Defender Tommy Smith won his second New Zealand cap as a substitute as the All Whites lost their opening pre-World Cup friendly 2-1 to Australia in Melbourne. Brett Holman netted Australia’s winner in the fourth minute of injury time after Dario Vidosic had equalised Chris Killen’s first half opener for New Zealand.
Coach Ricki Herbert chose to start with the side which gained a draw against Bahrain in Manama in October to take his side to the World Cup finals, leaving recent recruits Smith and Winston Reid of Danish side FC Midtjylland left on the bench.
Smith, who has been used on the left side of a three-man defence when playing for the All Whites, came on in the 59th minute and almost created a goal for Rory Fallon with a fine cross but the Plymouth man’s header was saved.
New Zealand are off to Austria for a training camp and face Serbia and Slovenia in friendlies and finally Chile in a training game in South Africa before taking on Slovakia, Paraguay and Italy in their World Cup group games.
New Zealand: Mark Paston, Ben Sigmund, Tony Lochhead (Tommy Smith 59), Ivan Vicelich (Andrew Boyens 51), Ryan Nelsen (c), Simon Elliott, Tim Brown (Michael McGlinchey 46), Shane Smeltz (Jeremy Brockie 66), Chris Killen (Chris Wood 66), Leo Bertos (Winston Reid 33), Rory Fallon.