All Whites to the World Cup

[sierra_le_oli]

It was too early in the morning to be having heart attacks, but being awake turned out to be worth it as the All Whites beat Bahrain to go through to the men's football World Cup in South Africa next year. Still can't quite believe it. The last (and only) time NZ qualified was waaaay back in 1982

Comments

[gmh]

Excellent! - I always like to see teams I can support get through to major events.

[hobnobs]

Hurrah! I'll be sure to keep an eye on how they do.

I'm hoping that Ireland can repeat that feat against France.

[dragon_prince]

out of interest do the all whites do a Haka before thier games?

well done to them for getting there..

[sierra_le_oli]

Not generally, no, as far as I can tell. Don't think FIFA is a fan?

[sierra_le_oli]

Brett, I just did a whois on the website that was mentioned in the reply to you and it looks like it's an opportunistic website maker, Bruce Wileman, BB Group in Johnsonville, Wellington (or friend) who hopes that the All Whites' name will bring in ad revenue. Has previous, apparently.

[bonnie_j]

I'd guess that another reason is that there's not the long history of Maori involvement in soccer in NZ, compared with the 100+ year history of the All Blacks. Without knowing anything about the team except for Fallon and Paston, I'd guess that a good proportion of the All Whites were either born overseas or born in NZ to migrant parents like Fallon. It's harder to absorb the local culture in that context. The basketball team, the Tall Blacks (bit of a theme going on there) did one once at least, and there are a few imports there, but there are a lot of Maori basketball players too.

Sorry

[anonymous]

Hi, sorry for posting links to my site on your blog - it is a bit sad really...

"Bruce"