March 7, 2025 • 14 mins
For the first time, Oceania has an entryway into a 48-team football World Cup.
The FIFA World Cup is taking place in the states, Canada and Mexico next year.
If New Zealand beats Fiji at the end of this month, they will be one match away from fighting for a place in the World Cup on March 24th.
The last time the All Whites went to the World Cup was 2010 in South Africa, and former All White Rory Fallon talks to Piney about his experience on the world stage.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well The All Whites two games away from next year's
Football World Cup. For the first time, Oceania has direct
entry into what will be a forty eight team World
Cup co hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Now,
New Zealand play Fiji in Wellington on Friday, the twenty
(00:34):
first of March. If they win that, they would then
play the winner of Tahiti and New Caledonia. That's the
other semi final if you like, which also takes place
in Wellington on the twenty first of March. The two
winners play at Eden Park on the night of Monday,
March twenty fourth for a place at the World Cup.
The last time the All Whites went to the World
(00:54):
Cup was twenty ten in South Africa. They got their
courtesy of one of the most memorable nights in New
Zealand sporting history, a one mil win over bah Rain
in Wellington and on the fourteenth of November two thousand
and nine. The All Whites goal scorer that night was
Rory Fellon. Here comes Burdos, right foot it out into the.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We can't hear a thing, but I'm going to tell
you I think it's Rory Fellon who's down the back
of the net. The ball came in from Burtosk Rory
Fellon rose and hitting the ball powerfully past the keeper.
It's still so vivid when I went now sixteen years
on or fifteen and a half, sixteen years on from that,
Rory Fellon is with us on Weekend Sport. What stands
out most when you think back to that night.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Rory, are just the great memories that I kind of
shared with the team, you know, as that whole time
was a magical time, Like the two thousand and nine
and ten era was just such a beautiful time in
New zelland football, I felt, you know. And it was
a bunch a bunch of mates that kind of trained
together when they were younger, and they all came kind
(02:04):
of got to one of the biggest world's biggest stage
together and it's just it was just a beautiful time.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It was a different set up back then. You had
to play a home and away into continental playoffs, so
you'd been to bah Rain, got a nil ol drawer
over there. Do you remember being quite confident heading into
the home league.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, so we were confident going into that, into that
game away, we knew that if we just needed a draw,
we knew that we could scrap for a draw. And
we knew that was going to be a hard game,
but we felt that we had enough in that in
that team. It was a team of kind of seasoned
(02:44):
professionals in overseas leagues, you know, so we weren't scared.
We're you know, good pros. We were tough and we
were hard to beat, and yeah, we we once we
knew that we were going to take them back home
and all we needed to do was get a win.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We felt that we could do it. Now.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was a horrible night in Wellington that won't surprise anybody,
but it was.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
A great note for us though. That's what we wanted.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
We wanted to be cold, have that wind coming through
the stadium, and it was perfect conditions for us.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I've heard a lot of stories from those who
were there that right before you walked out onto the pitch,
the bar rain players have come out, they're shivering, they're
wearing gloves, you know, trying to stay warm, and you
basically just started shouting at your team. These guys don't
want it. They don't want to be here. Is that right?
Is that what happened?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, I pretty much squared up to them and I
just like, I just looked across at them. I was like,
look at these guys like wearing their gloves and there
and their scarves and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
They don't they're too scared.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
They don't want this, so the game gets under There
was a lot more, there was a lot more kind
of flavorsome language than that as well. I'm trying to
I'm trying to. I'm trying to keep it PG here.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You're sanitizing it for radio. I greatly appreciate. So what
about the crowd that night, because there was the call
that went at hate we're white, and I thought I
thought it was okay, a few people all were white.
The whole crowd was white. Man, What do you remember
about the about the crowd that night?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
It was electric from as as soon as we got
in there. I remember, even before we got there, the
people walking up to the stadium really early. Usually that
never happens in football in New Zealand around that time,
where people walked to the stadium early, But it was
almost like that kind of fever pitch and an expectation
of this is a big thing, this is something happening,
(04:38):
something's going to be something BIG's going to happen tonight.
And when we kind of got in the bus and
we got through to the stadium, every you know, all
the there was like massive lightings cues outside the stadium
waiting to get in and just you hear this raw
of all the people, like so the buzz of it
was unreal. And then you know, usually in New Zealand
(04:59):
games for warm up there's no one in the stadium.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It was packed. It was absolutely packed.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Just brilliant. Yeah, I remember, well.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, and just see and just seeing the eighty two
team walk around and like the you know, the crowd
we got behind an eighty two team and it just
kind of put it put shivers down your spine, like
how how magical that was, you know, And then obviously
when we.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Walked out, it was just awesome just just to see
a white you know.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So it was goalless for most of the first half.
