6 Dec 2009

Nelsen wants into Asia for Brazil 2010

3:03 pm on 6 December 2009

While the New Zealand footballers have found their 2010 World Cup opponents and are searching for warm-up matches, skipper Ryan Nelsen's sounding a call to join Australia in the Asian Confederation for the tournament after next.

The All Whites went through arguably the easiest qualifying process in the Oceania group, winning through in a play-off against the fifth-placed Asian side Bahrain.

But Nelsen's keen to move over to Asia for Brazil 2014, noting that Bahrain played perhaps 18 tough matches to qualify for the play-off while New Zealand had none.

Nelsen's All Whites have been drawn in a pool with the defending champions Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia.