There's a second time for everything

BY FRED WOODCOCK

Sam Malcomson doesn't want to hear talk of 1982 when he's 90. Steve Sumner reckons it's time to move on. Bobby Almond almost feels embarrassed by it. Steve Wooddin wants it to be a happy memory only. And Keith "Buzzer" Mackay would just like to stop having to support Cameroon at every World Cup.

The 1982 All Whites – the only New Zealand team to make it to world sport's biggest stage, a football World Cup finals – may have slightly differing reasons, but they all desperately want the same outcome.

That outcome is, of course, for their spot in New Zealand's sporting history to be consigned once and for all to, well, history.

"Make you own history," they plead, to a man, of the current team.

The only way that will happen is if Ricki Herbert's men qualify for next year's World Cup by beating Bahrain in Wellington tomorrow night.

"It's time now for somebody else to take over," says Malcolmson, the oldest player of the 22-man 1982 squad.

"The legacy we left was being the first team to make the World Cup and that will always be the case. The legend these guys could leave could be the building of the game to the level it is deserving of in this part of the world."

Coaches John Adshead and Kevin Fallon, and 12 players from the 1982 squad, will be at Westpac Stadium tomorrow. They will be paraded around the ground before kickoff for what is hoped will be a passing of the baton.

"It's 90 minutes and they've got to win, simple as that," says Malcolmson, who is travelling down for the match from Warkworth with his son.

"It could change the complexity of the game in this country like we've never known it. We can't go on forever. People are always saying `1982 legend' – I don't want them still saying it when I'm 90."

Bobby Almond jokes that half of the 1982 team are "either dead or in old people's homes". He admits he often feels embarrassed when people approach him to talk about the glory days and the "Road to Spain".

"I sometimes get a bit embarrassed by it all. I tell them, `No, you don't have to keep talking about that."'

Almond recently had lunch with his captain in 1982, Steve Sumner, who reminded him he should never be embarrassed by what the team achieved.

"He's right, but I just think it would be nice to get to the situation where we can talk about the new ones. Our place will still be there."

Almond and Sumner, who both live in Christchurch, will be in Wellington tomorrow.

Sumner will be providing expert comments on the match for television and wants the current players to do themselves justice.

He believes the experienced players in the team – the likes of Ryan Nelsen, Simon Elliott, Chris Killen and Ivan Vicelich have played in some of the top leagues in Europe – will ensure stagefright is not an issue.

They must relish the occasion and, more importantly, get the result.

"It means so much, not only to the players but also the spectators. More than 35,000 aren't turning up just because they think it will be a nice day out. I just hope they do become the 12th man, like all good home crowds.

"It will be a night to remember but nobody wants it to be an anti-climax. That would be quite devastating, really."

There's a theme emerging. Though all proud of their achievements, the 1982 All Whites are desperate for a new story to emerge.

"To be honest, we should be just a happy memory by now," says striker Steve Wooddin, who along with Sumner, is the only Kiwi to have scored a goal at a World Cup finals.

"The game should move on and unfortunately it hasn't. But this is the first time since then that, realistically, the general public have caught the fever. It's great.

"Hopefully they can pull it off because it's far from a done deal."

Wooddin, who lives in Christchurch, will also be in Wellington tomorrow.

But nobody in the 1982 team wants it more than the three members who are directly involved with the current setup. Ricki Herbert is the coach, Brian Turner his assistant, and Frank van Hattum the chairman of the national body.

"No-one will ever take away what we did, but it would be great to kick-start what is a promising future," van Hattum says.

"If we lose, I actually don't think the game will stagnate. There are so many other things happening with the age group teams and the women's teams.

"If we do win, however, there is a massive opportunity for us."

An opportunity, Malcolmson says, to propel football to the No 2 sport behind rugby.

"Because we seem to have more professional people running the game nowadays, maybe the money that we would get could at last put football as the No 2 sport in New Zealand, behind rugby. That, to me, would be the greatest thing."

The final word goes to Buzzer Mackay, whose desperation to see the All Whites back at the World Cup resonates down the phone line.

"You just get sick of supporting Cameroon in every World Cup – it's about time we got back there. It will be close, probably 50-50 I'd say, but it's a one-off situation and hopefully they click on the night."

So much hinges on it. Not the least of which is rewriting history.

There will be a group of oldish blokes in a VIP lounge tomorrow night who would drink to that.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

New Zealand's path to the World Cup finals:

1982
Drew with Australia 3-3 in Auckland on April 25, 1981
beat Fiji 4-0 in Suva on May 3
drew with Chinese Taipei 0-0 in Taipei on May 7
beat Indonesia 2-0 in Jakarta on May 11
beat Australia 2-0 in Sydney on May 16
beat Indonesia 5-0 in Auckland on May 23
beat Chinese Taipei 2-0 in Auckland on May 30
beat Fiji 13-0 in Auckland on August 16
drew with China 0-0 in Beijing on September 24
beat China 1-0 in Auckland on October 3
lost to Kuwait 1-2 in Auckland on October 10
drew with Saudi Arabia 2-2 in Auckland on November 28
drew with Kuwait 2-2 in Kuwait on December 14
beat Saudi Arabia 5-0 in Riyadh on December 19
beat China 2-1 in Singapore on January 10, 1982

2010
Beat Fiji 2-0 in Lautoka on October 17, 2007
beat Vanuatu 2-1 in Port Vila on November 17
beat Vanuatu 4-1 in Wellington on November 21
beat New Caledonia 3-1 in Noumea on September 6, 2008
beat New Caledonia 3-0 in Auckland on September
lost to Fiji 1-2 in Lautoka on November 19
drew with Bahrain 0-0 in Manama on October 10, 2009 v Bahrain in Wellington, tomorrow

- © Fairfax NZ News