Well done the All Whites
I couldn’t get the match, btu I heard the news within minutes.
I’m not sure if those in their 20s or younger will realise how soccer mad the country will go, as the World Cup approaches. It doesn’t matter that we don’t have a hope in hell of winning – it is just about actually being in the World Cup.
In 1982 I actually won a school debate on the topic that Soccer has replaced Rugby as our national sport. The victory was impressive as the judge was Clive Currie – our social studies teacher, but also a former All Black.
But back then in 1982, soccer (sorry football) was the big thing. There were more soccer teams than rugby teams at school. Almost everyone followed the FA Cup teams (I was a Liverpool supporter) and the country watched every World Cup match as if it was a rugby test match.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:36 am
We beat Bahrain, we’re going to Africa,
We beat Bahrain, we’re going to Africa,
We beat Bahrain, we’re going to Africa!
And yeah, Football, not Soccer.
November 15th, 2009 at 6:24 am
The process of getting to Spain seemed more arduous…building the tension and expectation with every game…
Drawing with and then beating Australia started it all… then there was the was can throwing incident with the referee…the 13 (I think) nil result against Fiji…the Saudi game that had to be won by five clear goals to get another shot at China.
Wonderful stuff!
Well done to the lads.
November 15th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Actually, it IS soccer, being a contraction of Association Football.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:08 am
What a game!
What a goal!
What a save!
A magical night – and wonderful to see the heroes from 1982 there supporting the current team and receiving such a welcome from the fans!
I watched every game they played on the road to Spain (when I was still at school – it was the only time I ever bunked class)
I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Watching the team train at Endeavour Park during the week, it is obvious their support is huge.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:32 am
The contrast between this campaign and 1981 / 2 couldn’t be greater. Well summarised above Pita; that campaign was like an epic novel with all sorts of twists and turns.
This time, we only played 3 games at home; a post war record.
But, whatever, we were the better side and overcame the fact that this team hardly ever gets to play together.
2010 will be huge.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I’m not usually prone to bad language, but there are only three words to describe the atmosphere at the Ring of Fire last night, the match, the performance of the All Whites and the result …….
Absolutely Fucking Magic
November 15th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Despite the relatively light qualifying schedule, Bahrain were 5th in asia (yes that asia, the very big huge asia with lots of people and football teams in it).
This All White team are not a bunch of amateurs. Do not be surprised if they cause a huge upset in a group stage match.
All Whites 1….England zip.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I think they need to provide an alternative to Smeltz. He’s living on past glory and in the last two games has been absolulely terrible. Missed about 5 good chances at goal and seemed more worried about his hair cut.
Chris Wood is heaps better and ignited the forwards when he came on.
Killen was an absolute machine last night and Leo was dancing all over the park.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Good stuff, good stuff, awesome atmosphere. They had more chances to convert, but great corner from Leo Bertos and a great header from Fallon. Lovely to see that a penalty Bahrain had been playing for all night wasn’t converted.
Tidy up the plays and they could even see the second round. 
November 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I was a nervous bloody wreck .. watching the build up earlier in the day with the 82 team reminded me of the HUGE effort they went through. I was at Mt Smart for 2, or was it 3, of the games and it was great. Wish I was one of the 35,000.
Sthn Raider .. I also thought Killen was great. Playing in the Scottish League would demand fitness and full on effort and it showed why Celtic wanted to keep him.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Agreed jabba – Killen played his guts out, and had he scored with that volley in the first half, would have secured a place in NZ football immortality. But the rock was Ryan Nelsen. It was amazing to watch him running the defence in the first half (when he was down at the White Noise end); he is pivotal to the All Whites’ chances in SA, and it is easy to see now, having watched him for the first time, why he rated so highly in the Premiership.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Disappointing to see the attitude of Bahrain though. They knew the Sth American ref had a reputation for red cards and free kicks and so pulled out more bad acting moments than a b grade Hollywood movie.
It would have been laughable if not such a vital game for NZ
November 15th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
so who do we want the guys to play? .. The 82’s wanted to play the best and got the Brazilians (mmm, don’t get me started) the Jocks and Russkies which was pretty good.
I don’t want Oz as we have played them many times .. Brazil, Frogs, Italy, Portugal, ENGLAND (yeh baby) would be a start even though seeding may mean we will only get 1 top 10.
