Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

New Zealand football great John Adshead's Fifa World Cup pick

Kiri Gillespie
By Kiri Gillespie
Assistant News Director and Multimedia Journalist·Bay of Plenty Times·
14 Jul, 2018 06:00 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

NZ football great John Adshead shares his thoughts on who he thinks will take out the Fifa World Cup final on Monday morning. Photo / Andrew Warner

NZ football great John Adshead shares his thoughts on who he thinks will take out the Fifa World Cup final on Monday morning. Photo / Andrew Warner

One of New Zealand's football greats has shared his picks for the 2018 Fifa Football World Cup final - but says it really could be anyone's game.

Early on Monday morning France and Croatia will compete for the title of World Cup champions as the Russian football tournament.

Retired coach John Adshead, who was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to football, will be watching the match from his Mount Maunganui home.

Adshead is best known for coaching the New Zealand football team through to the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain - the only time New Zealand had reached football's finals until 2010.

"It has been an incredible world cup. It's unpredictable and when you look at all of these games, the teams are fairly even," Adshead said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The 76-year-old picked France to win. The French side is coached by Didier Deschamps who was captain last time his nation won the World Cup, which Adshead felt would work in their favour.

However, there was no telling what could happen in this tournament, he said.

"When we've got to semifinals without Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, etc, you look at this world cup and it's very, very different," Adshead said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Africa and the south of Asia showed that they are really closing the gap."

Adshead said the game had changed over the years "in a big way".

Teams used to have players who specialised in either defence or attack, but now they could do both.

Adshead said the skill and technique on show had been incredible to watch, although many New Zealanders did not truly understand how big the sport was overseas.

Discover more

Football: Tauranga Boys' College go clear

09 Jul 01:30 AM

English football fans brace themselves

11 Jul 04:09 PM

Chasing Croatian football dreams to World Cup finals

12 Jul 04:03 AM

"It's hard for New Zealand to believe but there are not many countries like New Zealand where rugby is the national game. The All Blacks are huge but the game itself, it's seriously played in eight to 10 countries."

By comparison, football was number one for more than 220 nations, he said.

"I mean, I love the game but I'm not fanatical about it. But these people go bonkers. They will give up their job or give up their marriage in order to go see a game."

Adshead said he would probably record the 3am final rather than wake early to watch it live. Things might have been different if his motherland England had made the final, he said.

Fifa Football World Cup 2018

- 32 teams took part in the competition. Russia and 13 national teams represented Europe (Russia automatically qualified as the host country), five teams from African confederation, 10 from Asia and South America, and three from the North American confederation. Two games remain - the playoff for third between Belgium and England at 3am tomorrow, and Monday's final between Croatia and France. World Cup matches were played in 11 cities.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Covid-19 and flu infections rise in Western BOP

01 Jul 06:00 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Knew he was gone': Truck driver describes cyclist he'd hit lying on ground

01 Jul 07:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Customs seizes 150kg of cocaine bricks marked 'good luck' in Tauranga

01 Jul 05:00 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Covid-19 and flu infections rise in Western BOP

Covid-19 and flu infections rise in Western BOP

01 Jul 06:00 PM

Patients asked to wait in their cars as medical centres deal with winter illness spike.

'Knew he was gone': Truck driver describes cyclist he'd hit lying on ground

'Knew he was gone': Truck driver describes cyclist he'd hit lying on ground

01 Jul 07:00 AM
Customs seizes 150kg of cocaine bricks marked 'good luck' in Tauranga

Customs seizes 150kg of cocaine bricks marked 'good luck' in Tauranga

01 Jul 05:00 AM
Zespri teams up with Dame Lisa Carrington

Zespri teams up with Dame Lisa Carrington

01 Jul 03:30 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP