Soccer: Potential small crowd awaits NZ

Football Ferns coach Tony Readings says his side won't be bothered if they play in front of a packed house or a few locals at the London Olympics. Photo / Getty Images.

Football Ferns coach Tony Readings says his side won't be bothered if they play in front of a packed house or a few locals at the London Olympics as figures have shown early ticket sales are desperately low for their opening game.

The New Zealand women's side play hosts Great Britain at Wales' Millennium Stadium on July 25, two days before the opening ceremony, and British newspaper The Daily Mail reported overnight that only 11,000 tickets have been sold for the 74,500-capacity venue.

In comparison, 62,000 tickets have been sold for the Great Britain men's football team's match against Senegal at Manchester United's home ground, Old Trafford, the following day.

"From our point of view, for us, we've got one mission and that's to go over there and do what we want to do on the pitch and I think those things in terms of ticket sales and things like that are not within our control," Readings told APNZ.

"For us, whether there's 5,000 or 75,000 there our mission's going to be the same. So we are not concerned about that at all really."

New Zealand also meet Brazil at Millennium Stadium on July 28 and Cameroon three days later in Coventry and Readings said he expected ticket sales to pick up as the Games got closer to getting underway although the slow sales had caught him off guard.

"It was a little bit of surprise but what I imagine will happen now for the next couple of months is the momentum will grown and I think that number will rise quite rapidly between now and the fixture itself."