Player Profile

Moss has been forced to sit out the All Whites’ first two matches in South Africa, completing a four-match ban that also ruled him out of the World Cup play-off games against Bahrain.

He admits to “dropping the f word” in New Zealand’s final qualifier, a 2-0 loss to Fiji, after a bad foul went unpunished by Vanuatu referee Lencie Fred. The suspension would probably have been halved had Kiwi officials not missed the deadline to appeal.

Frustratingly for Moss, the match against Fiji was meaningless – the All Whites had already secured their play-off spot.

Moss was in good form at last summer’s Confederations Cup, starting all three matches. His clean sheet in the goalless draw with Iraq was the first by a New Zealand keeper at a major Fifa competition.

He was born in New Zealand but brought up on the Australian gold coast, and has an Aussie passport. He joined Melbourne last year from Wellington Phoenix, where he had vied with Mark Paston for a starting spot.

He began the 2009/10 as first choice but lost his place to Aussie youngster Mitchell Langerak in December, and was not involved as Melbourne lost the A-League Grand Final to Sydney.