Final Standings for the eliminated 16

Final standings for teams eliminated so far

Based on points, then Goal Diff, then Goals For (as per Fifa)

32 Korea DPR
31 Cameroon
30 Honduras
29 France
28 Algeria
27 Nigeria
26 Italy
25 Greece
24 Denmark
23 Serbia
22 New Zealand
21 Australia
20 South Africa
19 Switzerland
18 Slovenia
17 Ivory Coast

Ipso Facto, we are better than Italy...

Italy vs New Zealand- In a Hazy Hindsight

Wow. It is an amazing time to be a football fan in New Zealand. For ths first time I know what it is like to follow a team in the World Cup, to really follow them, and not have a ho hum neutral reaction when they lose, or have a harsh penalty given against them.

I think I am still too tired, both mentally and physically to give a really good impression of my thoughts about this but I need to comment, to get out of my head and into the blogoverse my thoughts about the other night, no matter how scattered and disjointed.

To summarise: New Zealand, our football team, ranked 78th in the world, held Italy, the World Champions, currently ranked 4th, to a one-all draw in a must win World Cup group game, after leading in the 7th minute and almost sneaking the win with only their third shot of the night in the 83rd minute.

Wow.

When Andy Barron came on I had an even bigger upswelling of pride. Barron is an amateur footballer from my local National Football Championship Franchise Team Wellington- A local boy made good footing it with the overpaid Italian ponces on the world stage.

I also had to chuckle a little because when the All Whites were substitued in the second half they dawdled and stalled, in direct violation of my complaint in a previous post except this time I loved the fact that our lads' tactics ate up the clock. At one point Vicelich, I think, even shook the ref's hand!

I think the fact that Italy had to resort to the tried and true method acting to con the ref speaks volumes for the resistance that they met, and the kiwi lads will be a little bit wiser for it. It shows how far public expectation has come that we are arguing over a dubious penalty call which robbed us of three points against Italy rather than counting our blessings that the post, Paston and the clock saved us from the full onslaught of Italian wrath. So New Zealand were outplayed, out shot, out cornered, but the history books will now have a little D for draw next to that game, and New Zealand will be more than a curious little footnote in the history of the world Cup.

When you see some of the limp and uninspired efforts put in by some of the more fancied teams (England and France, I'm pointing my finger at you) the All Whites must seem like a breath of fresh air in a fairly stale tournament. They are visibly enjoying the moment, playing with passion and pride. Long may it last.

I think Russell over at No Punts Intended was already starting his Italian research ahead of the game- he is stuck with us for at least one more game. I sent him a reaction but he has yet to post it. While we await Paraguay, here are some highlights, courtesy of Russian website.

Italy v New Zealand -Preview

Ricki Herbert has named an unchanged starting line up for tonight's Group F dust up between the Champions of Oceania; the largest continent in terms of square miles, and the Champions of the measly World.

But seriously, what do we realistically expect?

Before the injury time heroics of Rustenburg I might have said an honourable, but sound, defeat. Maybe 2-0. Now I feel we have a chance. A chance to sneak a draw that is. Even a hopeless optimist like me finds it hard to believe that NZ can get up and beat the four time world Champions. But stranger things have happened.

In a friendly before last year's Confederations Cup New Zealand went into the lead four times against Italy, before losing 4-3. There are very few teams who put 3 goals past the catenaccio, 'sliding bolt defence', of Italy. yes, it was meaningless warm up game, and yes, Italy were essentially a B-team, but New Zealand were missing key players Fallon and Nelsen that day, and new found first teamers Reid and Smith were still yet to be born. In that game the aerial threat from set pieces was New Zealand's main weapon as it will be again tonight.

Italy were complacent that day and New Zealand caught them napping. I assure you Italy will be more wary this time. That in itself is a credit to New Zealand and Oceania Football.