Not keen on the African countries (apart from SA) as they are to fast and obviously enjoy the hot conditions.
And yes I2 .. Horacio was fantastic .. if you have a weak defence you will be stuffed.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@Southern.
In Smeltz’s defence he was the only one out of the front 3 playing out of position. Lineker used to say the best way to judge his form is how many chances he gets in a game, not the number he scores. And SS is a bit like that.
From the way I see it the top seeds will be Italy, Germany, South Africa (a joke obviously), Brazil, Argentina, England, Span and Frnace. And if France don’t qualify that’ll go to the Netherlands.
So in theory we’d want to be in a group with the hosts, but I’d rather we got to play against one of the others.
I can’t see us ending up with Aus. They’ll be a tier 3 seed so, in theory, it’s possible but FIFA’s software will be too smart to let 2 out of 4 teams in a pool coming from the same outer limb of the world.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
LB – given that we have come through the Asian stream, I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll draw Aussie. My guess is that there’ll be a Euro team, a team from the Americas and a team from Africa.
Personally, I’d love to see us play England….
November 15th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“given that we have come through the Asian stream, I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll draw Aussie”
Yup; I’ll buy that.
5 / 8 groups will have 2 from Europe; we’re likely to be in one of those. And yes, England would be great. But then so would Italy, France, Spain, even Germany etc…
It’s not going to be bad, is it?
November 15th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I think the Rugby Union could be in the shit next year from a supporter point of view for the following reasons
- All Blacks could only be a 3rd rate team this morning through penalties
- 4 provinces will be cut from the NPC reducing local support
- High number of immigrants in NZ would naturally be aligned to football
Personally would love to see them play the team I’ve always supported (Germany).
Leg Break. Smeltz is a good player but doesn’t seem to be on his game at the moment, Hopefully this is just a bad patch.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Some football nations think the world cup is theirs to win. For others, the world cup is all about the journey. If the All Whites remember that it is all about the journey, then they should enjoy the experience and play as well as they can. Who knows, there may be an upset in South Africa.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
With a few (5 ) teams still to be chosen, we outrank South Africa and Korea -DPRK on the Fifa World rankings.
November 15th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Is there a few disgruntled rugby supporters on here today?
All the comments in support of this great win and team have ended up with negative feedback. WTF?
November 15th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
NZ should now look to bid for 2018 / 2022 with Australia as co hosts. It worked for Japan / Korea in 2002.
Wellington and Auckland would be much better venues than Cairns or Gosford
November 16th, 2009 at 8:58 am
New Zealand, meet your new national sport.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:08 am
I really enjoyed the game and of course the result. It’s good to see that it is acceptable to support a range of sports these days, like it has become acceptable to drink more than one brand of beer.
But maybe TV could still widen their horizons more. I can’t remember if it was on TV1 or TV3 sports news last night, they led with a long item on the All Whites, their third item was quite long on the All Blacks, and wedged in between, my wife blinked and missed it, was a report on the Black Sticks winning a tournament final and also gaining entry to their World Cup. I think that was crap coverage of the hockey.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Absolutely fantastic result. It’s brilliant to see, and will make the 2010 World Cup even better for Kiwi fans, regardless of the results the All Whites get. Personally I hope we get at least one marquee team in our group – I’d rather the boys get to play against someone really special (although I guess some of them have got to play Brazil, Spain etc recently thanks to the Confederations Cup) rather than hope for a ‘weaker’ draw to cross-fingers for a result.
On a related point, it was great to see another generation learn a little more about the heroes of ‘82 – it seems to be fairly well-known that NZ’s only (until now) qualification for the world’s biggest single-sport event was almost 3 decades hence, but many people seemed to know little about the details of that magnificent journey. It’s good to see more people learning about what the ‘82 team went through – a bunch of amateurs playing more games, having the biggest win ever, and traveling a far greater distance than any other qualifying team in history (at that point) to quality, as well as having a series of crazy ‘must-win, must-win by 5 goals’ games…
For some, it seemed ‘82 was well-known simply because it was the ‘only time’ – I sincerely hope that although it’s now lost that title, that people still remember what a truly fantastic achievement that also was, as the years pass…