All Whites get helping hand for playoff preparations

Two former national football team coaches have given the All Whites a helping hand with preparations for their World Cup playoff against Costa Rica next month.

Current coach Danny Hay and assistant Darren Bazeley have picked the brains of former coach Anthony Hudson and former Football Ferns coach John Herdman prior to their departure for Europe this week.

The pair have both come up against Los Ticos during qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean [Concacaf].

Hudson is an assistant with the United States, who have qualified for this year’s World Cup in Qatar, while Herdman is in charge of Canada, who have qualified for the first time since their first appearance in 1986.

Hay said he and Bazeley had been able to get some ‘‘really good insights’’ from Hudson and Herdman, who each faced Costa Rica twice. Their teams both had a win at home and a loss away.

‘‘The insights from John Herdman and Anthony Hudson have been invaluable and confirmed a lot of the stuff that we’ve seen ourselves,’’ Hay said.

Hay said one key lesson from the pair had been about how Costa Rica make their experience playing in high-stakes matches come to life on the pitch – ‘‘their ability to manage referees and win free kicks in dangerous areas’’.

‘‘It’s like a lot of the Central American and South American sides – they know how to initiate contact and go down and win free kicks – soft free kicks. That’s something we’re going to have to be very wary of, because they’re so dangerous at set piece time.’’

The other key part of the preparations has been video analysis. With Costa Rica’s 14 World Cup qualifiers stretching over 21 hours of action, there’s been no shortage of footage for Hay and his staff to watch, and there’ll be more where that came from before they meet in four weeks’ time.

A 26-strong All Whites squad is set to be named today and Hay and Bazeley are due to leave for Europe tomorrow.

The team will set up camp in Marbella in the south of Spain from next week, ahead of a friendly against Peru in Barcelona on June 6 and the playoff on neutral territory in Doha on June 15.

Costa Rica coach Luis Fernando Suárez has named a 27-strong squad for the coming international window, where his side has a pair of Concacaf Nations League matches against Panama and Martinique before taking on the All Whites for a place at the World Cup.

Their schedule takes them first to Panama City for a match on June 3, then home to San Jose for a match on June 6, after which they will fly to Qatar, arriving around the same time as the All Whites.

Star goalkeeper Keylor Navas was not included in Costa Rica’s squad, but is set to join up with the team in Doha ahead of the playoff.

Both coaches will have to cut their squads to 23 players on the day of the match, which is set to kick off at 9pm local time.

The All Whites are trying to qualify for their third World Cup, having taken part in 1982 and 2019. Costa Rica have qualified five times.