Right before halftime, talk us through year goal Rory, what
do you remember of it? What stands out most vividly
when you think.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Back to it, jure obviously.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I remember it was almost like the Barnsley connection with
me and Leo because we played football together in the
youth teams and that and the first team at Barnsley,
and he would always whip great balls and for me
and always practice would we would always practice those, you know,
him whipping balls in for me for my head and
stuff like that. We worked on it the night before
(06:00):
and I just remember just him just stepping up, you know,
putting the famous one arm up and just in that
ball in their posts, and I just it was it
was one of them things where it was muscle memory.
It wasn't planned. It was a kind of muscle memory
thing where it's just like I went into the flow
of it, you know, and just thankfully I got a
great connection onto it and there was no chance of
(06:23):
saving it.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So the ball hits the back of the net, what
happens to you physically? Like, can you actually remember the moment?
Because I remember you sprinting off and everybody chasing you.
But what are the emotions when the ball hits the
net in such a significant match as that.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Well, well, I'm not the fastest, so but I could
have I could have been I could have been in
Usain Bolt that there was so much adrenaline running through me.
I don't think you're saying Bolt would have kept up
with me.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I was.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
It was just like the the kind of the impact
of that goal when it went in, and the kind
of roar of the crowd. It was just like unforgettable,
and it's almost like a such a high that is
just you can't even contemplate how kind of how euphoric
I felt at that moment. It was like all those
(07:11):
years of hard work with my dad in the mornings
and overseas, you know, kind of fighting and scrapping away,
and then you have this beautiful moment where it was
just like I'm going to enjoy this moment, and I did.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
So you're going at halftime, you wonder up and then
early in the second half, Bahrain are awarded a penalty. Now,
if the match finishes won all they go through by
virtue of having scored a goal away from the home
So as ad Nan the Bahrain player, squares up to
mark past them for that penalty, what are your emotions
at that time?
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I was actually on the halfway line praying. I was
literally praying. I actually was praying. It's one of them
moments where it's like, oh, this can't happen to us,
and it's so typically sometimes New Zella and where it's
like we get so close, but we just don't, you know,
(08:07):
get there, and it's like I didn't want that to
be that moment for us, Yeah, because we'd work so
hard to get there, all of us, you know, individually
in our own careers and as a team, and to
have that moment because we all knew that there wasn't
many goals in that game. It was always going to
be a tight game. There was never going to be
loads of goals. And so when past the saber, I
(08:28):
could have I could have kissed the guy.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Incredible.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
I was just so it was incredible. It was another
moment like my goal. And then that was a kind
of icon iconic moment of the night as well, where
the where the crowd you know, kind of roared like
it was a goal. So it was like it was
just such a magical moment. But I was like, my heart,
I was nearly having a heart attack.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
How were you?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Then?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So he saves it. It's one nil, and but it's
still quite a bit of the game to go. If
you took past eighty minutes to eighty five minutes to
eighty eight minutes, it gets close enough for you to
start really believing that you're going to do this thing.
What do you remember about the final few moments of
the game and whose voices were the loudest ones out there?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I think everyone was just screaming at each other kind
of to kind of come back and to defend and
stuff like that. We got the whole team back and
just defended for our lives. Obviously, when you're up, especially
in football, if you're up like that, the team has
to kind of press you and try to put pressure
on you to to try and get that goal, you know.
So we knew if if we were going to concede there,
(09:34):
we would have been done for. So we pretty much defended.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
For our lives.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
And I actually remember the moment where there was an
actual free kick and one of the lads got a
head onto it and passially got the save. It wasn't
the header wasn't great, but it was like, you know,
those types of moments in football, they can they can
really kind of do a lot of devastation to your team,
you know, because it's all you need is one moment.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So it was, yeah, it was. It was. There was
probably the first time.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
In my whole career where I felt complete, complete nerves
of we can't let this slip through our hands because
we're so close.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Now, and then the final whistle goes euphoria. What happens
immediately after the final whistle?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
For me, it was relief, Yeah, yeah, it was. It
was just pure relief of kind of the whole kind
of build up to that, you know, from from where
we started to that build up to that final whistle.
I just fell to my knees and I was just
so thankful that we you know, we made it.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
It was just complete relief. And to be fair, I
was like all the lads were partying that night. I
actually had it early night. I was so exhausted, like mentally.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The other story I've heard is about the bus trip
back from the stadium back to where you were staying
around Oriental Parade and how long that took because there
were so many fans out celebrating and what they must
have clocked that that was the New Zealand team bus.
What happened along sort of Courtney Place, Oh, it was packed.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
We were along the waterway. So you know, as you
go from sky Stadium or Caketon whatever you call it,
along the waterway, yep. And it was packed. There was
Choca block and there was actually there was a guy.