An Edinburgh Blogger, Russell, approached the Yellow Fever fan's forum asking for more information about NZ Football. It seems that he is playing a game on his No Punts Intended Blog. The game is called 'Winner stays on' where he chooses a team to support and then switches to whoever defeats them, since being Scottish, he has no team to support in South Africa. Russell has decided to start with NZ-a nice touch since NZ's two goals against Scotland in 1982 contributed towards Scotland's early exit. I answered Russell's call for help and he published my sleep deprived thumbnail sketch of New Zealand football.

Let's hope that Russell is still saying kia ora to New Zealand tomorrow, after we say arivaderchi to the Italian mob.

New Zealand team to play Italy:

Mark Paston (Keeper)

Winston Reid, Ryan Nelsen, Tommy Smith (Defenders)

Ivan Vicelich, Simon Elliott, Leo Bertos, Tony Lochhead (Midfielders)

Shane Smeltz, Rory Fallon, Chris Killen (Strikers)

Here is something to watch while you wait for KO, the last and only time we met the Azzuri:

Muy Picante!

It has been revealed that New Zealand's first warm up game for the 2010 World Cup will be against Mexico, in Los Angeles (an ersatz home match for El Tri) on March 3.

This is a quality warm up game since Mexico's flamboyant attacking style will closely mimic Paraguay; the All White's final opponents in pool play. The passionate Mexican fans will also give our lads a taste of the unholy din to be expected at a World Cup Finals match.

The game falls within FIFA's friendly international window, which means clubs are only obliged to release players for 48 hours. So the fact that it is being played a mere 11 hour's flight from London, rather than in New Zealand, means we have every chance of seeing Captain Courageous Ryan Nelsen, and the other European and US based players, turn out in the Pasadena Rose Bowl.

One can only assume that Mexico sees the All Whites as being on a par with their pool mates South Africa- we certainly can't be expected to offer them a taste of the guile, nor gall, of France.

Whatever way you look at it this is a coup, and is an early Christmas present for NZ Football Fans. Now we just need to secure friendlies against some European sides to replicate the style of Slovakia and Italy and the set is complete.

Jabulani=Celebrate

In an extravanganza featuring contemporary and traditional african dancers, South African world music star Johnny Clegg, and African sports stars such as Makhaya Ntini, Haile Gebreselassie and, erm, David Beckham, the draw was made for the 2010 World Cup this morning in Capetown.

Here's the song Johnny Clegg did live at the show for you to listen to while you read the rest of this post. I'm not really a fan of Clegg but I thought this was quite catchy, and 'the Scatterlings of Africa' is a nice poetic phrase:



Here is the full draw for South Africa 2010:


For New Zealand Group F will be tough, but as rank outsiders every group looks tough. The top seed in Group F is Italy, and they are the current World Champions. It is unlikely we will ambush them like we did in the 2009 Confederation's Cup warm up match when New Zealand took the lead an incredible three times over Italy before sanity was restored and Italy stumbled home 4-3 winners. The circumstances will be quite different next time we meet.
Paraguay finished third in South American qualifying, racking up wins over Brazil and Argentina. Slovakia finished top of UEFA Group 3, knocking out their former siamese twin and past-powerhouse Czech Republic in the process.

Which group will pick up the inevitable Group of Death tag? On face value it has to be either Group B or Group G. Group G has the mouth watering colonial battle between Brazil and Portugal, dark horse Cote d'Ivoire and complete unknowns North Korea. Group B has African aristocrats Nigeria, the unpredictable Greece, workhorse South Korea and the always competitive Argentina. I also think Australia got a very tough draw in Group D. It could be the turn of the Black Stars of Ghana to shine into the quarter-finals, and Germany are always there at the business end of a FIFA World Cup.

The draw ceremony itself was good fun and made for great television with some hugely (unintentional) comical moments. Draw assistant Charlize Theron was doing her utmost to wind up FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke, undercutting the pomposity of the ceremony with faux-naive freestyles and stage whispers. The tension between the two was palpable, FIFA brass obviously worried that Charlize was going to turn into a rampaging mad-libbing monster on them, and pull another stunt like pretending to draw out 'Ireland' from the bowl as she did in the rehearsal.

