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February 1, 2004 In with the new for New Zealand National Team for Australia Cup 2004 by Jeremy Ruane A new-look New Zealand National Team to contest the Australia Cup tournament in February heralds the start of New Zealand Soccer to mould a combination of players which, in the qualifying tournament for the 2007 Women¹s World Cup Finals, they envisage will be capable of beating Australia and going on to prove themselves a competitive force in the China finals.   The eighteen-strong squad boasts a collective total of just seventy-seven international appearances, with nine new caps having been named - five locally-based players and four players currently plying their soccer skills on the US college circuit.  Hard selection decisions have been made, none more so than the one which calls time on the international career of one of New Zealand soccer's longest-serving players, Terry McCahill.   A veteran of forty internationals, and the only player from this country's lone appearance at a Women¹s World Cup Finals - in 1991 - who is still actively playing at the highest level available to her, the experience and knowledge which the Lynn-Avon United stalwart boasts in abundance will undoubtedly be missed in the embryonic stages of the new-look squad¹s development.   The thirty-three-year-old Auckland defender, who is set become just the fourth player to make one hundred appearances for the "A Team"- the province¹s senior squad - later this year, was not considered part of the long-term objectives which New Zealand Soccer hopes the national team will realize.   It is a harsh call for the popular McCahill, and while this writer was among those hoping that the former New Zealand captain would be afforded the chance to take her final bows on the world stage in a manner more befitting one of this country's most-capped soccer internationals, said scribe is also mindful that sentiment should play no part in the selection of any team, and the decisions made should be respected accordingly.   Following the retirements announced towards the end of last season by McCahill¹s fellow New Zealand stalwarts Wendi Henderson and Yvonne Vale, and with Kelly Jarden and Mel Edwards having gracefully made their exits from the international stage, the squad named by New Zealand Soccer boasts just eight players from that which took part in New Zealand's last internationals in April, 2003.   Small Whites ambassador Maia Jackman, with twenty-one appearances, now ranks as the most-capped player in the squad, while Nicky Smith (15 caps), Zarnia Cogle (13), Simone Ferrara (9), Rachel Howard (6), Priscilla Duncan (4), Rebecca Smith (4) and Hayley Moorwood (3) are the other survivors from last year's World Cup qualifying series in Canberra.   After making her first two appearances for New Zealand at the Pacific Cup tournament in Australia in 2000, US-based Meisha Pyke has been recalled to the national team, while two of her fellow former Waikato colleagues who also study at American colleges are among the newcomers to the squad.   Brooke Rangi and Naomi Clarke have been given their chance to play for New Zealand at full international level for the first time, as have fellow US scholarship students Pip Meo and Rebecca Sowden, former Auckland reps both.   Two current members of the National Women's Soccer League championship-winning province will also make their international bows, with Zoe Thompson joining NWSL Player of the Year Amber Hearn in gaining selection in the eighteen to cross the Tasman.   Three of their cross-town rivals will also make the trip, with goalkeeper Jenny Bindon, Sarah Gibbs and Rebecca Simpson all earning call-ups for the first time. The second- and last-mentioned, along with Howard, all play for Takapuna, the club boasting the biggest representation in the squad.   This is something of a surprise, given Lynn-Avon United's dominance of the club scene in the northern region in recent seasons. But five of the twelve players named on stand-by for Australia Cup action hail from the champion Auckland club, while included among the dozen are five of the players who played in Canberra last April.   Another absence of note from the squad - either the chosen eighteen or those on stand-by - is that of any players from the Central Soccer combination which performed so creditably in last season's National Women's Soccer League.   The squad, which will be coached by Fred Simpson with the assistance of thirty-seven-times-capped New Zealand star Ali Grant, have been given a tough baptism of fire as they begin the road to China in 2007.   Brisbane will be their destination, the Australian Soccer Association (formerly Soccer Australia) having relocated the sixth annual Australia Cup tournament from the Sunshine Coast due to inadequate floodlighting facilities at the original venue.   New Zealand will be involved in the opening game against their arch-rivals from across the Tasman, a match which has added significance in light of New Zealand Soccer's decision not to enter the national women's team in the Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament.   An Australian victory on February 18 would serve to emphasise why NZS has come to the decision it has, one based not on gender nor lack of funding, according to Chief Executive Officer, Bill MacGowan.   "Right now, we are ranked second in Oceania in women's soccer", he says, "but hand on heart, it is extremely difficult at best to see how as generally inexperienced a squad as is currently available could overcome the Matildas in order to qualify for Athens. Therefore, rather than outlay money to bring players in from America and Australia to New Zealand before heading to Fiji for the qualifying tournament, and what we see as being a second-placed finish at best, NZS would prefer to spend the money we have budgeted for women's soccer to provide the players with a diet of regular, top quality international football, against opposition which will be a challenge to them and will prove better for their footballing development both in the short- and long-term".   One wonders, though, how this reasoning would look were this new-look New Zealand squad to turn the tables on the Matildas for the first time since 1994, and record a win founded on the lavish helpings of self-belief and confidence they are bound to boast in abundance, ahead of their first international fixture of the year.   It goes without saying that the national body's decision not to join Australia, Papua New Guinea and host nation Fiji in contesting the Olympic qualifiers has proven to be anything but universally popular!!   The players, understandably, want to play for their country, no matter what the circumstances, while the existing members of the still-financial body of the Women¹s Soccer Association of New Zealand, which oversaw the running of the women's game in this country before its governance was handed to New Zealand Soccer, have opted to hold a meeting to discuss this development, in Wellington on February 21st..   To say the timing is curious is an understatement, for while that meeting takes place, the national team will be taking on China - the world's fifth-ranked country in women's soccer - in Brisbane, a match which kicks off at 2pm local time in temperatures anticipated to be in the low-to-mid-thirties Celsius.   Three days later, New Zealands final game of the Australia Cup competition will mark their one hundredth full international appearance on the world stage, and the current Asian champions, North Korea, will be the country against whom this landmark fixture will be played.   While further internationals for the country's national women's soccer stars have yet to be announced, negotiations to confirm same in this and subsequent years are ongoing, with New Zealand Soccer determined to gain the maximum return possible for their financial investment in the womens game, which they, like all of New Zealands women's soccer fraternity, hope will bear fruit by way of qualification for the 2007 Women¹s World Cup Finals.     New Zealand National Team Player Club Pos Caps Goals Jenny Bindon Glenfield Rovers GK 0 0 Naomi Clarke Metro State College (USA) Mid 0 0 Zarnia Cogle New Brighton Str 13 0 Priscilla Duncan Southwest Baptist University (USA) Mid 4 1 Simone Ferrara Southern California Ajax (USA) Mid 9 5 Sarah Gibbs Takapuna Def 0 0 Amber Hearn Lynn-Avon United Mid 0 0 Rachel Howard Takapuna GK 6 0 Maia Jackman Ellerslie Def 21 11 Pip Meo Southwest Baptist University (USA) Str 0 0 Hayley Moorwood Lynn-Avon United Mid 3 1 Meisha Pyke Metro State College (USA) Def 0 0 Brooke Rangi Lockhaven University (USA) Def 0 0 Rebecca Simpson Takapuna Def 0 0 Nicky Smith Keilor Park (Australia) Str 15 11 Rebecca Smith Southern California Ajax (USA) Def 4 0 Rebecca Sowden William & Mary College (USA) Mid 0 0 Zoe Thompson Ellerslie Str 0 0   Schedule Date Opponents NZ k/o Feb 18 Australia 8pm Feb 21 China 5pm Feb 24 North Korea 8pm   All games at QE2 (formerly ANZ) Stadium, Brisbane