PREVIEW: New Zealand's biggest football crowd looking for home win

Nov 13, 2009, 3:48 GMT

   Wellington - New Zealand, where rugby is the national game, has gone football-mad as the All Whites national team prepares to play Bahrain in Wellington Saturday for a place in the World Cup finals for the first time in a generation.

   It is a do-or-die encounter for both teams, who battled to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their play-off in Manama last month. The match is due to be played in front of a capacity crowd of 35,500, the largest ever to watch a football match in New Zealand.

   New Zealand, the top Oceania qualifier, last played in the World Cup finals in Spain in 1982. Bahrain, the fifth qualifier from the Asian federation, has never made the finals.

   Bahrain, ranked 61 by FIFA, is the favourite after dominating the first leg, but New Zealand (ranked at 83) is relying on the home advantage and the visitors' discomfort in a forecast chilly 13 degrees Celsius, well below the steamy heat of the Gulf they are used to, to give them the edge.

   New Zealand has to win the game to be sure of a place in South Africa. If there is another draw and goals are scored this time, Bahrain will get the berth by dint of the FIFA away goal rule.

   New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, who played in the 1982 finals, was buoyed by evidence that his star strikers, Shane Smeltz (Gold Coast United, Australia) and international newcomer Rory Falloon (Plymouth Argyle), are in form, both scoring winning goals for their clubs last weekend.

   Another good omen was veteran skipper Ryan Nelsen notching up his first goal of the season - and only his second in 123 appearances - for Blackburn Rovers, who he captains in the English Premier League.

   Herbert also has Chris Killen (Celtic), who, like Smeltz, has scored 17 goals for his country, and 17-year-old whizz kid Chris Wood, who plays for West Bromwich Albion, to add grunt up front.

   The only cloud over the New Zealand camp Friday was continuing doubt about the fitness of midfielder Simon Elliott, a veteran with 66 caps who has been struggling with a hip injury.

   Although Herbert has a talented young substitute in Michael McGlinchey, 22, on standby, Elliott's experience and cool head would be a loss.

   Bahrain surprised many by spending most of the week preparing in Sydney, where it has been much warmer, and not flying into Wellington until Thursday, leaving only two days to get acclimatized.

   Coach Milan Macala shrugged off concerns about the weather, saying that playing football warmed up his players, even if they were used to the heat.

   Both teams are very conscious of what is at stake. Herbert said a win would be a 'defining moment' in New Zealand football history, galvanising the country behind the minority sport the way the 1982 squad did.

   'I am living this dream like any other Bahraini who wants to qualify for the World Cup for the first time and we will work very hard to achieve this dream,' Macala said.