by TRAVIS CLARK
One game, everything to play for. When tonight's World Cup playoff between Bahrain and New Zealand (2am, FSC) kicks off, the winner claims a spot in South Africa, while the loser faces the prospect of missing the tournament once again.
Neither side is a prominent soccer nation, yet the underlying feeling is that the winning nation's program would receive a much-needed shot in the arm. New Zealand need to look no further than across the Tasman at neighboring Australia. Since qualifying for Germany in 2005, the Australian soccer program has seen the stature of the sport grow immensely. And in a nation like New Zealand, focused mostly on rugby and cricket, to reach the World Cup for the first time in 28 years would be massive.
Kiwi supporters have already taken notice, and the expected crowd for Saturday's match is in the 35,000 range, and a record crowd for the sport. The All Whites secured a 0-0 draw last month in Bahrain, a nation that has been here before. Four years ago, Bahrain lost 1-0 in a similar two-legged playoff against Trinidad & Tobago.
The qualification process for the two nations couldn't be much different. Bahrain will be playing for the 20th time since they began play in Asia, while New Zealand only had to play six games in once group stage. Their opponents were Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu, hardly nations of great mettle.
In the meantime, the Bahrainis finished third in the second round of qualifying in Asia, then needed a last-gasp equalizer to put them through against Saudi Arabia back in September. Winning against New Zealand would signal the nation's first-ever spot in the World Cup.
While Bahrain has a majority of players who play in Middle Eastern leagues — mainly just Qatar and UAE, if not the Bahrain domestic league — New Zealand draws players from around the globe, including some MLS ties. Andrew Boyens of New York and Simon Elliot of San Jose were both called up to face Bahrain, former D.C. United defender Ryan Nelsen, who now plays at Blackburn, is the squad's captain. Australia's A-League then provides the rest, with top-scorer Shane Smeltz (Gold Coast United) leading the way.
Whoever wins this won is seen as an easy group-stage opponent. But to both Bahrain and New Zealand, it's all about getting to South Africa. National pride is at stake, and neither side will want to face the indignity of a loss — especially the Kiwis, in front of a packed house.
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Who do you think wins tonight? Staying up to watch it? Apathetic?
Share your thoughts below.
Soccer took precedence over rugby for once in New Zealand.
Wasn’t a very great game for the neutral- the quality of soccer on offer wasn’t anything great. The Bahrain penalty attempt was pretty poor, and New Zealand had plenty of chances to kill it off in the ending stages, but Smeltz and co.’s finishing let them down.
Nothing to take away from the All Whites- they’ve qualified for their first WC since 1982, and deserve to be happy. But if they play like they did today, they are very good candidates to become one of the whipping boys of South Africa 2010.
and the Kiwis are through and going to South Africa!
Party up in Wellington, amongst the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. Like a smaller San Francisco.
New Zealand win, 1-0 today and on aggregate!
A deserved win today. For the last 20 minutes New Zealand looked like the more likely to score.
Bahrain pressuring pressuring pressuring. The kiwis have about half of the population of the North Island in their penalty area and withstand it.
Penalty awarded to Bahrain. Good call.
SAVED by the Kiwi keeper.
Very weakly taken penalty.
Goal 45′ NZ 1-0 BH
Rory Fallon off a corner kick. Well deserved.
This has been a very exciting match, lots of chances. The Kiwis deserve the lead though in my opinion.
Why would anyone object to Bahrain or New Zealand making the World Cup? Of course they aren’t among the top 32 teams in the world, but so what? The World Cup, by design, is NOT intended to identify the top 32 teams in the world. It’s intended to include all regions of the world.
It looks bizarre when it comes to World Cup playoffs, but Oceania is doing an outstanding job as a confederation developing the sport at the grassroots level. They are outperforming CONCACAF’s stewardship of the game in the small Caribbean islands.
“Your judgment system of who should be in the World Cup isn’t what matters.” -Actually FIFA sent me a form of whom to invite to the World Cup, haha. Ridiculous comment…without Australia this Confederation does not deserve .5 a spot. But you are right, not much I can do about it except hope NZ gets thrashed in WC so that FIFA reconfigures Oceania’s qualification process.
“It’s not…FIFA’s fault that they play against easier competition”. – That is interesting, I thought FIFA would have some say in the qualification process…so who decides the process? I admit to not knowing the process of deciding qualification process, maybe I should do the research on my own. Apologies.
