KEY POINTS:
While a happy All Whites coach Ricki Herbert put his troops through their paces on a back field at North Harbour in yesterday's atrocious weather, many thousands of kilometres away the race to find their opponent in next year's crucial World Cup winner-take-all play-off continues to gain momentum.
New Zealand's no-frills 3-1 win over New Caledonia in Noumea on Saturday sealed their place in the contest to find the last of the 32 qualifiers for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The Ryan Nelsen-led side also secured the minimum US$1 million payday for playing in next year's eight-nation Confederations Cup.
The All Whites, as close as they have been to full-strength for some years, showed enough touches of class at the weekend - including Shane Smeltz' late strike for the match-sealing triumph and his second goal of the game - to suggest the side has a bold future. They can realistically build a team capable of not only making it two-from-two over New Caledonia at North Harbour Stadium tomorrow night but go through the Oceania group with a perfect six-from-six record.
There can be no such relaxing in Asia as 10 teams chase firstly the top four automatic qualifying spots (as one of the top two teams in the two groups) or, as a consolation, the fifth spot after a playoff between the two third-placed teams in each group.
Saturday's opening-round produced a couple of surprises with North Korea, the lowest-ranked of the 10 teams, at 116, beating the United Arab Emirates (109) 2-1 in Abu Dhabi in a game in which all three goals were scored in the last 18 minutes.
The visitors were handed the lead when Basheer Saeed, under no pressure, turned the ball into his own goal. Korean substitute An Chol-Hyok doubled the lead in the 81st minute with a shot from outside the penalty area.
There were some anxious moments for the North Koreans when Saeed hit home from long range for 2-1 with five minutes to play.
The North Koreans are now in Shanghai, a neutral venue, preparing for tomorrow's game with the South Koreans, who had the bye on Saturday but used the day off to beat Jordan 1-0 in a friendly in Seoul.
The battle between the two Korean sides promises to be close. In three games this year they played out a 1-1 draw in a friendly in Chongqing before scoreless draws in Shanghai and Seoul in World Cup qualifiers.
UAE return to the Bin Zayed Stadium for tomorrow's clash with neighbours Saudi Arabia. A second home loss for the Emirates could dash their World Cup dream.
In a game played in stifling heat and humidity in Manama, Japan, the top-ranked Asian contender were 3-0 ahead of Bahrain with five minutes to play in the match. The home side, helped by an own goal, scored two late goals but could not find a third for a point.
Japan have a bye tomorrow but Bahrain are in Doha to play Qatar who opened their campaign with a 3-0 surprise win over Uzbekistan.
Qatar, who beat Asian champions Iraq - who will be one of the countries at the Confederations Cup - to win through to the last phase of Asian qualifying, are ranked 22 places below Uzbekistan.
Iran, held 1-1 by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, also have the day off tomorrow but Uzbekistan have returned home and will play Australia in Tashkent.
To warm-up for this keenly-awaited contest, Australia beat the Netherlands 2-1 in a friendly after they had trailed 1-0 until late in the first spell when the Dutch goalkeeper gave away a penalty and was sent off.
After tomorrow's second round, World Cup qualifying will take a break until October 15 when, in one of the four matches, Australia will play Qatar in Brisbane.
In the meantime, the quarter-finals in the Asian Champions League will be played.
In a managed draw to find the Asian representative at December's Fifa World Club Cup in Japan, the three Japanese teams were kept apart for the two-leg quarter-finals to be played on September 17 and 24.
The ties are (home team for the first leg first), Sapia (Iran) v Bunyodkor (Uzbekistan), defending J-League champions Kashima Antlers (Japan) v Adelaide United (Australia), defending Asian club champions Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan) and Al Karama (Syria) v Gamba Osaka (Japan).
Last week Bunyodkor signed former Brazilian star Rivaldo, 36, as a fourth overseas player but they will only be permitted to play three of them in any match.
If a Japanese club wins the league they will qualify automatically and Waitakere United, as the OFC winner, will play the highest-placed non-Japanese club in their qualifying match to win through to the competition proper.
