Editorial: When football takes over

Kim Gillespie

Friday 6am: It's hard to believe it's already four years since the last football World Cup - held in South Africa in June and July 2010.

That, of course, was one of the big ones for New Zealanders. It was only the second time we'd qualified for the finals.

If that wasn't enough reason to watch, the All Whites, ranked 78th in the world, went on to exceed expectations with drawn group matches against Italy (Italy!!), Paraguay and Slovakia, teams ranked 5th, 31st and 34th.

A nation building towards its hosting of the Rugby World Cup with growing feverish anticipation went momentarily soccer-mad.

For a brief period we'd fallen for The Beautiful Game.

Then we remembered there was another footballing showcase to get set for (and what a pearler the 2011 Rugby World Cup turned out to be).

Three decades earlier there was a similar fervour. New Zealand qualified for its first World Cup - the 1982 finals in Spain.

As a soccer-playing youngster I followed the team's fortunes avidly. I had posters on my wall and the names are all still familiar to me: Frank van Hattum, Wynton Rufer, Steve Sumner, Ricki Herbert.

We'd get up early with toast and hot Milo to watch the All Whites at the World Cup. I remember little else except perhaps the sensation it was a special moment for the country, much like our rugby and yachting highlights.

Now, once again I'm up early - this time with my youngsters - for another World Cup. New Zealand might be missing from the line-up but there still seems to be a lot of excitement and anticipation around the event.

Here's to four and a half weeks of early starts, discussions about countries we never otherwise think of, arguments over the competing merits of the words "football" and "soccer" (either's fine, get over it), workplace rivalries sparked by office sweeps, suspicious "sickies" on the days of big games, learning how to pronounce Sao Paulo, and, hopefully, lots of stunning football.