Oceania should be absorbed by another confederation (just like Australia)…or at least play CONMEBOL in the playoff, not AFC or even CONCACAF.
Its not a mere fan with a megaphone. Its a cleric directing the crowd in religiously correct sports prayers. Allah is great, down with the Kiwi infidels.
Oceania is essentailly merged already. There best team or the team that winns the group then plays the 3rd place team from the Asian group so in essence this is like the 3rd and 4th place Asian teams playing for the berth in a 2 legged aggregate. It makes it fair and allows smaller countries a chance to step up. And yes I know that 3 of the 4 members out of the Oceania group would not probably make the final Asian group so this gives them a fighting chance.
Nice article Travis!
I hope the Kiwis can do it. I’d like to see some former and current MLSers in the World Cup, including El Capitan Ryan Nelsen. It’d be great to see soccer grow a bit in another country, and with a full house, the Wellington Cake Tin will be rocking!!
I’m rooting for Bahrain. They deserve it a lot more than the kiwis.
Oceania should be merged with Asia, like North/Central America and the Caribbean.
I would love to see the Kiwis make the World Cup. This is the World Cup – not the European cup and they are a real underdog. Ryan Nelson was a class act in DC and is one of the most unheralded central defenders in the EPL. Would love to see him get to play in a WC as his swan song.
Great interview with Nelson on the BBC football home page. Go Kiwis!!!
New Zealand/Bahrain dealt with teams they were supposed to and teams that are better didn’t. That’s the test and it always will be. New Zealand should be the ones complaining about not being around good competition. It stunts their growth to be playing lower teams all the time. The teams like Portugal who didn’t deal with Qualifying when they should have shouldn’t be complaining about anything than their own performances.
Come on you Kiwis! I like a good kiwi-strawberry fruit drink myself.
I know that some people don’t like the smaller less powerful soccer nations getting an opportunity against the big boys but if you never give them an opportunity to see what competition is like elsewhere on a big stage like the world cup then why dream of being in it.
Yes, New Zealand or Bahrain will be easier foes than Brazil but they provide something that the World Cup definitely needs and that is a cinderella. Wonder if the NCAA basketball tourney decided to eliminate the 12-16 seeds or give them to teams like the 8th best team in the ACC then the upsets that happened wouldn’t be as newsworthy or that big of a deal vs when an upset happens and the whole nation stops to watch.
And it isn’t like these teams don’t have the caliber players that deserve to play on the World’s biggest stage. Ryan Nelsen plays in the EPL and is a top flight defender in that league, Simon Elliot has played at that level and I’m sure if I researched Bahrain enough I’d find someone that has played top flight soccer somewhere around the globe.
The mindset of some of these comments is unfortunate. With that way of thinking the US might have given up on developing the sport we love here and not be going to their 6th straight world cup.
Whatever the result tonight, you can see what a positive effect it is having in New Zealand with 35k+ showing their support for the sport and that is the only way it can grow.
I think that is it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. The World Cup hasn’t become the biggest event in world for no reason. It is because FIFA gives even the smallest country the chance to dream big!
And as for the South Africa comment. If I remember correctly, didn’t they take Brazil and Spain to the limit in the Confederations Cup earlier this year and I do think that they will have a favorable group and a will make it through. I wouldn’t bet against it.
hahahaha
interesting
I meant West AFC
I kinda like the East Asia and West Asia confederation idea. Now those Central Asian countries that are part of UEFA would just agree to move to East AFC everything would be settled.
I would like to see Oceania merge with CONCACAF. Then give CONCACAF four WC bids, eliminate two playoffs.
Oceania still gets a spot in the Confederations Cup and the u-World Cups (Tahiti beat New Zealand for the u-20 bid). They wouldn’t voluntarily give that up with a merge. It isn’t like FIFA would give ASIA another automatic bid and their travel expenses and time would increase when they had to travel to all of those remote islands. A match between Syria and Fiji would be close to half way around the World.
I’m trying to figure out why Oceania and the Asian federation don’t merge. Australia already left; there’s really no reason for a whole region to exist so that New Zealand gets a playoff game every four years. It would definitely help New Zealand out, since they’d have to play teams that can beat them consistently.