The loudest guffaw was reserved for poor old confused Sepp Blatter who forgot where the first game was being played and had to have the host, Carol Manana, remind him. For the amount of money he's paid you'd expect him to be completely savvy about his product.

It was a far cry from the last time New Zealand was at a draw ceremony. Apparently the 1982 draw in Spain was thrown into a complete farce when a revolting machine spat the balls all over the floor. This stressed out the FIFA staff, who in turn made the poor Spanish kids, who were roped in to provide the cute factor, cry.
The 2009 version ran like clockwork- micro managed down to the last detail by a legion of FIFA event underlings.

After watching the draw on TV, Miro and I went down to the launch of the official World Cup ball at a sports store in Central Wellington.It was a fairly strange event with a little portable pitch set up inside the store- of course Miro wanted to get on and strut his stuff but there seemed to be some sort of Kid's skills competetion going on to promote Ricki Herbert's new Football Academy. Ricki Herbert was there signing shirts and balls, and he seemed pretty relaxed after the draw. He was constantly taking calls from his assistant Brian Turner, who was at the draw over in SA, and the media looking for a soundbite or two.

The Jabulani ball (An Isizulu word meaning to celebrate) looks as plastic as ten dollar ball from a discount toy store, but I bet it handles like a dream. I would dearly love to take one to the park for a punt or two. Retailing at $200 plus NZD and with only 500 in the country I doubt that I'll be kicking one around Martin Luckie Park anytime soon.

I bought Miro a mini Jabulani ball for xmas, and got Ricki to sign it. It is the perfect size for his little feet to dribble:

Gone to Pot

The world has gone to pot.*

The 32 (ahem) best football teams in teh wohle world now know who they may come up against at South Africa 2010. Herr Sepp, the great curator, has seeded the top 8 World Cup qualifiers into 'pot' one and allocated the rest into the 3 other pots.

The gardening metaphor of pots and seed is worth exploring.
Pot one is for Sepp's treasured fruit trees- the 8 teams which will bear the coveted summer fruit of South Africa 2010; flowering, blossoming and bringing the honey bees of world media attention to the garden:

Pot one (Current Fifa rankings in brackets)
South Africa (85), Brazil (1), Spain (2) The Netherlands (3), Italy (4), Germany (5),Argentina (6), England (7)

The remaining pots are comprised of the deciduous bric a bracken, the garden's hedging and borders; unlikely to win awards but neccessary to make the flowers and fruit stand out and be noticed.

Some, like Nigeria and Cameroun, are the exotic detailing- tolerated for the colour they bring, but hardly sustenance worthy of being included in the garden's autumnal harvest. Others like New Zealand, Honduras and North Korea are the cute little bonsai- cultivated to a point and then clipped, pruned and set aside as curiosity pieces. Hopefully dusted off and shown a little care and compassion once the great garden show is over.
When the pots were announced the biggest intake of collective breath was reserved for the decision to drop France down to the unseeded pots- not as a karmic kick in the nuts for the Henry affair, but as just rewards for their recent poor form, proving that a Grenouille's green thumb does not guarantee perpetual verdancy in Sepp's magic garden.

Following FIFA's own procedures I made my own mock draw, using an online Excel tutorial to randomly order the 32 teams. As time-unworthy as this excerise was, much like pissing on a lemon tree in a howling southerly, it was a bit of fun. I can tell you that according to my draw New Zealand would be grouped with the Netherlands, France and Chile. Extending my gardening metaphor a little I can also say that if that was the scenario NZ would be mere fertiliser for the Oranjeboom,the Chile plant and the Fleur de Lys.

(For my friends over the ditch, according to my most unscientific draw, Australia ended up with Algeria, Serbia and England. How do you like them Apples?)


*The phrase gone to pot is actually not associated with gardening nor recreational drugs. It is in fact from the industrial revolution when defunct parts were tossed back into the smelting pot to start their time again. Oh cruel fate which tossed Ireland, Bahrain, Bosnia, Egypt et al unceremoniously back into that bubbling pot.