New Zealand 1
Slovakia 1
The World Cup's theme is "ke nako" - it's time - and the All Whites announced that it was their time to come of age on the world stage this morning.
Winston Reid scored an injury-time header that saw New Zealand grab a stunning point. That's the first point New Zealand have ever grabbed at a World Cup. Ever.
They are now still alive in Group F and with a chance to qualify for the second round. Imagine that.
The All Whites are now level on points with Italy and Paraguay with two games to play.
They looked destined to suffer a disappointing but far from disgraceful defeat until Shane Smeltz found Reid in the box in the 92nd minute. Thanks again, Fifa, for changing the eligibility rules.
The All Whites celebrated wildly and Reid picked up a yellow card for taking off his shirt - but that didn't matter.
Most international pundits had predicted the All Whites would be little more than cannon fodder. The Wall St Journal said this would be the biggest dud of the tournament. People in New Zealand would beg to differ. The All Whites created history.
New Zealand had by far the better start of the two teams. Chris Killen had one shot on goal as early as the third minute that sailed over, but he had an even better chance 60 seconds later when he drew a save from Slovakia goalkeeper Jan Mucha from a close-range header.
It was the All Whites' best chance and Killen needed to take it because they weren't likely to get too many at this World Cup. What it clearly illustrated, however, was New Zealand's intention - get the ball into the box as quickly as possible where the height of Rory Fallon and Killen could trouble Slovakia's defence.
It was a simple game plan, but an effective one. The All Whites aren't good enough to pass their way through teams so why kid yourself?
At that stage, only 10 minutes into the game, you wanted to believe that something truly special could happen. That New Zealand could go top of the group after the first round of games. That would be ahead of Italy. Italy. The defending world champions.
But then the nerves kicked in. It started with Tony Lochhead, who gave away possession cheaply a couple of times, and the anxiety seemed to spread through the team.
They seemed scared of the ball and got caught in bad areas, which heaped the pressure on themselves and Stanislav Sestak had a couple of great chances to open the scoring but flashed wide.
The worst All Whites' mistake came from goalkeeper Mark Paston, who took an air shot while trying to clear the ball, but he recovered well to smother Robert Vittek's attempt on goal.
The situation needed calm heads. It needed them to forget they were playing at New Zealand's first World Cup in 28 years and that it wasn't arguably the biggest game in the history of New Zealand football - as hard as that might sound.
They got to halftime safely, but fell behind early in the second spell when Vittek got ahead of Reid and buried a brilliant header past Paston. It was a bitter blow, especially as there was a hint of offside.
The All Whites responded well, They had periods of good possession but created little as Slovakia comfortably dealt with long balls into the box - that was until Reid popped up.
"Ke nako". It's time. And hopefully the world will take notice.
