably not too many people at this tournament who will expect us to do too much here," said Smeltz to a packed press conference today in St Petersburg. "I'm sure that everyone is expecting Russia to win that first game, but internally we have our own ambition and our own focus and we obviously hope to fulfil that."

Smeltz said the team has had a good build-up to this event. They have played two international friendlies against Northern Ireland (1-0 loss) and Belarus (1-0 loss) and staged a training camp in Dublin that was all about match fitness.

"Now it is all about mentality. We have been preparing for this for a long time now so we go into this opening game in a good position."

One of the heroes from the FIFA World Cup campaign in 2010, where the All Whites famously did not lose a game in pool play, he said the team is taking the tournament one game at a time. The main focus is on the opening game as they look to upset the World No 63 Russia who recently drew 1-1 with Chile.

"If we can do what we want to do in that game then it sets us up well for the rest of the tournament," said Smeltz. "We definitely have the ambition to get through to the semi-finals. We are here to win games. We are not just here to make up the numbers. The full focus of our preparation has been on our first game."

The OFC Nations Cup champions will then meet World No 17 Mexico in Sochi on 21 June and finish their pool play against European Champions and World No 8 Portugal in St Petersburg on 24 June.