Shot at glory

The All Whites have the chance to enter Kiwi sporting folklore once again in their World Cup playoff in Qatar. DALE OWENS speaks to key figures from the famous 1982 and 2010 campaigns and the new generation.

- DALE OWENS

In a country where outperforming international giants is considered a national sport in itself, few achievements come bigger for our tiny South Pacific nation than reaching the Football World Cup.

At 6 am New Zealand time on June 15, the All Whites have a shot at fame once again. Our national team plays in a winner-takes-all game against Costa Rica in Qatar. The prize is a place at World Cup 2022 and a chance to compete against the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Only twice in 21 World Cups, in 1982 and 2010, has New Zealand qualified for the most watched and celebrated team sporting event on the planet. If we beat our Central American opponents, this team will be national heroes and take their place at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar in November.

Those who don't believe we have a chance should remember that New Zealand has overcome the odds before. Anyone inside Wellington's Westpac Stadium on November 14, 2009, will never forget the moment the All Whites clinched a spot at the 2010 World Cup with a 1-0 win over Bahrain. The team, led by its sole English Premier League player, Ryan Nelsen, and filled out with Australian league and lower English league players, was not expected to achieve a miracle.

Plymouth Argyle and All Whites striker Rory Fallon recalls the mood: "You had all these really good pros that had been just fighting for a long time - just scrapping in England, scrapping in Scotland, all these places - and then we were just thrust on to the world stage. And it was just, wow, this is what it's like."

In Wellington, it was do-or-die. Because of the way the play-offs work, New Zealand needed to win to go any further. Fallon remembers the build-up to the game as football fever spread. "It was unreal, because you've never seen a crowd like it in New Zealand before."