The two side will finally meet again next month in Australia's farewell game at the MCG on May 24 before heading to the World Cup. It's the first time in five years since the fierce trans-Tasman rivals last clashed.

June 2005 was Ricky Herbert's first match in charge of the All Whites as his side lost 1-0 at Craven Cottage, the London home of English Premier League club Fulham.

New Zealand goalkeeper Glen Moss, who will miss the opening two matches of the World Cup because of a ban for swearing at a referee almost two years ago, led the offensive for a continual Test match, or series, against Australia.

"I don't see why we don't play Australia more often to be honest," the Victory keeper said. "They're our neighbours and obviously there's a big sporting rivalry.

"It'd be great to have an Anzac Test, or some sort of concept. Hopefully this won't be the last time we play them."

Australia and New Zealand have met 62 times, the Socceroos winning 38 times and the All Whites 13, with 11 draws. New Zealand's last victory was in Auckland in June 2002, when Ryan Nelsen scored the only goal to seal qualification for the Confederations Cup.

"You know what the Aussies are like," Moss added. "They don't mind giving you a bit of banter, so it'll be a good chance for us to show them we can compete, that football is growing here and that we can take it to the big boys.

"When you put the Kiwi jersey on, especially playing against someone like Australia, you are going to play out of your skin. I know it's something all the boys are really looking forward to."

The match on May 24 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, which holds a capacity of 100,000, has been touted as a sell out.

Midfielder Tim Brown echoed Moss's challenge.

"It's the biggest rivalry in New Zealand sport. Why can't we make that a regular thing? We've shown by qualifying for the World Cup we'll give them a good game," the 24 Test veteran said.

"It's going to be intense and physical. A good result won't do us any harm [of creating a regular game."

Gold Coast and All Whites striker Shane Smeltz wanted to see the respective federations act rather than sitting on their hands.

"We're so close. It'd be fantastic to set that up," Smeltz said. "I think with both countries being in the World Cup there's more on this match. It's a matter of the federations setting it up.

"The players would certainly back it, from both sides. It'd be great for the fans and great for football in this part of the world. I don't see it being too much trouble to set up."

Smeltz also defended criticism of the All Whites defensive game plan.

"We've turned the corner," he proclaimed. "Our country has a good number of strikers. A major reason we have qualified for the World Cup has been our style of play.

"We know in international games we can't just defend. You can only defend at that level for so long - you're going to concede goals. We have to go out and attack and I think we do that a lot better now."

The World Cup, which New Zealand will be appearing at for the first time in 28 years, begins on June 11 with the All Whites facing Slovakia, defending champions Italy and Paraguay in their pool matches.

They will also play Serbia in Klagenfurt, Austria, on May 29 and Slovenia in Maribor on June 4, with a training match against Chile in South Africa on June 9.

Moss highlighted how important qualifying for the Cup was in terms of potential growth for football in New Zealand.

He added: "I was in Australia when it last qualified for the World Cup in Germany and the game just took off. It was unbelievable, it was everywhere.

"Now the Socceroos are on Weetbix boxes, coke - everything. Hopefully we can get out to the broader community and the game can take over here. There's no reason it can't."