Soccer: Herbert makes his plans as Bahrainis hit town

Bahrain football star Jaycee John (right) and Hussain Al Ahmed had a frustrating arrival at Wellington Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Officially, Ricki Herbert does not have to name his All Whites team for tomorrow night's Asia/Oceania World Cup eliminator until an hour before kickoff, but he will not be keeping his players on tenterhooks until then.

Herbert will wait only until midday today - following a fitness test for midfielder Simon Elliott - before naming his starting XI.

"Simon obviously brings much-needed experience to the team. His selection would also give us a continuity in selection which at this level is important," said Herbert. "But if he is not 100 per cent over his hip injury, we can't afford to take any risks."

Should he be ruled out, young Central Coast Mariners midfielder Michael McGlinchey will come in as a straight swap.

"There is no point in delaying the naming of the team," said Herbert. "We need certainty around the team at this time. What is waiting 24 hours going to achieve?"

There is still work to be done.

"We haven't finished yet," said Herbert yesterday as he prepared for a behind-closed-doors session at which the focus would be on set play.

The Bahrainis had a frustrating arrival at Wellington. Their A340 jet was too big for the airport and they had to wait an hour for their luggage to appear. Heavy traffic then disrupted efforts to get to training.

After a technical meeting with the match manager and referee today, the All Whites players and coaching staff will tonight be at Westpac Stadium for a "familiarisation" session.

Tomorrow life becomes even more structured with the team following a strict Fifa protocol on match preparation that charts their every move in the hour before kickoff from warming up to taking to the field.

Nothing is left to chance, but even Fifa will not be able to stop the sellout 37,000-strong crowd getting behind their heroes in what promises to be an unprecedented show of support for the Beautiful Game in normally rugby-mad New Zealand.