Despite being the most popular sport on the planet, football (or soccer depending on where you are from) has often been rugby’s poor winter cousin in New Zealand.
However, the spotlight was thrust upon the sport after a magical night in Wellington in late 2009, when the All Whites beat Bahrain to qualify for their second ever FIFA World Cup in 2010.
At the time of their first game against Slovakia I was living in London, where world cup fever had taken over and I was starting to enjoy learning more about the ins and outs of the beautiful game. My work at the time was giving people time off during the day to go and watch the England games, of course I didn’t care to watch those, so my boss let me have time off for the New Zealand games. Off I went to the pub around the corner and found a few random fellow New Zealand supporters to sit with during the game.
The All Whites were not expected to trouble any teams in their group, so we weren't expecting much to happen. However, to our delight the All Whites held their own (down 1 - 0) and three minutes into stoppage time, out of nowhere came a cracking cross from Shane Smeltz finding the head of Winston Reid, who found the back of the net. And before you knew it the All Whites had their first point at a FIFA World Cup. Sparking a great run where they finished the tournament unbeaten, drawing with Italy and Paraguay. Which certainly gave a Kiwi living in London some bragging rights over his English colleagues for a few weeks.
If you don't know what I’m talking about, you can relive it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1qHClwZiRg. Enjoy!
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