The All Whites are getting busy, people. Within a week of announcing a pre-Confederations Cup friendly against Belarus, they’ve now gone and added a game against Northern Ireland in there too. There’ll be a closed door friendly against an unnamed club side in Dublin in between the two internationals and then bang on into the Confeds Cup (for which the draw was finalised last week too, with the African Cup of Nations throwing forward Cameroon as its champions).

After bloody ages without any decent friendlies, here we have two in a row after a pair of solid ones in October. All it took was qualifying for a major tournament, whaddaya know? And these are two strong teams, not the quality that they’ll face in Russia later that same month but still damn decent. The right standard of team that the All Whites can both get a competitive workout against but also will have a chance to win.

Other than the financial side of things, which is always a drag, there’s no reason why these kinds of games shouldn’t be the norm for New Zealand, especially if we wanna compete for World Cup berths, but at least they’re going all in here as the opportunity has arisen. Like, games against Germany and Spain would be sexy… but how much do you learn from a 5-0 thrashing? You want to be playing teams around your level as you work up, maybe slightly ahead, and these two nations should offer a bit of that.

Belarus first, ignore the FIFA rankings because those things are pure garbage. Instead focus on recent results and key players. And, ah… there aren’t too many of the latter. All dudes based in central or eastern Europe although they do still boast the one and only Alexander Hleb, once of Arsenal Football Club notoriety. Alyaksandr Martynovich is a tall, sturdy defender who captains the side and has had some club success with FC Krasnodar in Russia (although he’s been out of favour the last two seasons). Young midfielder Nikita Korzun could be a danger man as well if he gets a chance, he’s starting to make a name for himself at Dynamo Kyiv.

It also won't be the first time that some of these players meet either, as the likes of Chris Wood, Tommy Smith, Ryan Thomas and a few others were a part of the Olympic team that lost 1-0 to Belarus in 2012. 

Being a former Soviet state, Belarus didn’t play their first official international until 1992 and they’re yet to qualify for a major tournament. They finished fourth in their qualifying group for Euro 2016 but were way back on third placed Ukraine and a playoff spot, winning three of ten games. They did beat Slovakia 1-0 away thanks to a Stanislaw Drahun goal but struggled to put away the weaker sides in the group (and were no match for Spain or Ukraine, naturally). World Cup qualifying is going about the same way as a fantastic 0-0 draw at home against France has been spoiled by a home draw with Luxembourg and an away defeat to Bulgaria. With Netherlands and Sweden also in their group, things don’t look too likely.

As for the style of play, expect a typically Eastern European approach, with a compact defence and a pragmatic mindset. They don’t score a lot of goals but then they also don’t concede too many either. Granted, the team might have changed a bit by the time we play them because right now they’re without a manager - Alexander Khatskevich had been in charge for two years but in December, in light of those World Cup qualifiers, he was asked to take a pay cut on account of his poor results. He refused… so they fired him.

By the way, their friendly form is really good. They’ve beaten the likes of the Republic of Ireland, Norway and Greece in the last year, all by scores of 1-0 of course. The only friendly defeat in there was a 3-0er away to… Northern Ireland. Ha. When the All Whites get to them, it’ll be on the end of a busy few weeks beginning with a friendly in Switzerland on June 1, with a qualifier against Bulgaria and the New Zealand game coming within three days of each other on June 9 and June 12, both in Belarus but in different cities.

Northern Ireland are a similar kind of team, except better. They’ll keep things tight and play as a cohesive unit, looking to capitalise on set pieces. They’re also chock-full of Premier League and Championship players and will be calling on a team probably based entirely in Britain so travel ain’t gonna be a factor there. Guys like Gareth McCauley, Jonny Evans, Chris Brunt (all of West Brom), Steven Davis of Southampton, Stuart Dallas at Leeds and Michael McGovern and Kyle Lafferty of Norwich catch the eye for sure. Under the guidance of manager Michael O’Neill, the Norners are going through a real golden patch. Oh and also Aaron Hughes, presuming the old man is still around, used to play a lil for Melbourne City if you remember.

Having never played at the Euros before in their history, Northern Ireland booked top place in their qualifying group with a 3-1 win over Greece, Kyle Lafferty leading the way with seven goals in their ten games. Only eight goals conceded in those matches and only one defeat. They took that toughness into the competition proper as a 2-0 win over Ukraine, despite narrow defeats to Poland and Germany, was enough to sneak them through as a third placed finisher and it took a late McAuley own goal for Wales to beat them in the knockouts.

They haven’t made the World Cup since 1986 but there’s hope that they can get to Russia with another decent looking group handed to them. Germany will cruise to the automatic spot, they’ve already won four of four including a 2-0 win over N.Ire but the Northerners will fancy their chances against the likes of Czech Republic and Norway.

NZ plays them on June 2, they then travel to Azerbaijan on June 10 for a qualifier. Right now the defeat to Germany is their only one and they sit second with seven points from four matches. They’re planning on two training camps in Britain before they play us, so they’ll be well prepared, with a continental camp in between the game with the All Whites and the qualifier on the tenth.

Michael O’Neill: “I wanted a home game following our first two camps and it will come at a good time for us. It’s not too close to the Azerbaijan game and it will help to keep the players sharp. The players will need a game at that time as some of their seasons will have finished as early as the end of April. We will use it sensibly and get as many of the squad on the pitch as possible.”

The All Whites are a stronger side than Azerbaijan, if you were wondering. Northern Ireland beat them 4-0 in their home tie. We should also be a stronger team than Belarus though playing away evens things out. Northern Ireland are beatable but could be very tough to take. Both are exciting and competitive games.

As for the club friendly in the middle, the fact that it’s still unnamed probably means they haven’t confirmed who it’ll be yet. Notably they’re popping over the border into the Republic with the game in Dublin, though being a closed-door friendly it doesn’t really matter who they play. It’s all practice anyway and nobody’s gonna be watching.

All Whites Upcoming Schedule:

• 25 March vs Fiji @ Lautoka (WCQ)
• 28 March vs Fiji @ Wellington (WCQ)
• 2 June vs Northern Ireland, Belfast (FR)
• 7 June vs Unknown Club, Dublin (FR)
• 12 June vs Belarus, Minsk (FR)
• 17 June vs Russia, Saint Petersburg (CC)
• 21 June vs Mexico, Sochi (CC)
• 24 June vs Portugal, Saint Petersburg (CC)

So, two pretty impressive friendlies organised here – turns out they can finish a deal after all. Of course this still means that they won’t have played a friendly in New Zealand since 2014, when Neil Emblen was caretaker for a game against South Africa (which went a long way towards getting Jeremy Brockie and Michael Boxall their contracts over there). But there is a game in Wellington against Fiji and they played New Caledonia in Auckland late last year so slowly but surely the All Whites are getting towards where they should be. Getting friendlies to NZ is hard too, that’s gotta be said. It’s not easy to convince teams to travel so far from the heart of professional football in Europe or South America – it’s kind of our geographical burden that we’ll be travelling more than we’ll get to play hosts.

Plus this comes after those impressive games against USA and Mexico, not only promising performances but also strong opposition to be playing. The previous friendlies in the Hudson era? Uzbekistan, China, Thailand, South Korea, Myanmar and Oman (all away and combining for one win). Apparently times are changing.