Well. I was composing a very different post after 5 minutes of the second half when Vittek ghosted in at the far post to give Slovakia the lead. As my eyelids drooped alongside my morale I was thinking about "New Zealand acquits themselves well, but lack pace and class to finish, an honourable defeat etc etc."
The only real chance came when Lochead played in Smeltz, who snatched at the header and put it wide with the whole goal to aim at.
New Zealand looked bereft of ideas and were drifitng out of the game and the tounament as the fourth official held up 3 minutes of stoppage time.
And then in the 93rd minute Winston Reid, outstanding for so much of the game on defence, put away a Shane Smeltz cross to level the scores.
Pandemonium. New Zealand's first ever point at a Fifa World Cup- Tied on Points wiht Italy, the World Champions.
I had to break out the rescue remedy to calm down enough to write this. Thank god for Reid the Danish Maori, well done boys- You have done us proud!
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