Chris Rattue: Soccer's Holy Grail sneaks up on us

History is at hand, although you would hardly know it as our gallant collection of widely distributed soccer talent gathers for the job in Manama, Bahrain.

On one hand, New Zealand soccer is extraordinarily close to returning to the sport's Holy Grail, a place in the World Cup finals.

Even in the euphoria of qualifying in 1982, plenty of us had good reason to wonder if it would ever happen again, whether there would be enough Rufers, Almonds, Sumners and Wooddins in store to see off Australia and whoever else was in the All Whites' path.

On the other hand, this latest and weirdly short run to what is hopefully a place in next year's finals in South Africa has been so drab that you are left with the feeling that while a reorganisation of Fifa's zones in this part of the world has done us one favour, it has denied us too many others.

Since Australia legged it for the more demanding standards and increased glamour of Asia, Oceania has become a third-rate and excitement-free zone. Those who believe the journey can be as good as the destination will feel cheated.

Unlike 1982, there has been no powerful, emotional connection between this side and the public. Yes, everyone has heard of Shane Smeltz, thanks to his fabulous scoring knack, and captain Ryan Nelsen is a bona fide world-class national sporting star. Much of the rest of the team is almost as mysterious as Bahrain to the general sporting public.

That image problem will change come Sunday morning, and further still if the team makes it to South Africa. It is a big if, though, and along the way substantial opportunities have been lost, or denied, New Zealand football. This system is unlikely to be retained and as the 73-year-old Fifa overlord Sepp Blatter and his acolytes peer towards these clashes between the All Whites and All Reds in Manama and Wellington, they are likely to feel that this soft qualification route has slipped under their normally sharp radar.

For now, though, here we are, with football magic in the air once again.

New Zealand was the most unlikely of finalists all those years ago, when that heart-on-his-sleeve hardman Kevin Fallon whipped the lads into early morning shape while the ever-optimistic soccer salesman John Adshead plotted the journey from hotel balconies above.

This was a unique duo of contrasting personalities who discovered and shaped a rare blend of players, and the 15-game run to the World Cup was as an enchanting, fascinating and exhilaratingly time of it as New Zealand sport has ever had.

Can it really be nearly 30 years since the wild ride began, when at least the soccer aficionados suddenly took notice, after Adshead's All Whites scored a shock 4-0 victory over Mexico in an obscure friendly at Bill McKinlay Park.

Time has moved so fast, and times have also moved on. We are almost there again, but the magic has been missing so far.

This two-match duel for a place in the 32 team finals is so bizarre that what could be described as the most important and significant fixtures in New Zealand's sporting year have slipped under our own radar.

There have been nearly as many column inches dedicated to the French rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud's all-in brawl with his imagination in Wellington as to the encounters against Bahrain, the All Whites' opponents through finishing fifth in Asia.

Even something as glorious as World Cup qualification needs a few hooks to hang its coat on, and six Oceania qualifiers against New Caledonia, Fiji and Vanuatu don't make the grade.

If the All Whites make it to South Africa, it could be claimed quite reasonably that the end has more than justified the means. But what if they miss out - it leaves this whole qualification business as a disaster compared with what it could have been, a low-rent gamble that failed to win the lottery.

And what if, after a phantom qualification, they prove to be bantamweight at the finals and are crushed by the world powers? That alone will send alarm bells of change through the Fifa halls of power while the swinging-vote sports public here will be unimpressed at best, cynical to scathing at worst.

With so many outstanding football countries missing out on World Cup finals, New Zealand versus Bahrain - who ousted Saudi Arabia - doesn't cut it, quite frankly. When the buttoned-down Ricki Herbert talks to his troops in Bahrain, or perhaps when the more emotionally obvious Brian Turner addresses the team, they might well remind them that this soft path to the finals will probably never come their way, or any All White's way, again.

Grab it with both hands and more importantly both feet, boys. Hell, not even George Best made it that far.

Among those expecting change is the New Zealand Football chairman, Frank van Hattum, who, like Herbert and Turner, was in the 1982 team.

Van Hattum has been quoted in the Christchurch Press as saying: "The ideal pathway would be to get into that second Asian qualifying group. It's a harder pathway, but in terms of the stigma and excitement, it would be good."

This is wonderful common sense, a football hero of our past using his own experience to take an intelligent hold of the future.

What New Zealand football needs most is a return to the days of cut-throat games against Australia, along with top players desperate to be involved and administrators with the ability to make that happen.

Add a team like Japan into the qualification mix, and our football will be forced to take on a quality and glow that has been missing in this nondescript Oceania nonsense.

There were many wonderful days in that 1982 drama involving countries whose football we knew virtually nothing about, but the crux of the matter was the clashes against Australia, the highlight being a long-range headed goal from the belligerent Grant Turner in Sydney that still sends shivers up the spine.

A relatively easy path to the finals is certainly tempting but it is sugar-loaded candy compared with what could be a slow-burn diet of high-quality qualification football against opponents just above our level.

This would force New Zealand soccer to strive even harder, encourage the public to take greater notice, make qualification fully deserved, and create a battle-hardened team ripe for the finals.

The argument is redundant anyway, you suspect, because Fifa will already be contemplating a change, and with every justification.

Apart from that, it is left to wish these All Whites well.

Sunday morning will be a chance for those of us old enough to recall those magnificent days of the early 1980s, when we kept all-hours vigils of hope that were answered, beyond our dreams, by the courage of workhorse runners like "Buzzer" Mackay and Duncan Cole, the sufficient if not world-class skill of a few comrades, and the magical feet of first Steve Wooddin and then Wynton Rufer.

With a bit of luck, Manama and Wellington will prove to be more than a stroll down memory lane.

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Match fixing is an insidious business, to the point that it's hard to believe some media claims that the Pakistani captain, Younus Khan, deliberately batted the ball down rather than take a dolly catch to dismiss Grant Elliott in the Champions Trophy semifinal. It was a horrendous drop, but surely way too obvious. That's the trouble with cricket these days, you just don't know what to believe. And unfortunately perfectly honourable cricketers can get hurt in the fallout.

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Time magazine contains a revealing statistic about the influence of television on sport and the rise of corporate boxes. In a feature article on the new Dallas Cowboys football stadium, it stated that only 7 per cent of all National Football League fans have ever been inside an NFL stadium. At the ticket prices quoted for the new stadium - a third of which is turned over to corporate-style seating - it is hardly surprising. There are still a few cheap seats, where there aren't actually any seats, although it sounded as though this area was saved for American sport's sanitised version of beer-swilling hooligans. Is this the future, or maybe even the present, for our own football codes, you wonder?

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The Blues can't find a first five-eighths anywhere. The once glamour rugby franchise is in a hopeless state, but surely it could still lure the second-string Chiefs pivot Mike Delany into the lineup. Okay, the Blues might not be on top of their game, but as the NRL season has shown, it is possible to turn things around, and quickly. It makes you wonder how good a job the chief executive, Andy Dalton, and his crew are doing in selling their team to new prospects. Not very well, I'd suggest. Manawatu's rising ace Aaron Cruden told me this year that the Blues had shown an interest in him, but after a phone call they had never called back and he wasn't sure where he stood. His coach and mentor Dave Rennie added that he thought the return of Luke McAlister and Daniel Bowden had ended the Blues' interest in Cruden. Uncertainty ruled, and the fading northern powerhouse is finding that the rest of the country isn't clamouring for its attentions any more. The tired old rugby heads running the game in this region are being found out, methinks.