Euphoria claims New Zealand at Westpac Stadium

What a magnificient effort from the All Whites in their hard won victory over Bahrain last night at Westpac Stadium.

The losing Bahrain side had unfortunately lost this tie prior to the game kicking off, by going into camp across the Tasman in a warm Sydney earlier in the week.

The highly experienced Czech coach Milan Mácala lost the physicological battle over his relatively rookie Kiwi counterpart, Rickie Herbert by this one decision, alone. Luck, even came into the two-legged decider as Bahrain had outplayed New Zealand at home, but failed to find the net - thus, leaving the tie yet to be decided.

In the end, the All Whites playing in a blustery, windy Wellington's Westpac Stadium were able to watch the cross the ball (by Leo Bertos) into the front of the Bahrain goalmouth, Rory Fallon was able to use his height to head home the decider of this qualifier.

And when the visitors fell behind at half-time, the players were then given the intructions to follow the Kiwis by hoofing the ball up into the wind - and over the top by turning our big defenders around as that tactic was obviously working for the home side. The Bahrainis, however, weren't used to playing the long-ball game, and could have continued to heap pressure had they keep the ball on the gound. But, this only played into New Zealand hands, the longer the game went.

The pressure finally told on the visitors, as firstly, they failed to bury the penalty, and then committed a very unlikely foul throw.

The win by New Zealand will also no doubt now also be the right time for a further fillup for Coach Ricki Herbert autobiography - Ricki Herbert - A New Fire, which is to be reviewed (to follow soon) by this writer.

Last night's victory has captured the minds of the country, and it has so quickly caught the imagination as well as the media - following the marvellous One Shot for Glory programme so well engineered by advertising agency BDO Cleiminger.

Today's three Sunday 'papers have all gone out in their respective front pages giving both illustrative and print of the win on their front pages, although the two Fairfax publications, Sunday News and the Sunday Star-Times used the same journalists, but the SST was well supported from the likes of another Billy Harris column, and instead of Gordon Irving, used had Simon Kay and Tony Smith.

The Herald on Sunday had a more measured coverage, but Award winning football writer, Michael Brown had a different approach.

The celebrations have continued into today Sunday's Christmas Santa Parade where the victorious All Whites will be paraded on a special guest float starting at 2pm - in a late promotion by the Wellington City Council, part-organisers of last night's World Cup tie, and today's event.

Not since the All Whites turn on the world stage in 1982 in Spain for a FIFA World Cup Final tournament, has there been the same euphoria around New Zealand.

Thousands cheered the All Whites float which head the Parade this afternoon. Many were still wearing their Whites from last night's win, as it was reported on one radio station that of the 35,000 attendance, 15,000 were from visitors from outside the capital. The result confirms the original decision when to build the Wellington Stadium that it was culled back from seating for 40,000 back to 30,000-odd. The talk last night was that it could easily have sold 70,000 tickets had they been available. The Westpac Stadium had been sold out for well over three-week period, but the tickets were being sold at the rate of 5,000 a day since the away leg was drawn 0-0.

Today's radio talk-back continues to embrace the victory, as 27 years later, New Zealand qualifies for the 2010 tournament, for second time. But on this occasion, they actually join Australia who have left Oceania for the Asian Football Confederation to qualify for their third time.

But, in 2010 New Zealand heads to a World Cup tournament with a squad of professional players, with the majority of the squad training together at the Wellington Phoenix and the remainder with other professional clubs in Europe and elsewhere.

On the news and television coverage, the New Zealand win was the lead item on CNN's World Sport today, followed by items on SkyNews sports coverage. Earlier in the week, NZF chairman Frank Van Hattum also mentioned that he'd been 'phoned by the American channel. Those plus TV3, TVNZ and PrimeTV channels were all present at media conferences in Wellington.

For New Zealand to advance it's profile it needs another A-League club - and the obvious locality is Auckland, but that centre is divided for the success driven for the FIFA World Club Championship. But, only when the NZFC qualifiers for the O-League can be tested in a play-off against the Wellington Phoenix can the national standard be raised at club level, then maybe with two professional clubs, we can then look at another 6 sides to stand up and then plan for a National League that can see NZ return to the days of the old Rothmans National League when there were crowds watching football of a decent standard.

Serious questions must be asked at what is needed? Is it to bring in a proper programme for a Youth Development programme? And should that be done via the Secondary Schools competitions? The Football Academy system in the UK is now under serious qurestion, with its policies decided by the Football League clubs. It has been questioned as a failure, as some statistics reveal that each week only 40 players have emerged from that programme each week, but that has now come down to 29, according to a news item on Sky News yesterday. Something that author and former FA Director, Howard Wilkinson has admitted that statistics don't lie!