The Outsiders' Edge

White is the new black

Well its 15 November and is the day after the night before, my head hurts, my voice is gone and I am emotionally drained. What may you ask is behind this state of affairs, well it can only be one thing, New Zealand has qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Having won the Oceania qualifying group New Zealand had to play off against the 5^th placed Asian nation who in this case was The kingdom of Bahrain. The last and only time New Zealand qualified was in 1982 with a team made up of amateurs, ex English journeymen professionals  and one  special 17 year old in a certain Mr Wynton Rufer who went on to play at the top level in Europe with Werder Bremen, won a European Cup Winners Cup, became the Oceania player of the Century and now is has the ear of the likes of Sepp Blatter and Michael Palttini.

The legacy and legend of that famous team has loomed over New Zealand Football like an Albatross ever since, could this be a chance for a new generation to take over their mantle?  Fittingly enough the coach and assistant coach of the current team both played in that legendary 1982 side and the father of striker Rory Fallon was assistant coach. It appeared that the stars were all aligned for New Zealand.

Having drawn 0-0 in the heat of Bahrain it all came down to a winner take all  return leg on November 14 at the Ring of Fire in Wellington. For New Zealand to qualify only a win would suffice, for Bahrain a score draw would be enough to qualify via the away goal rule.

Although New Zealand is known as a Rugby playing nation this game has been the hottest ticket in town over the last month with tickets sold out almost as soon as they went on sale. The demand was such that NZ Football requested Fifa that they be allowed to increase the capacity of the ground by 3000 in an attempt to match the demand, unfortunately due to Fifa security regulations only an extra 500 were made available. Interest was such that tickets with an original face value of $29 were being sold on a local auction website for over $300. Football Fever had finally arrived in little old Wellington.

Bahrain were the favourites and ranked far higher in the world Football pecking order than New Zealand. Besides being higher ranked Bahrain had a team budget that befits a oil rich nation, they arrived their own private jet (painted gold appropriately) and had 1 assistant for every player  whereas the new Zealand team had to bring their own sandwiches and take a public bus back into Wellington  from  training where they were put up in people spare rooms. I exaggerate slightly (ok a lot) but the gulf between the teams infrastructure was immense.

Although ranked 20 or so places higher on paper than New Zealand Bahrain were not that far apart in overall quality with only a couple of their players plying their trade outside their country. New Zealand on the other hand could boast one player from the English Premiership, two from the English Championship and one from Scottish giants Celtic (oh and a reserve goal keeper from the local amateur Petone club who can do you a good deal on Puma running shoes).

By Saturday morning Wellington had gone completely football mad with shops decked out in white and almost saturation coverage in the media, to fan of a New Zealand sport that is not Rugby it was a joy to behold. You could almost feel that something special was about to happen. As the game was sold out the local council erected a giant screen down on the waterfront for those that could not get a ticket to the match and of course the local drinking establishments provided other more alcoholic (and warmer) places to watch the game.

Driving to the game one could see a stream of people decked out in white walking to the stadium chanting loudly, it was going to be a big night. Walking from my car park into the ground through the ’special’ entrance (it’s who you know not what you know) I noticed that the group of gentlemen I was walking next to all looked rather large and menacing and were looking at me intently, oh no had I forgot to put my trousers on again, was my fly down, a bit unnerved I then realised that the guy I was walking behind was actually the Acting Prime Minster of my country. I obviously looked like an assassin in waiting, more likely I just looked to scruffy for the ’special entrance’. With the Politicos in attendance it was obvious that this game was the big thing in town.

Once I had escaped the clutches of the Special Services (think the Bourne Identity only without all the spy stuff and any of the action, actually I just walked past them) and got inside the stadium the enormity of the night dawned, the noise was incredible and with a parade of  the 1982 world cup qualifying team around the stadium the night was set to go off like a Fireworks plant next to a Match factory.

It was not an overly cold evening but looking at the Bahrain players warming up you would think it was blizzard conditions, they were all wearing hats, coats and gloves, I know then that this was going to be our night. When the New Zealand team took the field there was roar from the crowd the likes of which had not been heard in a New Zealand stadium before, you could feel the tension and passion in the air.

