Soccer: All Whites to field hot attacking trio

Striker Shane Smeltz (No 9) will be a crowd-puller for the All Whites' clash with Waitakere. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Shane Smeltz, Kosta Barbarouses and Marco Rojas will play together for the first time next week, giving Aucklanders a rare chance to see three of the most exciting attacking players in action.

The talented trio have been named by coach Ricki Herbert as his starting option up front for the Australasian-based All Whites in Wednesday's warm-up match against ASB Premiership winners Waitakere United.

With Michael McGlinchey, Tim Brown, Jeremy Brockie and Aaron Clapham in midfield, the Waitakere players will be in for a busy night.

At the back, Ivan Vicelich, New Zealand's most-capped full international, will be joined by Ben Sigmund and David Mulligan, Glen Moss starting in goal in the 3-4-3 formation.

Of the home-based players, only Wellington Phoenix left back Tony Lochhead and goalkeeper Mark Paston will not play.

Lochhead was yesterday ruled out of the upcoming internationals through injury and while Paston will travel, it's uncertain how much game time he will get as he continues his recovery from the serious knee injury received while playing for the Phoenix in December.

In their absence, four players from Chris Milicich's under-20 national side will be brought in as cover.

Neil Emblen will put out a strong Waitakere side, hoping to include Fiji international Roy Krishna who missed the last few weeks of the season with a wrist injury.

He's due to play for Waitakere City today and, provided he comes through that without any problems, will line up on Wednesday.

Krishna has already re-signed with Waitakere United for the 2011-12 season.

Emblen has also re-signed most of last season's winning squad and expects many to play on Wednesday.

He will, however, be without strikers Ryan de Vries and Mike Gwyther as they are playing for Bentleigh Green in the Victorian State league, where former Waitakere striker Brent Fisher and Jason Hayne play for South Melbourne.

Tim Myers, one of Waitakere's more consistent performers last season, will not play as he continues his studies at Otago University. He'll return to Waitakere in the summer.

Goalkeeper Andy Ralph is back in the United Kingdom but Danny Robinson, playing his winter soccer at unbeaten Bay Olympic, will turn out.

Aaron Scott might take some part but he's scheduled for an ankle reconstruction next month and will then be sidelined until Christmas.

"I'll wait until I see how the players come through this weekend before settling on a team," said Emblen. "I want to talk to Ricki [on Tuesday] before finalising as I want to work in with him. He might want us to play a certain style."

Emblen will travel with the New Zealand team as technical support for Herbert.

After suggestions he might be poised to join Herbert at the Phoenix in the vacant assistant coaching role, Emblen said "it's news to me. I haven't discussed that with anyone".

The All Whites will play Waitakere as part of a four-day training camp in Auckland next week before flying to Denver to play Mexico on June 2 and Australia in Adelaide three days later.

Waitakere v All Whites
* Douglas Field, Trusts Stadium
* Wednesday 7.30pm