KEY POINTS:
Coach Ricki Herbert is confident of being able to call on all his European and American-based professionals when New Zealand play a soccer international against Wales in Wrexham on May 27.
The match will be just the second match between the countries and marks the opening leg of a three-match World Cup warm-up tour for Oceania favourites New Zealand.
New Zealand Soccer has yet to confirm details of the other two games.
Herbert cannot see any issues surrounding the availability of his leading players because Europe's top club competitions will have been decided.
He hopes World Cup qualifying linchpins Ryan Nelsen, who plays for Blackburn Rovers, and RKC Waalwijk's Ivan Vicelich will be available while the match could also mark international returns for the injured duo of Simon Elliott, of Fulham, and Hibernian's Chris Killen.
"Once again we'll approach all our players," Herbert said shortly after the Wales fixture was confirmed today.
"We see the game as another important link towards getting it right in World Cup qualifying so we'd like to think all our players will make themselves available."
Herbert concedes the match against Wales, rated 75th in the latest Fifa world rankings, will be a stiff examination for his team, who have dropped two spots to 133.
"They're talking about guys like Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy so it will be quite testing for us.
"But it's perfect for us from a competition point of view and all our games going into World Cup qualifying are going to be extremely challenging against teams that are all ranked above us."
New Zealand, who lost 0-1 in their only previous match against Wales in 1971, will use the May-June tour as a buildup to the start of the Oceania World Cup qualifying series, which begins in October.
The tour will follow matches away to 54th-ranked Costa Rica and 66th-ranked Venezuela on March 24 and 28 for the All Whites.
Herbert is due to name his 20-strong tour party for those matches in Central America on March 10.
Wales, who drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland in Belfast on February 6 in their only fixture this year, will use the game against New Zealand as a warm-up for their Euro 2008 group D qualifier against the Czech Republic in Cardiff on June 2.
The Welsh are currently second from bottom in the group.
"This game will be of great use to us in the build-up to the match with the Czech Republic in Cardiff," Wales manager John Toshack told the BBC.
- NZPA
