A World Cup qualifying match to be held in Wellington in November is being hailed as New Zealand soccer's "one shot for glory".
The match, on November 14, will be the second of a two-leg play-off for New Zealand against either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, following the first leg away
on October 10.
A win would qualify the All Whites for a place in the soccer World Cup for the first time since 1982, when New Zealand qualified for the finals in Spain.
Launching the All Whites' campaign today, coach Ricki Herbert, who was part of the 1982 team, said he could see parallels between the teams' journeys.
"There's some obvious shades of '82 in that our route goes through Asia again and we face a pair of make-or-break games at the end," he said.
"That was an incredibly exciting time of my life in football, you could just sense the unity around the country.
"It's exciting that these lads could be about to create and share in the same feeling here in Wellington."
Herbert said the current team faced a challenge in either of the possible oppositions.
"Bahrain, Saudi Arabia are both very, very good, truly technical sides," he said.
Captain Tim Brown echoed the point, saying in the eyes of the world New Zealand would most likely be viewed as the underdog against both sides.
"Put quite simply, it's the biggest game of our careers," Brown said.
New Zealand Football used the launch as a nationwide team-talk, encouraging the country to get involved with the All Whites' World Cup bid, and giving the event the slogan of "one shot for glory".
As well as All Whites and A-League Wellington Phoenix players, sports figures from other codes turned up to show their support, including former New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming and former All Black Norm Hewitt.
A website, oneshotforglory.co.nz, was also launched so fans could show support for the team.
- NZPA
