Town defender Tommy Smith has been confirmed as New Zealand’s captain for tonight’s World Cup play-off first leg against Mexico at the 105,000-capacity Estadio Azteca (Premier Sports, Sky channel 428, 8pm).

Coach Ricki Herbert revealed that Smith would be taking the armband in place of regular skipper Winston Reid with the West Ham man out with an ankle injury.

"The experience Tommy has from international level, the club he plays for and the level he plays at serves him well and he will bring those qualities to the side," Herbert said.

"But it won't all fall on one person's shoulders; we expect to have 11 leaders out there together."

Smith will be winning his 26th full cap as he and his All Whites team-mates - who will be in their second strip of all black this evening - look to qualify for the World Cup for the second tournament in a row having been unbeaten as they were eliminated at the group stage in South Africa in 2010.

The 23-year-old, who also played at last summer's Olympics, would be the first current Town player to play at successive World Cups since Terry Butcher appeared for England at the 1982 and 1986 finals.

New Zealand won the Oceania qualifying group, while the Mexicans were fourth in the CONCACAF region during a turbulent campaign with current manager Miguel Herrera their fourth in two months. There is no place in his squad for ex-Town loanee Giovani Dos Santos with no Europe-based players called up.

The second leg will be played at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium next Wednesday. Town boss Mick McCarthy already views Smith as a doubt for the Leicester match a week on Saturday with the defender not due back from that game until the day before the Foxes' visit.

Meanwhile, Town academy keeper Michael Crowe — who celebrates his 18th birthday today — will be on the bench for Geraint Williams's Wales U19s later this morning when they take on hosts Georgia in the first game of their UEFA European Championships qualifying mini-tournament in Tbilisi.

All Whites: 1-Glen Moss, 3-Tony Lochhead, 5-Tommy Smith (C), 7-Leo Bertos, 8-Michael McGlinchey, 15-Ivan Vicelich, 16- Jeremy Brockie, 17-Kosta Barbarouses, 20-Chris Wood, 21-Jeremy Christie, 22-Andrew Durante. Subs from: 2-Jake Butler, 4-Ben Sigmund, 6-Bill Tuiloma, 9-Shane Smeltz, 10-Rory Fallon, 11-Marco Rojas, 12-Tamati Williams, 13-Chris James, 14-Storm Roux, 18-Craig Henderson, 19-Aaron Clapham, 23-Jacob Spoonley.

Photo: Action Images

TractorCam added 09:53 - Nov 13 Best of luck Tommy, hope to see you qualify.
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MaySixth added 10:02 - Nov 13 Good luck Tommy. A player that has improved immeasurably and has won me over.
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MaySixth added 10:03 - Nov 13 I assume then that Chris Wood will be doubtful for Leicester as well next Saturday?
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ChrisMakin2012 added 10:08 - Nov 13 Smith and Chambo best CB's in league
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Keaneish added 10:18 - Nov 13 This week just gets better for all involved with Town doesn't it?
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essextractorboy93 added 11:32 - Nov 13 Go on Tommy! Get to Brazil! Surprised Mexico haven't called up any European based players, what is the point of that? It's an international break and this is world cup play off. Expect Mexico to go through over the two legs but still don't get why they haven't called up Gio etc
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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 14:22 - Nov 13 Thoroughly deserved, and good luck, think they may need it, but fingers crossed.
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BroskiBeen added 14:24 - Nov 13 Tommy Smith could eventually become the first Ipswich player to reach 100 International caps if he keeps this up still young and has close to 30
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HawkeyeBlue added 15:07 - Nov 13 The Mexicans are taking a calculated risk with the players called in. Essentially, the team is Club America of Liga MX plus Oribe Peralta up front and Rafa Marquez (who is way past his best) at the back. The new manager is the manager of Club America and has brought in his players to save the day. There has been talk of this for a while. One point, which I think has merit, is that Azteca has become much less of a fortress as more Mexican players have headed to Europe. This is because the pollution and altitude have always provided a massive home advantage for the Mexicans, but as their players have gone to Europe, they come back and don't adjust to those conditions, just like the away teams, so the advantage is gone. Club America plays its home games at Azteca, so presumably they are trying to regain this home advantage. Finally, there is a huge backlash in Mexico against the European based players. Essentially the attitude is that they are the reason Mexico is in this mess to begin with. I don't know how many followed it because it would have been in the middle of the night, but with 5 minutes left in CONCACAF qualifying Mexico were out of the World Cup. They trailed Costa Rica 2-1 and Panama led USA 2-1. If Panama won and Mexico lost, Mexico finished 5th (out of even the playoff places). USA scored 2 injury time goals to save Mexico (and as an American, I am still torn on whether I am happy about this). So, the view is that the European players failed, but were saved by the one team the Mexican support NEVER want to be saved by.

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irishtim added 15:12 - Nov 13 Clean sheet tonight Tommy & things will be lucking good. Best of luck hope you get there. Would be great to watch the world cup with ITFC player involved.
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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 15:45 - Nov 13 Hawkeye - wasnt aware of that, very interesting post.
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mickymacsbarmyarmy added 16:06 - Nov 13 playing in a stadium of this magnitude will stand Tommy in good stead for wembley may 2014 when itfc claim there place back in the elite & wave to our yellow friends going in the other direction
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HawkeyeBlue added 17:36 - Nov 13 Reading a little bit more, it appears that a couple of other Non-Club America players will probably feature tonight. Midfielders Carlos Pena and Luis Montes (who play with Rafa Marquez at Leon) look set to play. So it will be 7 Club America players, 3 Leon players and 1 from Santos Laguna (Oribe Peralta).
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KIWI78 added 19:04 - Nov 13 Tommy. Boys. Do us proud. Anouther big scalp to add to the growing collection of teams that read "New Zealand" as "Minows" would be great. Kia Ora.
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TimmyH added 20:49 - Nov 13 Tough tough game, hope he has a couple of good games but fancy Mexico to snip it! Come back uninjured please.
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chorltonskylineblue added 21:21 - Nov 13 NZ 2-0 down as half-time approaches :-( BBC Sport not covering it - doesn't even list it as a fixture, but you can get updates on the NZ websites
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HawkeyeBlue added 22:41 - Nov 13 Looks like the risk by Mexico worked. 5-1 to El Tri... and it wasn't really that close. Kiwi goalkeeper had several incredible saves in the first half. NZ tried to bunker in and it worked for about 35 minutes, but once they conceded it was going to be a long 55 minutes.
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