Soccer: All Whites could face Aussies

New Zealand beat Australia at Mt Smart in 2002. Photo / Dean Purcell / Getty Images

Perhaps the goading worked after all. Frank van Hattum, the New Zealand Football chairman, said last year Australia were scared of playing the All Whites.

"They keep running away from us," he claimed, "the buggers, they are chicken shit."

It's hard to believe they were but Australia are close to agreeing to meet the All Whites in Melbourne on May 24 as both sides ramp up their preparations for June's World Cup.

The game has not yet been signed off but an announcement could come as early as tomorrow.

It is nearly five years since the transtasman rivals met on a football pitch - the Socceroos beat the All Whites 1-0 in London in June 2005 in Ricki Herbert's first game as coach - largely because of Australia's move into Asia.

But it continues a long tradition that dates back to 1922 when New Zealand beat Australia 3-1 in Dunedin in this country's first international.

The timing of the match suggests both sides will field their strongest sides. That would mean New Zealand would fly back the likes of Ryan Nelsen, Chris Killen and Rory Fallon just days before they returned to Europe to start their altitude training camp in Austria.

Australia were initially keen to play the All Whites in a World Cup warm-up after New Zealand qualified by beating Bahrain 1-0 in Wellington.

But they went cold on the idea as they put their World Cup plans together - they had qualified months earlier, meaning their preparations were well advanced. It is only in recent days that the proposal has been put back on the table.

It's understood the Victorian State Government will be the major bankroller for the match.

For New Zealand, it's an attractive fixture. The Socceroos are now ranked 23 in the world and were as high as 14 last September. New Zealand are 79th.

Australians, though, might be less excited. They have hosted some good teams in recent years, including Brazil, and there seems little benefit in playing a country who will approach it in much the same way a younger sibling does against his older brother.

Australia have drawn an extremely tough group at the World Cup - Germany, Serbia and Ghana - and countries usually look for friendly matches against countries who can provide a similar challenge to their World Cup opponents.

The All Whites have drawn Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay at the World Cup and are playing Serbia, Slovenia and Mexico in warm-up games.

Although New Zealand have won 13 of the 60 matches played between the two countries - 36 losses and 11 draws - including the 1-0 defeat of the Socceroos in 2002 that earned the All Whites passage to the 2003 Confederations Cup, it is 21 years since they last beat a full-strength Australian side.

A New Zealand team that included Herbert (current coach), Clint Gosling (current goalkeeping coach) and Fred de Jong (NZF board member) beat Australia 2-0 at Mt Smart Stadium in a World Cup qualifier. Malcolm Dunford and Billy Wright scored.

A game against Australia would come close to rounding off the All Whites' preparations for their first outing at a World Cup since 1982.

On top of the Mexico (March 3), Serbia (May 30) and Slovenia (June 4) fixtures, Herbert wants to arrange a friendly against a fellow World Cup side when they touch down in South Africa.

He is also planning for a two-week camp in Auckland for Australasian-based players as part of their World Cup build-up. There is a chance they could play an Asian team here during the camp.

Initially Herbert was expected to take his A-League and NZFC players to either Qatar, Dubai or the United States for a camp but they now intend to hold it in this country towards the end of April to ensure both the O-League and NZFC aren't disrupted too much.

Both competitions move into their final stages in April and there was a danger of discrediting them if the best players were removed.

The World Cup is the priority but NZF believe a balance needed to be found.