Soccer: Skipper aims to beat naysayers and the odds

Straight talking Ryan Nelsen says his team are determined to win games. Photo / Mark Mitchell

All Whites captain Ryan Nelsen will lay down the law to his teammates today as the hard work begins in the final countdown for next month's World Cup in South Africa.

The 23-man squad goes into camp in Auckland this morning, before departing on Saturday afternoon for Melbourne where they play Australia on Monday night.

New Zealand are rated no-hopers by many and up to whopping 16-1 longshots for a top two group finish to make the knockout stage. They face world champions Italy, plus Slovakia and Paraguay.

Nelsen is hell-bent on beating those odds. A farewell public autograph session is at SkyCity on Saturday, starting at 1pm, but the PR will be replaced by a do-or-die attitude long before that.

Nelsen, who has been promoting his World Cup book around New Zealand, said: "I haven't witnessed this amount of excitement and anticipation before. People can't wait for the World Cup.

"I'll sit down with the team [today] and get everyone mentally ready.

"We'll definitely have one of those talks and it will be a big talk.

"The theme is we are going to South Africa to win games. We are not going for the experience and we need that in our heads now.

"Everyone says it will be a great experience but honestly, that's a load of rubbish. We are there to win games, that's our job."

The All Whites head from Melbourne to Austria for camps and matches against Serbia and Slovenia, then a final warm-up against Chile at Nelspruit on June 9.

Nelsen, the star All White who captains English premier club Blackburn, covered other topics in a New Zealand Herald interview.

* He backed the inclusion of goalkeeper Glen Moss, who is suspended out of the first two World Cup games, although he said former national keeper Michael Utting had a fair point in questioning it.

Moss copped a four-game ban for swearing at a referee against Fiji in 2008. Nelsen lashed New Zealand Football for failing to lodge appeals.

"Glen is a victim of other people's negligence," Nelsen said.

"Fifa followed their protocols. New Zealand had three chances to hand in appeals and it wasn't done.

"The chances of two keepers being injured in the first two matches is rare but it could happen and I understand what Mike [Utting] is saying.

"But I totally back the [selection] decision. I would have been gutted for Glen and so would the team. He has given enough to New Zealand soccer to earn his spot.

"It was a two-game suspension at most. He was bordering on retiring - that's how much it affected him. Sometimes you do what is good for the squad morale."

* Nelsen said the result was not paramount against Australia.

"This game doesn't really matter in the broader scheme compared to the World Cup," he said.

"It will get rid of the rust and cobwebs - we haven't been together for a while and the A-league guys haven't played for a long time."

* The All Whites would need flexible plans.

"A lot can happen in four weeks and you can't plan for everything," he said. "You can't just have one strategy, one formation.

"You need back-up plans and hopefully Ricki will already have that organised.

"We used 3-4-3 against Bahrain and Ricki wanted to play that way and our job was to go out and organise it and do it to the best of our capability.

"But different scenarios come up. What if two strikers get injured? You need plans B and C and that's what we will work on."

* The All Whites should not rely on their No1 line-up during the warm-up games.

"Everyone in the squad needs game time because you never know what can happen in the World Cup," he said.

* He was delighted with the addition of young Europe-based defenders Tommy Smith and Winston Reid.

"Hopefully it won't take too long to build combinations with them," he said.

"These guys are really outstanding prospects and we've got exciting players coming through the ranks in New Zealand. It is very positive."