Former All Whites skipper backs Nelsen

BY TONY SMITH

All Whites captain Ryan Nelsen's "hard-nosed" attitude has been hailed by New Zealand's first World Cup finals skipper.

Steve Sumner – the ever-present leader of the All Whites' 1982 campaign – is impressed with Nelsen's stance on New Zealand's potential 2010 World Cup finals opponents in South Africa.

Rory Fallon, scorer of the match-winning goal against Bahrain, expressed a desire to draw England and Australia. New Zealand Football chief executive Michael Glading hankers for Brazil and Australia.

But Nelsen would prefer to get the weakest teams in the tournament to give the All Whites a shot at making the second round.

Sumner said that was the right attitude to take. "I'm tickled pink that Ryan is talking about `can we get ourselves qualified for the next round'.

"They should be learning from our experiences [in 1982]. Don't go there now with no expectations of getting past that first round. Believe in yourselves."

Sumner has just two words to say to the sceptics forecasting a first-round exit for the All Whites: Saudi Arabia and Senegal.

"The Saudis have made the second round more than once and Senegal, first time in, beat France [1-0] in 1998.

Ecuador and Switzerland made the last-16 playoffs round in 2006, as did Paraguay in 1998 and 2002.

"I'm telling you they absolutely can [get a result] and then we've just got to talk from our heart about getting through and getting to that second round," Sumner said.

Times have changed since New Zealand Football Association chairman Charlie Dempsey famously said in 1982 that the All Whites had won their World Cup just by getting to Spain.

Sumner said that was both "real and a bit naive too". Back then, the All Whites were all amateurs or part-time professionals pitted against Scotland, the Soviet Union and world superstars Brazil. No-one expected them to get a result, let alone qualify for the next round.

Over the years plenty of people have pondered a range of ifs and maybes.What if the All Whites had been able to afford a bunch of international warmup games?

"If influential goal-scoring midfielder Grant Turner hadn't been invalided home with injury after a training ground mishap?

Maybe the Kiwis could have got a draw with the Soviets if Ken Cresswell had put away a free header with the score at 0-0.

"If we'd had six, eight or 10, or even 15 or 20 games before the World Cup, I think we would have got a result [in Spain]," Sumner said.

"We went in and never even knew how hot the water was. We played our first game against Scotland and we didn't know how tough it would be."

The 1982 coach, John Adshead, never pressured his players with talk about winning games in Spain. Instead, he set the All Whites World Cup pioneers the target of scoring goals – "something Aussie never did [in 1974 in Germany]". "And we did [Sumner and Steve Wooddin netted in a 2-5 loss to Scotland]."

But Sumner thinks Ricki Herbert's squad should set their sights higher.

The difference between the 1982 and 2010 sides is obvious. Nelsen and his team-mates are almost all fulltime professionals at clubs in Britain, the United States and the Australian A-League. They make their living from the game and are training daily. An All White with a day job, like banker Andy Barron, stands out as an exception, not the rule, as in 1982.

Sumner has been reflecting this week on how the Kiwi football landscape has changed since he came here in 1973 from north England.

"Generally speaking then, [New Zealand] were bringing players in here. There wasn't much traffic going the other way [to Britain]."

Now New Zealand has Nelsen at English premier league club Blackburn Rovers, striker Chris Killen with Scottish premier league giants Glasgow Celtic and Rory Fallon leading the line at Plymouth Argyle in England's tier-two Championship.

Sumner was 17 when he first joined Christchurch United. "Now we've got a 17-year-old [Chris Wood] on the fringe of the All Whites' starting team and making his way at West Brom at the top end of the Championship.

"It might seem a long time from the '70s to here. A lot of people have been putting a lot of effort into transforming young kids into decent football players. Lots of football coaches around this country can take credit from that performance the other night."

Sumner, a television commentator for the 1-0 win over Bahrain in Wellington, said that victory should strengthen the All Whites' self-belief.

Nor does he believe New Zealand fans should be worried if Fifa change the qualifying pathway for the 2014 tournament and make New Zealand compete in the final Asian group qualifying phase.

"Everyone in New Zealand now believes these guys can win their way through that sort of grouping and can get themselves into the second round, regardless of who's in the group."

Sumner says Kiwi fans might have to wait some time for their next football fix because of the overseas-based All Whites' club commitments.

He thinks New Zealand Football could draw 60,000 to an All Whites-Australia World Cup warmup match, "if there was a stadium big enough".

- © Fairfax NZ News