Outsiders Slovakia, New Zealand meet in opener

RUSTENBURG, South Africa (AP):

Slovakia and New Zealand, two World Cup outsiders, are keen to show they will not be easy prey in South Africa, when they meet in their Group F opener today.

Slovakia are in their first international tournament as an independent nation since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

New Zealand, meanwhile, are returning to the World Cup stage for the first time since their debut appearance in 1982.

But New Zealand captain and central defender Ryan Nelsen, who plays for Blackburn in the English Premier League, says the performances his team delivered in warm-up games demonstrated they have the talent to test their World Cup group opponents, which also include Italy and Paraguay.

"We've proved over our last four, five games we can be competitive," Nelsen said yesterday, looking back on a recent 1-0 win over world No. 15 Serbia. "We're a very good football team. It's as simple as that."

Apart from Nelsen, others based in England are Middlesbrough striker Chris Killen, Plymouth striker Rory Fallon and Ipswich Town's Tommy Smith.

The All Whites also have Shane Smeltz, who was the top scorer last season in the Australian A-League.

"We've proven that we have been more than competitive across the board," said coach Ricki Herbert, a defender in New Zealand's 1982 World Cup squad in Spain.

New Zealand, ranked 78th in the world and viewed as the weakest team in the group, profited from Australia's switch from the Oceania Confederation to the Asian Confederation following the 2006 World Cup. They easily won their regional qualifying tournament, featuring mostly small Pacific island nations, and then beat Bahrain - the fifth-place team in Asian qualifying - to reach South Africa.

The challenge now is to improve on their showing 28 years ago when they lost all three group games.

Slovakia out-qualified Czech Republic and Poland to reach this World Cup.

New Zealand's Nelsen said he expected tough opposition. "They are very strong, very disciplined, very organised. Their team all round is very solid," he said. "They're going to be very awkward to play, kind of like ourselves."

Slovakia are without 33-year-old midfielder Miroslav Karhan, their most experienced player, who was ruled out with an Achilles' tendon injury.

Strikers Filip Holosko and Robert Vittek are also regaining match fitness after injuries. That means 23-year-old Sparta Prague midfielder Juraj Kucka, who didn't play in World Cup qualifying but scored in Slovakia's 1-1 draw against Cameroon last month, may feature at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium.

Liverpool centre back Martin Skrtel has returned to normal training after breaking his foot in February and captain Marek Hamsik of Napoli is back from a muscle injury.