Soccer: White's awards crown great year for women

Oceania player of the year Rosie White 15, came back from injury to star for New Zealand at the U17 and U20 world cup. Photo / Getty Images.

The huge steps made by national women's soccer teams last year were further reflected in their haul at New Zealand Football's awards ceremony yesterday.

There was no surprise in young striker Rosie White being named young women's player of the year after her hat-tricks at the Fifa Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups, but the honours did not end there.

Her under-20 team, which went close to reaching a breakthrough quarter-final at the World Cup in Chile, took the team of the year award, upstaging contenders such as the Oceania Cup-winning All Whites, the Football Ferns, Waitakere United and the national under-23 team.

John Herdman, coach of the senior and under-20 women's teams, headed Ricki Herbert (All Whites/Wellington Phoenix), Paul Temple (under-17 women), Chris Milicich (Waitakere United) and Stu Jacobs (Olympic team/Team Wellington) as coach of the year.

In perhaps the biggest surprise, White, 15, was also named Oceania's player of the year, beating senior international Ali Riley (Football Ferns/Stanford University) - who was named New Zealand women's player of the year - for that award.

"It's a big day. I didn't really expect to be honoured like that," White said.

"It was a huge year last year with two World Cups and I guess all the hard work paid off.

"The year didn't start so well as I was injured for three-quarters of 2008 but I made it back for the good bits."

Shane Smeltz was again the big winner among the men.

Returning from his new base on Australia's Gold Coast, the All Whites/Wellington Phoenix striker won the New Zealand player of the year for the second successive year and joined White in being named the top player in Oceania.

"I play well when I'm comfortable and when you're around players that you enjoy playing with and a coach that you enjoy playing under it makes it a hell of a lot easier," Smeltz said.

"We [the All Whites] are looking forward to the Confederations Cup and we want to be hitting our straps when the big one comes up later in the year with the World Cup playoff."

Chris Wood, who recently debuted for West Bromich Albion in their EPL clash with Portsmouth, took the men's young player of the year award.

New Zealand Football Championship player of the year awards were made for the past two seasons.

Both appeared clear-cut, with Ben Sigmund (Auckland City) taking the 2007-08 honours and young Fijian/Waitakere attacker Roy Krishna acclaimed for the just-finished season.

Peter O'Leary, still in contention for a spot on the referees' panel for next year's World Cup, was recognised as referee of the year and Dunedin linesman Brent Best was named assistant referee of the year.