New Zealand to play Mexico in Denver friendly
Reuters - Friday 15 April 2011, 23:42
WELLINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - New Zealand will play
Mexico in an international friendly in Denver on June 1, New
Zealand Football (NZF) said on Saturday.
Ricki Herbert's side played the CONCACAF champions before
the 2010 World Cup finals at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena last
March and the All Whites coach said despite June's match again
being in the United States, it was not on "neutral" territory.
"Mexico were playing in front of a home crowd in Los Angeles
and it'll be exactly the same in Denver, but that's great,"
Herbert said of the 90,000 fans who attended last year's match
that was won 2-0 by Mexico.
"We could be back in this part of the world in 2013 trying
to take that last step to Brazil (2014 World Cup finals) so we
want another taste of that type of intimidating environment."
The Oceania champions qualified for the 2010 World Cup
finals by beating the fifth-placed Asian side Bahrain in a
two-legged playoff but their route to the 2014 finals could be
vastly different.
World governing body FIFA will conduct a draw determining
whether the winner of New Zealand's Oceania group will play off
against Asian, North American or South American opposition for a
place in Brazil.
The match in Denver comes four days after Mexico face
Ecuador in Seattle and will be their last warm up before they
defend their CONCACAF Gold Cup title beginning on June 5, NZF
said.