Wellington  - New Zealand's All Whites see 2009 as their most important year since the national team reached the World Cup finals 26 years ago, an achievement that gave them their highest ever FIFA ranking of 47th.

After slumping to a record low ranking of 156th last year, New Zealand have risen to 54th after five wins in five games in a successful Oceania Nations Cup campaign, which doubled as the regional qualifier for next year's Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.

Half the players in the current squad were not born when the All Whites beat China 2-1 in Singapore in January 1982 to qualify for the World Cup finals in Spain, and coach Ricki Herbert, who was in that team, is looking for even younger blood for South Africa.

Having already qualified, the result of the long postponed last Oceania match against Fiji on November 19 in Lautoka is irrelevant so Herbert is using it to try out a group of promising youngsters to see if they are ready for the top level.

He has included six uncapped players in the squad of 16 who are all based in New Zealand. None of the nine professionals based in Europe and North America - Ryan Nelsen, Chris Killen, Simon Elliott, Duncan Oughton, Jarrod Smith, Chris James and Andrew Boyens - who have played in the qualifying games will be on call.

"We won't have any overseas players but we've earned the luxury of casting the net wider and looking at players who have performed at U- 20 and U-23 level to see if they can make the step to the national team," Herbert said.

The squad includes seven Oly-Whites who competed at Beijing, including captain Aaron Scott.

New Zealand Football chairman Frank Van Hattum, who was in the 1982 team with Herbert and assistant coach Brian Turner, says qualifying for the Confederations Cup, and a two-legged playoff with an Asian nation next November for a place in the 2010 World Cup, is the best chance in nearly 30 years to put the game back on the map in a rugby-mad nation.

The All Whites are hoping for a better outcome than in their two previous Confederations Cups in Mexico(1999) and France (2003) when they were eliminated winless - and pointless - at the group stage each time.

Star defender Nelsen, 30, who captains Blackburn Rovers and skippered the Oly-Whites in two games at Beijing, played in both those cups and says it would be "awesome" to play in a third after the Olympics.

"Then, of course, there is the World Cup. It would not be bad to complete the set, would it?"

Other cup prospects include strikers Shane Smeltz, 27, who has equalled Keith Nelson's 30-year-old record of scoring in six consecutive internationals, and Killen, also 27, who scored 15 goals in 26 internationals and plays for Celtic in Scotland.

Midfielders Elliott, 34, a veteran of 54 caps, and Chris James, 21, who was dubbed the find of 2006 when he debuted for the All Whites and now plays for Finland's Tampere United, are impressive players.

Another midfielder to watch is Jeremy Brockie, who at 20 has eight All White caps since making his debut in 2006 and has scored eight goals for the U-23 team this year. (dpa)