Prayer and predation

OPINION: For Rory Fallon, anyway, the buildup to Saturday's World Cup game against Bahrain was two different sorts of quiet, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

The introverted quiet of a team in which there was, by that stage, little left to say.

And the expressive quiet of man feeling very, very prayerful.

Then look what happened. The Christian stepped into the coliseum and turned into a lion.

Shaking hands with the Bahrain team before the game, he found they wouldn't look into his eyes. That was the moment the man of prayer became predator. The moment, he says, when he felt sure of the win.

So it proved. All that remained was the small matter of the white-knuckle thrillride, forever to be remembered for Fallon's cannon of a header and for his goalkeeper Mark Paston emerging from a penalty kick with the whole world in his hands.

It's still not easy to appreciate, fully, what a feat this was. We number scarcely more than 4.2 million (but quite a bit more, if you count expats, which in this context we should) Within that gene pool, football is emphatically in the shadow of rugby.

Yet there was a confidence – a class – to Saturday's performance that was surely not a case of an underdog yapping.

It was hugely impressive, in a way that left not only ardent football fans exultant.

Under the guidance of coach Ricki Herbert, and the confidence-inspiring captaincy of Ryan Nelsen, the All Whites gave a stirring display of what is nationally recognised as manning up as individuals, and as a team.

Admittedly, you can already hear the whine whistling in from across the Tasman. It's undeniable that New Zealand's path through the qualifying process no longer includes the all-but-automatic contest with Australia, which has departed the Oceania confederation in favour of steelier testing grounds in Asia. Notable, too, that as the Wall Street Journal reports, "New Zealand still looks on paper like the World Cup's most likely doormat" – though the journal, significantly, also notes that several of the All Whites' squad played college soccer in the United States, whose own fans, if they are looking for another team to support, may well "find a natural kinship with the All Whites."

Southland is particularly well set up to appreciate the flavour of the All Whites' victory over Bahrain. The 27-year span since the 1982 All Whites reached the World Cup in Spain, and performed with such bravery, has drawn much comment, though it is barely more than half as long as the drought that the Stags ended with their Ranfurly Shield win this season.

The World Cup in South Africa will be an incredible ask, but the New Zealanders have earned their time in the crucible; not because they have the extravagant, freakish skills shown from the football elite, but because of the determination, grit and courage they possess in abundance. It is entirely fitting that the players savour the achievement. And when the time comes to regather their campaign on this new, couldn't-be-loftier challenge, they can do so knowing that they do not need any sort of miracle to make us proud in South Africa.

Should they keep drawing on the character they have shown already, decline to be overawed, and play with that joyous empowerment that comes from being underdogs in a competition of legendary upsets, then what awaits them, and us, is an unforgettable sporting adventure.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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