This was just icing on the Cake Tin

OPINION: IT WAS an occasion like New Zealand has never seen before. In football, or any other sport.

Yes, we've had "do or die" matches in other codes. But not in a sport with anything like the worldwide appeal of football, or with so much prestige and money at stake.

We had the big World Cup matches with big crowds at Mt Smart in 1981. But the crowds weren't quite as big, and the matches weren't as crucial. If we slipped up, which we did, we got a second chance.

And when it did come down to the winner take all, in that memorable playoff with China, it was held in Singapore.

We regularly stage rugby matches in front of bigger crowds in New Zealand, but there's nothing at stake other than bragging rights over one or two of our neighbours. In rugby these matches are known as "tests", but in football these would be referred to as "friendlies".

And when we won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, who outside New Zealand really gave a toss?

For New Zealand v Bahrain, for the first time in 27 years, the country united behind our All Whites. The media did its bit. Football led the sports news. The country, faced with this novelty occasion, wondered how big it actually was. As big as the 10,000 metres final at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games in 1974, someone in radio-land told us. Yes, that big! The "away goals" rule was discussed on numerous occasions, making it sound far more complicated than it is.

Line-ups and tactics were discussed with the aid of expert commentators and legends from the 1982 team. And didn't Wellington, home of the magnificent Cake Tin, "rise" to the occasion. The atmosphere built in the city through the week, reaching fever pitch yesterday. People came from all over the country for the game, and officials suggested that had the stadium had 50,000, or 60,000 seats, they'd have filled every one of them.

The most frequently asked question this past week was: "How can I get a ticket?" The fans were the icing on the cake. Thanks to all the football on TV nowadays, Kiwi football fans have evolved rapidly. We've seen how they do it overseas, and now we've got fans displaying some passion, wearing football shirts, and no shirts, and singing witty ditties rather than the quaint "All Whites! (clap, clap, clap)" – although last night it sounded quite cool! Yep, this was almost the real deal. I say "almost" because there were no scantily-clad South American beauties shuffling to the samba. No armies of supporters in orange playing horned instruments. No skinheads trashing restaurants and bars in Courtenay Place.

Hopefully that'll all come with time (OK maybe not the trashing bit). For a country still learning the ropes of the global game, this was a brilliant effort, and the message it sent was clear: we want more.

That's why New Zealand needs to get involved in the Asian confederation. Note I said "involved in", not "in".

If we get fully "in" to Asia, as Australia has done, all our under-17 teams, under-20 teams and Olympic teams would also be in Asia. Flying our youngsters all over Asia for piles of qualifying games every time a tournament comes around would cripple us, as crowds aren't going to turn out in New Zealand to watch our youth teams play Thailand.

Can we eat our cake and have it too? We want to stay in Oceania, so our young teams continue qualifying for all their Olympics and World Cup finals. But for the All Whites, wouldn't it be great if after winning Oceania, we could have not a two team playoff as we've just had, but a spot in Asia's final round of playoffs, where we'd be one of 10 teams, split into two groups of five?

That would give us a minimum eight massive games, four of them at home.

It'd be like this weekend multiplied by a four! A month of super Saturdays. It would be 1981 all over again, only with shorter hair and longer shorts!

In the meantime, the Wellington World Cup party will live long in the memories of all who were there.

Billy Harris is a former All White.

- © Fairfax NZ News