New Zealand's coach Ricki Herbert (R) celebrates with fans after their draw with Italy. - Reuters Photo
WELLINGTON: New Zealand celebrated its greatest ever feat in football Monday after minnows the All Whites achieved an astonishing 1-1 World Cup draw against reigning champions Italy.
With two draws from their first two games, fans and officials started contemplating the once impossible dream of qualifying for the second round, with one pool match remaining against Paraguay.
Leading the celebrations was Prime Minister John Key, who flew to South Africa for the match at Nelspruit.
“It was just sensational — my heart was racing for the last 30 minutes, it was just an incredible atmosphere,” Key told Television New Zealand.
“They had so much courage, it was just incredible.”Asked afterwards by reporters whether one of New Zealand’s greatest sporting achievements warranted a public holiday, Key joked: “Damn fine idea. I want the country to enjoy this. They’ll be dancing all over the place.”
Last Wednesday New Zealanders celebrated the 1-1 draw by their 78th world ranked team against Slovakia in their first match of the tournament and described the result as one of the nation’s biggest sporting feats.
The country of four million people is no stranger to sporting prowess but traditionally the all-conquering All Black rugby side has won the plaudits, and football has always been a poor relation.
But early Monday — the match started at 2:00 am New Zealand time — fans had reached new heights of elation as the All Whites held out the world’s fifth-ranked Italians.
Rejoicing supporters thought their team deserved even better, accusing Italy’s Daniele De Rossi of diving to earn the penalty that gave the world champions their equaliser.
“This ‘victory’ means so much to us because we have beaten them with 11 men and they have 12,” Liam Kerrisk, referring to the referee, told the New Zealand Herald newspaper at the Nelspruit stadium.
The Herald contrasted New Zealand’s total of 25 professional footballers to Italy’s 3,541.
“A country which had played just four World Cup matches before this morning drew with one which has won four World Cup titles. Crazy,” it said.
New Zealand Football chairman Frank van Hattum, who was the national side’s goalkeeper during their only previous World Cup finals appearance in 1982, paid tribute to his successor in the current team, Mark Paston.
Sitting with Key in the stadium, van Hattum suggested how Paston could be thanked for keeping out a barrage of second-half shots by Italy.
“I did reach over to the prime minister and say ‘This man deserves a knighthood’ and he said ‘He can have whatever he wants right now’,” he told Radio New Zealand.
John Adshead — who coached the All Whites at the 1982 World Cup — likened the result to New Zealander Edmund Hillary reaching the top of Mount Everest for the first time with Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
He said New Zealand had defied predictions so far and there was every chance they could do it once more against Paraguay and qualify for the second round.
“Paraguay have got to score goals against us and that is proving to be very, very difficult,” he said.
“Can we get something out of the Paraguay game? Can we go to the next level of the World Cup, which is totally unbelievable? I’ve got to say the answer is yes,” adding that “it just doesn’t get bigger than this”.
New Zealand would probably need to beat Paraguay to go through if Italy can regroup and beat Slovakia in their final Group F match, van Hattum said.
“Paraguay are some side. They’ve just beaten Slovakia 2-0, they’ll be extremely tough.
“We dare to believe — the guys will be thinking how are they going to do this.” – AFP
