Football Ferns captain Ali Riley understands the importance of her team's final hitout before heading into the Women's World Cup on home soil this month.
As the world's top female footballers begin to assemble for the global showpiece in New Zealand and Australia, the home side carry the hopes of the nation, despite no wins to show for their five previous appearances at the tournament.
They're on a 10-game winless streak, dating back to a 2-1 victory over Philippines last September, and have scored just one goal in seven outings so far this year. These are statistics the NZ women will want to turn around, as they round off their preparation against Vietnam at Napier on Monday.
"It's super important," Riley told Newshub. "It's our sendoff game... it's the one of last open games, as we prepare for the biggest event in probably most of our lives.
"We want to work on our cohesion, because there are a group of us that haven't gotten to play together, with Ria [Percival] coming back into the squad and Annalie Longo. I'm so excited to play with them.
"I think we know each other from being on the team for so long, but to get that one last runaround with the group that potentially could be starting to see how it feels...
"It's a sendoff too for the New Zealand public, a rallying cry for them to come see us at the opening game at Auckland."
Debutants Vietnam are ranked 32nd in the world - six spots below New Zealand - and qualified for the World Cup as playoff winners at the Asian Cup. They offer ideal opposition for the Ferns to reverse their form, with their tournament-opener against Norway looming 10 days later.
Between them, Riley (152) and Percival (161) have amassed more than 300 games for their country - they are the two most-capped Football Ferns ever - with teammates Betsy Hassett (143) and Longo (127) not far behind.
US-born Riley was not in attendance, when the NZ team were named last week, but has since arrived from her California base, where she plays for Angel City in the National Women's Soccer League.
"The jetlag kind of works in my favour," she insisted. "I just go to bed early, wake up early, but I'm so excited.
"Once I touched down and breathed in the amazing New Zealand air, I got this amazing sense of pride and honour, just to be named to the squad for a fifth time - it's not something I would ever take for granted.
"I feel so, so privleged to be in this position and to be on this team, which is a really special group. I know we can do what we're setting out to do, but these next couple of weeks, we have to be super focused."
