June 4, 2004

Santa Barbara, Calif. -

Moving one step closer to qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, UC Santa Barbara's Neil Jones and Tony Lochhead helped lead New Zealand's All Whites in a 10-0 thrashing of Tahiti in the Oceana Football Conference's Nations Cup. The top two teams from the cup will face each other twice for the right to qualify for the upcoming World Cup.

Taking the field for the first time with the All Whites, Jones scored his first career at international soccer's highest level after coming into the game as a reserve, earning his first career international cap. Jones has been with the squad for the entire tournament but had not taken the field until the last match. Lochhead, who is amidst his second stint with the All Whites, has started every single match since being called up to the full national team, earning five caps in the process.

The All Whites will now go on to face Fiji in the fifth round of the Nations Cup three points behind the Solomon Islands for the second spot. In order for New Zealand to capture second they must defeat Fiji and the Solomon Islands must lose to a powerful Australian side that is sitting in first with a guarantee to make the finals.