Juan,
It’s scary here. With you gone, they expect me to make all these BIG decisions. I am taking a look at the upcoming draft and I can find South Americans who are tall, and South Americans who are left footed, but not both. Any advice?
-J.A.
P.S. When Richie wasn’t looking, I switched his usual coffee cup with one of those joke ones you told me about with the hole in it. He got coffee all over himself. It was great. Wish you could have seen it.
I always knew Andrew Boyens was a world cup quality central defender. He is tall and left footed.
Pretty sure it’s a fan with a megaphone . . . not actually the PA system. There was a fan of the UAE (I think it was them) at the u20 WC using a megaphone to lead the UAE fans, and I remember the same thing in Bahrain 4 years ago for the game against T&T. Definitely seems to be a middle-east thing.
I find it to be incredibly annoying. It’s much, much more intrusive than the constant buzz of the vuvuzelas in South Africa.
Flight of the Conchords ftw!
It’s a joke because in all honesty there are many, many teams that deserve to play in the World Cup instead of New Zealand or Bahrain but one of them will make it because the way qualifiers are run for their regions. If you’re referring to my South Africa comment, I did not mean the World Cup being there is a joke, I meant South Africa isn’t good enough to be there and they are only there because they are the host country. In my opinion they’ll be the first host country to not progress to the 2nd round…
C’MON ALL WHITES!
46 teams in Asia. 11 in Oceania.
Poor New Caledonia…from a high of 95 to now 140 in the FIFA rankings. Tough competition for NZ.
joke? how?
It’s not like there haven’t been any upsets around the globe in Qualifying. Your judgment system of who should be in the World Cup isn’t what matters. What matters is that the team is put to the test, and as long as they pass, it matters not whether it’s a joy ride or a bumpy road.
It’s not New Zealand or FIFA’s fault that they play against easier competition than we do. It really contributes to their downfall if you think about it. When you spend one and a half years, give or take a few months, playing teams that low on the world footballing scale, it doesn’t add much, if anything, to the development of players.
Agreed. Though at least Bahrain played some quality opponents and beat a few (eg Japan, Saudi Arabia).
I also believe that if Bahrain qualifies, they will become the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup ever. It is kind of a joke that either one of these teams will make it to the World Cup, but then again so is South Africa. What can you do, those are the current rules…
I have my own question. During the game in Bahrain, there seemed to be continual use of the PA system in the stadium. I’ve also noticed this during other games in the middle-east. Is it simply commentary about the game? Does anyone know what it’s about?
Got a question….
i’ve never been to nevada smiths and thinking bout going this saturday…does anyone think it will be packed for a friendly (US Match) that doesn’t matter?
All Blacks: Wikipedia covers their name with this: A representative New Zealand team, since referred to as the Originals, first toured Britain in 1905. Reference to the team by the name “All Blacks” first appeared during this tour when, according to team member Billy Wallace, a London newspaper reported that the New Zealanders played as if they were “all backs”.[13] Wallace claimed that because of a typographical error, subsequent references were to “All Blacks”. This may be a myth, as the name also describes their playing uniform of black shirts, shorts and socks.
All-Whites: The name was coined in 1981 when the team was created. The name was simply a play on the rugby team’s name and that the soccer team’s uniform was white.
Yes – Oceanic qualifying is a joke. What else is new with FIFA?
Bahrain ‘n Spain fly mostly in the planes.
I think I’ll stay up to watch it. Shouldn’t be too bad here on the west coast. The Galaxy game will end at 10:30, wait half an hour, then this game starts.
Dunno, but if you get Max Bretos on the job…..
Even though both nations are underdogs when it comes to football, I have a softspot for the Kiwis and hope they get through.
But I have a feeling that this will go to penalties and the more technical Bahrainis will win it then.
It is shameful that a New Zealand has such an easy path to the World Cup. FIFA needs to fix this, it is a joke. Not that New Zealand is a terrible team…but any team that loses a World Cup Qualifier to Fiji should NOT be in the World Cup.
A total of 8 matches for New Zealand to make the World Cup and Bahrain is by far and away their toughest match!
Come on you KIWIS!!!
Come on you KIWIS!!!
GO ALL WHITES!!!
Why is it that the rugby team is the All Blacks and the soccer team is the All Whites? Just curious.
the playoff was against trinidad