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+ New Zealand had a tortuous qualifying journey of 15 matches. You were
brought in with two matches to play, needing a couple of big results.
I was 18 and the only player based overseas, having just joined up with Norwich.
Two teams out of the final group of four went to the World Cup and Kuwait had
already qualified but the home game was given as a thankyou to the public. The
tickets were free from the prince so there were 40,000 people in the stadium five
hours before the game and 100,000 outside upset they couldn’t get in. We should
have been down about 5-0 when they scored. But Steve Sumner scored a classic
and a minute later, I sneaked one. They equalised in the 92nd minute.
+ That draw meant you needed to beat Saudi Arabia 6-0 away to qualify.
Instead you won 5-0 and got a playoff against China. If that happened now
there would be rumblings of match fixing, surely?
Yeah. We heard the Indonesian referee from the first Kuwait game in NZ got a
house from the Kuwaiti government. There was a lot of corruption at the time in
football. But it was just a crazy game. We were playing on Astroturf for the first
time, it was 35 degrees and we all had blood blisters on our feet, and halftime we
were up 5-0. It was a miracle. I got two but in the second half I hit the bar, hit the
post and missed a couple of one on ones with the keeper. Football, it’s crazy.
+ FIFA did you no favours with the playoff venue.
We were trying to get that game to be played in Melbourne but they chose
Singapore. Neutral territory? What a joke. There were 58,000 Chinese in the
stands. But we got through 2-1. I got the second goal and became a hero
then in New Zealand, so it was a real fairytale.
+ You were the youngest player in team full of characters, described as a
bunch of hard drinkers and skirt chasers. Were they really like that?
For sure. There was a lot of British influence back then. They were crazy guys. I
was a young idiot who joined in for the action. I’ve since become a Christian and
changed my life but at that time I was a real nutter chasing the skirts. I wasn’t
really into the alcohol like the others but I definitely liked the girls.
+ What was the feeling like, going to Spain for the finals?
Wow. It was massive and we knew it. The whole thing was building, just a giant
wave of popularity which had grown from one success to the next and culminated
in the win in Singapore. We were treated as Gods. It was incredible and
unprecedented - massive front page stuff. Having scored the winner I went back
to England and I was on the back of Shoot magazine. They usually did stories on
Pele, Cruyff or Beckenbauer and there was Wynton Rufer. I mean, I had the Shoot
magazine posters on my wall as a kid. Now they’re doing a story on me!
+ Were the All Whites a novelty act at the finals?
We were. Imagine it: you qualify then next thing you know you’re in a group with
Scotland, Brazil and the Soviet Union. It was just a dream group for us really,
because we knew we weren’t going to win any games. Scotland were some side
­– Kenny Dalglish, John Wark, Steve Archibald – it was just unbelievable to play
against those guys. And the Brazilians were one of the greatest teams to have
played in a World Cup without winning it. Socrates, Zico . . .
+ And I believe you missed meeting Pele?
I was a bit of tourist and carried my camera everywhere. We played Brazil in
Sevilla, a beautiful stadium and it was packed with a sea of yellow, because of
course everyone was a Brazilian fan. My family were in the stadium and I wanted
get a photo of them. So before the game, I was the only player out on the field,
taking advantage of it and they bring Pele into our rooms and introduce him
to the whole team and I missed it! I met him a lot later through being on a FIFA
committee, and still see him. But it was a classic, telling him that story.
+ The home qualifier against Bahrain was massive thrill.
It was unbelievable. So exciting. All the comments from neutrals, from
rugby and cricket journalists, was that it was one of the greatest
moments of NZ sport.
+ You were saying all week in the lead up that New Zealand were going
through without a doubt. It might have backfired spectacularly.
I was 100 percent that we couldn’t lose that game. I’d experienced it. ENZED @ THE CUP
In something like that game, with the home advantage, you can’t 1982 in Spain
lose. You come out into a stadium like that as a player and Scotland 5 def NZ 2
it’s like being on the most amazing drugs ever. I reckon Soviet Union 3 def NZ 0
I could have played that game, with 10 chicks, and we Brazil 4 def NZ 0
still would have won!

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OTBALL+ presents 2010 WORLD CUP 127