Football: Young All White to give key speech before Russia clash

The All Whites line up for their national anthem ahead of last week's clash against Belarus. Photosport

As the All Whites make their way to Krestovsky Stadium on Sunday morning (NZT), one of the younger squad members will give a speech.

While the team bus winds its way through St Petersburg, across Vasilyevsky Island and over the Neva river, the nominated player will brief his teammates about the history of the stadium, and the background of the city they are playing in.

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 the 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 goal against Bahrain in 2009 in Wellington).

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

This time has to be different, as President Vladimir Putin reminded the team, and the entire nation, on Friday. During his twice-yearly state of the nation address, where he takes selected questions from more than 2 million submitted across the country, he made some pointed remarks about the football side, saying it 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 and is likely to rule until at least 2020, also confirmed he will take his seat in the stadium on Saturday, adding another layer of pressure for the home side.

- By Michael Burgess in St Petersburg

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