There was a guy running after the bus. He was
actually behind the bus on the main road, like running
(11:27):
after the bus, and he was.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
There for about ten minutes.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
I was like, this guy is like proper, like he's
done well, like it's proper, sweating up a storm.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
And everyone was at the back.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Of the bus like banging on the bus like like
all celebrated in that and like you could see the
pure joy in the in the guy's face. And he's
out there somewhere in Wellington, you know, and he always
have that memory and always have that memory.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Of that guy running after the bus. It was brilliant.
It was just one of those great moments, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And what this all led to, of course, was seven
months later you went to the World Cup in South
Africa and i'mbeating campaign with draws against Slovakia, Italy Paraguay.
What a moment in any footballer's career to go to
a World Cup. Very few New Zealanders have done it,
you know, What was it like going to a World Cup?
Speaker 4 (12:15):
It was surreal because all I ever wanted to do
when I was younger, too, kind of two dreams was
to be a kind of a top pro and the
other one was to play in a World Cup. And
I didn't ever think I'd ever get close to a
World Cup, and so to have that dream come to reality,
it was kind of surreal because I've as a kid,
you you know, you always dream about playing in a
(12:36):
World Cup and when you're you know, outside playing with
your mates, you know, you pretend it's a World Cup.
And then to actually walk out into that stadium, you know,
in that first game, and that was a kind of
another iconic moment with Winnie. But to walk out into
that stadium, I was just like, Wow, I'm actually playing
in a World Cup here, and it's kind of it's
(12:59):
surreal and a lot of these lads, for me, I
have no.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Doubt that we'll get to this World Cup.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
A lot of these lads will have those emotions running
through their heads. You know that they're potentially going to
be in the biggest, biggest tournament in the world, and
it's you know, you rarely understand that when you go
to these World Cups.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
That's so huge.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, it's yeah, it's close enough to touch for the current,
the current crop, the pathway, the road there is slightly
different from what you went through. But let's hope they
can complete the job and head off to a World
Cup next year. Rory love walking down memory Lane with you.
I get the feeling you'll be reminded about that night
until the day that you die. Mate. It's something that
so many people, me included, just have such fond memories of.
(13:45):
Thanks for joining us for a bit of.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
A chat mate, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
No, thanks for joining us. Rory fellon there, owner of
one of the most iconic moments in our sporting history
November fourteen, two thousand and nine, has goal against bah
Rain taking New Zealand to the twenty ten Football World
Cup in South Africa.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
used Talk set B weekends from midday or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well The All Whites two games away from next year's
Football World Cup. For the first time, Oceania has direct
entry into what will be a forty eight team World
Cup co hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Now,
New Zealand play Fiji in Wellington on Friday, the twenty
(00:34):
first of March. If they win that, they would then
play the winner of Tahiti and New Caledonia. That's the
other semi final if you like, which also takes place
in Wellington on the twenty first of March. The two
winners play at Eden Park on the night of Monday,
March twenty fourth for a place at the World Cup.
The last time the All Whites went to the World
(00:54):
Cup was twenty ten in South Africa. They got their
courtesy of one of the most memorable nights in New
Zealand sporting history, a one mil win over bah Rain
in Wellington and on the fourteenth of November two thousand
and nine. The All Whites goal scorer that night was
Rory Fellon. Here comes Burdos, right foot it out into the.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We can't hear a thing, but I'm going to tell
you I think it's Rory Fellon who's down the back
of the net. The ball came in from Burtosk Rory
Fellon rose and hitting the ball powerfully past the keeper.
It's still so vivid when I went now sixteen years
on or fifteen and a half, sixteen years on from that,
Rory Fellon is with us on Weekend Sport. What stands
out most when you think back to that night.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Rory, are just the great memories that I kind of
shared with the team, you know, as that whole time
was a magical time, Like the two thousand and nine
and ten era was just such a beautiful time in
New zelland football, I felt, you know. And it was
a bunch a bunch of mates that kind of trained
together when they were younger, and they all came kind
(02:04):
of got to one of the biggest world's biggest stage
together and it's just it was just a beautiful time.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It was a different set up back then. You had
to play a home and away into continental playoffs, so
you'd been to bah Rain, got a nil ol drawer
over there. Do you remember being quite confident heading into
the home league.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, so we were confident going into that, into that
game away, we knew that if we just needed a draw,
we knew that we could scrap for a draw. And
we knew that was going to be a hard game,
but we felt that we had enough in that in
that team. It was a team of kind of seasoned
(02:44):
professionals in overseas leagues, you know, so we weren't scared.
We're you know, good pros. We were tough and we
were hard to beat, and yeah, we we once we
knew that we were going to take them back home
and all we needed to do was get a win.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We felt that we could do it. Now.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was a horrible night in Wellington that won't surprise anybody,
but it was.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
A great note for us though. That's what we wanted.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
We wanted to be cold, have that wind coming through
the stadium, and it was perfect conditions for us.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I've heard a lot of stories from those who
were there that right before you walked out onto the pitch,
the bar rain players have come out, they're shivering, they're
wearing gloves, you know, trying to stay warm, and you
basically just started shouting at your team. These guys don't
want it. They don't want to be here. Is that right?
