One shot for glory...

On Saturday night we were off to the Cake Tin to watch the All-Whites take on Bahrain in the second leg of the world cup qualifier. They had drawn nil-all in the first leg in Bahrain, so the formula was very simple; win by any amount, & New Zealand would go through to the Football World Cup finals in South Africa next year. We had awesome seats, seven rows back from the front, right in front of the New Zealand dugout.
Mid-week, all the publicity was about creating a 'white out' in the sold out stadium, & by & large, this is what they got. I must confess that Will & I let the side down a bit... Only having a limited amount of clothing until we get our container out of storage, we didn't actually have any white items of clothing with us. We half considered making togas out of our landlords sheets, but thought better of it! Anyway, we would have frozen...

The match got under way & the atmosphere was electric. It was New Zealand's largest ever crowd for a football game, & the noise was deafening. Bahrain made the better start & looked dangerous for the first 5 to 10 minutes, but then the All-Whites got stuck into their work. When Rory Fallon headed in a Leo Bertos corner right before half-time, the crowd went ballistic!
Unfortunately the joy was short-lived as NZ gave away a penalty just 5 minutes after half-time. The crowd could hardly bear to watch as the Bahrainian player took the kick, but when keeper Mark Paston saved it against all odds, the crowd erupted once again. When Wellington Phoenix play at home, the die-hard fan club called Yellow Fever take off their shirts if their team is leading with 10 minutes to go. Yellow Fever had morphed into 'White Noise' for this game, & sure enough, with 10 minutes to go the shirts came off. Just in case you were wondering why a lot of the crowd in the above pic are topless on a cold & windy Wellington evening! Despite the odd nervous moment the team managed to hang on 1-0, making them only the second New Zealand Football team in history to qualify for the World Cup.

What a match, & what a night! Something I will remember for a long long time.