All Whites: Putin warns it's time for host team to step up

A football statue in Russia's colours points the way for fans. Photo / Getty Images

As the All Whites make their way to Krestovsky Stadium tomorrow morning (New Zealand time), a younger squad member will give a speech.

While the team bus winds through St Petersburg, the nominated player will brief his teammates about the history of the stadium and the background of the city in which they are playing.

It's a tradition started under coach Anthony Hudson, to add to the sense of the occasion. But it's likely tomorrow's bus journey won't be long enough, as one could talk for hours about the travails of this metropolis and its people.

From Peter the Great's construction of this magnificent city, during which an estimated 100,000 labourers perished, to the Bolshevik revolution at the Winter Palace in 1917.

The city was renamed Petrograd, then Leningrad - in honour of Vladimir Lenin - and also had to survive an unprecedented Nazi siege during World War II.

Residents were cut off for almost 900 days, resulting in mass starvation, before the Red Army finally broke through in January, 1944.

Now it's one of the most modern cities in Europe, about to host its first major football tournament.

There are hints at the airport, with an entire wing of the arrivals hall given over to murals about each team (though the huge New Zealand photo is a bit dated, centred on Rory Fallon celebrating his winning goal in the World Cup playoff against Bahrain in 2009 in Wellington).

There is a sense of quiet expectation here, after so many disappointments for Russian football. They have qualified for three World Cups and five European Championships since 1996, but have reached the knockout stages only once.

This time has to be different, as President Vladimir Putin reminded the team and nation yesterday.

During his twice-yearly state of the nation address, where he takes selected questions from more than two million submitted across the country, he said the football side had "let the nation down" in the past and needed to perform this time. Putin, a St Petersburg native who first came to office in 2000, also confirmed he will take his seat in the stadium tomorrow, adding another layer of pressure for the home side.