Soccer: World Cup spy game already under way

The All Whites won't have to go far to get inside information about one of their World Cup opponents.

But nor will their rivals, meaning New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert isn't likely to play his top side in the friendly against Serbia in Klagenfurt in Austria on May 29.

The game is part of a double header that also features a game between fellow World Cup finalists Slovakia and Cameroon - the All Whites open their World Cup against Slovakia in Rustenburg on June 15.

It means Herbert will look to hold something back against Serbia.

"I will probably use the Australia game to field most of the better players and then use a few different options and play slightly differently against Serbia," Herbert said. "It might be a good chance to use a couple of the new guys, like Tommy Smith and Winston Reid.

"But I'm not sure you can always hold your cards back. Apparently Slovakia had some people in Los Angeles for our game against Mexico, even though we had as many as six players away. It will all come down to June 15 anyway."

Herbert assumes that, given they were asked to play the 13th-ranked Serbia later than originally planned, their game will be the main event. It's not often that Slovakia and Cameroon play as curtain-raiser to the All Whites.

It does mean, however, Herbert won't have a chance to watch Slovakia live. Instead, he will send a couple of staff to the ground early to video the match.

New Zealand Football have also hired a London-based video analyst who is putting together extensive coverage of all of the All Whites' World Cup opponents. Defending World Cup champions Italy and Paraguay are the other two teams in their group.

"We will have a lot of information on all of our opponents, as they will on us, by the time we get to the World Cup," Herbert said.

Martin Skrtel is Slovakia's best-known player in this country, largely because he plays for Liverpool. The rest of the squad play throughout Europe.

Austria will be something of a pre-World Cup hub with many teams heading there or Switzerland for altitude training to help them acclimatise to playing on South Africa's high veldt.

New Zealand and England will train in Austria for 10 days and others who will train or play games there include the Netherlands, Honduras, Spain, South Korea, Cameroon, Slovakia and Japan. New Zealand play all three pool games at altitude.

They begin their World Cup build-up with a domestic camp in Auckland at the end of April for Australasian-based players, when they will play a select NZFC team.

The World Cup squad will then take on Australia in Melbourne on May 24 followed by friendlies against Serbia (May 29) and Slovenia (June 5) during their altitude training camp.

A final match against another World Cup finalist will be played soon after they arrive in South Africa, with Chile a possible opponent.

The match will be played in Johannesburg behind closed doors and over three 30-minute periods in what will be a final hitout before they take on Slovakia.