As expected with only a score draw or a goal to get Bahrain started the game at a great pace, breaking down the left wing and drawing a rather soft foul that resulted in a booking for New Zealand’s Ben Sigmund and what looked like a need to amputate the left leg of the Bahrain player on the ground such was the pain he appeared to be in. Luckily the player on the ground was cured right after the free kick was given and he treated us to a back flip when getting up to show his joy at his miraculous recovery. Unfortunately this was only the start of a trend from the Bahrain players who tended to go to ground at the slightest touch.

The first ten minutes were tense for New Zealand with Bahrain having the better of the exchanges and forcing a good save from Paston. However using the advantage of the three big strikers the game began to turn New Zealand’s way with Ryan Nelsen heading over from close range, Chris Killen almost producing a wonder strike that hit the cross bar and Leo Bertos going close from a free kick. The crowd was then treated to some world class play from both sides with a wonderful header from Rory Fallon matched by the Bahraini goal keepers world class save to deny him.

On 44 minutes Ben ‘Siggy’ Sigmund had a rush of blood to the head and thought he was a winger, through some deft skill that only a lumbering Centre back could produce he beat a number of players with the ball and turned to cross, it was then he realised he wasn’t a winger and blasted the ball off the Bahrain defender for a corner. It was from this resulting corner that the game was turned on its head, a pin point delivery from Leo Bertos into the box found Rory Fallon’s head and as he said after the match ‘I don’t miss them ones’. One nil to New Zealand, the stadium erupted as if everyone had won the lottery, the chant went up from the crowd ‘He’s big he’s bad he’s better than his dad Rory Rory Fallon’. Half time came and the crowd had a chance to take a breath or as is the case in New Zealand rush to the bar to stock up on beer before the second half.

Forty five minutes to go, could New Zealand hold out and do the impossible, we were soon to find out. Bahrain came charging out of the blocks at the start of the second half and with a nice move down the right flank wrong footed defender Tony Lochead who turned and clipped the heels of the Bahrain attacker, down he went and the inevitable occurred, Penalty.

While the crowd and the New Zealand players held their heads in their hands the Bahrain team went into celebration mode as if they had just one the game, players were prostrating themselves on the ground in thanks whilst others went to the small Barahini contingent behind the goal and celebrated,

they seemed to forget that they still had to score the penalty. Up stepped regular penalty taker Sayed Mohamed, all that was between him and glory was 6′5” Wellington Phoenix keeper Mark Paston. The crowd was almost silent as Mohamed stepped back to take the kick. He hit it to the right of Paston who guessed correctly and dropped on the ball and gathered it to the relief of the crowd, the cheering at the save was louder than when New Zealand scored.

After the miss the wind was knocked out of the Bahrain players their heads went down and the visibly looked dejected. New Zealand then took control of the match bringing on Andy Barron in the midfield and West Bromwich Albion’s 17 year old sensation Chris Wood up front (keep an eye on this kid, he is going to be a star). This change almost resulted in another goal for New Zealand with A League leading scorer Shane Smeltz put through on goal only to put it agonizingly wide.

With ten minutes to go New Zealand being one up and this of course been the home of the Wellington Phoenix it was time for shirts off time, the display of wobbling and shuddering man flesh was a site to behold (or not).

Bahrain had their last chance with a free kick outside the box in the last few minutes, the strike was deflected into the air by Ryan Nelsen  with the ball coming down on the goal line, the next second the ball was in the back of the net but Paston had been adjudged to have been fouled in the box.

With injury time up all that was left for the referee to do was to blow for full time. The scenes at the whistle were ones I will not forget for a long time, the players hugged and high fived each other, the crowd screamed and shouted and copious amounts of man hugging was seen to break out

Finally after 27 years New Zealand was going back to the World Cup, we might not win it or even win a game but this just shows that in a world of superstars sometime the little guy gets a shot at the  big time.