Is that what happened?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, I pretty much squared up to them and I
just like, I just looked across at them. I was like,
look at these guys like wearing their gloves and there
and their scarves and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
They don't they're too scared.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
They don't want this, so the game gets under There
was a lot more, there was a lot more kind
of flavorsome language than that as well. I'm trying to
I'm trying to. I'm trying to keep it PG here.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You're sanitizing it for radio. I greatly appreciate. So what
about the crowd that night, because there was the call
that went at hate we're white, and I thought I
thought it was okay, a few people all were white.
The whole crowd was white. Man, What do you remember
about the about the crowd that night?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
It was electric from as as soon as we got
in there. I remember, even before we got there, the
people walking up to the stadium really early. Usually that
never happens in football in New Zealand around that time,
where people walked to the stadium early, But it was
almost like that kind of fever pitch and an expectation
of this is a big thing, this is something happening,
(04:38):
something's going to be something BIG's going to happen tonight.
And when we kind of got in the bus and
we got through to the stadium, every you know, all
the there was like massive lightings cues outside the stadium
waiting to get in and just you hear this raw
of all the people, like so the buzz of it
was unreal. And then you know, usually in New Zealand
(04:59):
games for warm up there's no one in the stadium.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It was packed. It was absolutely packed.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Just brilliant. Yeah, I remember, well.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, and just see and just seeing the eighty two
team walk around and like the you know, the crowd
we got behind an eighty two team and it just
kind of put it put shivers down your spine, like
how how magical that was, you know, And then obviously
when we.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Walked out, it was just awesome just just to see
a white you know.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So it was goalless for most of the first half.
Right before halftime, talk us through year goal Rory, what
do you remember of it? What stands out most vividly
when you think.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Back to it, jure obviously.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I remember it was almost like the Barnsley connection with
me and Leo because we played football together in the
youth teams and that and the first team at Barnsley,
and he would always whip great balls and for me
and always practice would we would always practice those, you know,
him whipping balls in for me for my head and
stuff like that. We worked on it the night before
(06:00):
and I just remember just him just stepping up, you know,
putting the famous one arm up and just in that
ball in their posts, and I just it was it
was one of them things where it was muscle memory.
It wasn't planned. It was a kind of muscle memory
thing where it's just like I went into the flow
of it, you know, and just thankfully I got a
great connection onto it and there was no chance of
(06:23):
saving it.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So the ball hits the back of the net, what
happens to you physically? Like, can you actually remember the moment?
Because I remember you sprinting off and everybody chasing you.
But what are the emotions when the ball hits the
net in such a significant match as that.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Well, well, I'm not the fastest, so but I could
have I could have been I could have been in
Usain Bolt that there was so much adrenaline running through me.
I don't think you're saying Bolt would have kept up
with me.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I was.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
It was just like the the kind of the impact
of that goal when it went in, and the kind
of roar of the crowd. It was just like unforgettable,
and it's almost like a such a high that is
just you can't even contemplate how kind of how euphoric
I felt at that moment. It was like all those
(07:11):
years of hard work with my dad in the mornings
and overseas, you know, kind of fighting and scrapping away,
and then you have this beautiful moment where it was
just like I'm going to enjoy this moment, and I did.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
So you're going at halftime, you wonder up and then
early in the second half, Bahrain are awarded a penalty. Now,
if the match finishes won all they go through by
virtue of having scored a goal away from the home
So as ad Nan the Bahrain player, squares up to
mark past them for that penalty, what are your emotions
at that time?
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I was actually on the halfway line praying. I was
literally praying. I actually was praying. It's one of them
moments where it's like, oh, this can't happen to us,
and it's so typically sometimes New Zella and where it's
like we get so close, but we just don't, you know,
(08:07):
get there, and it's like I didn't want that to
be that moment for us, Yeah, because we'd work so
hard to get there, all of us, you know, individually
in our own careers and as a team, and to
have that moment because we all knew that there wasn't
many goals in that game. It was always going to
be a tight game. There was never going to be
loads of goals. And so when past the saber, I
(08:28):
could have I could have kissed the guy.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Incredible.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
I was just so it was incredible. It was another
moment like my goal. And then that was a kind
of icon iconic moment of the night as well, where
the where the crowd you know, kind of roared like
it was a goal. So it was like it was
just such a magical moment. But I was like, my heart,
I was nearly having a heart attack.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
How were you?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Then?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So he saves it. It's one nil, and but it's
still quite a bit of the game to go. If
you took past eighty minutes to eighty five minutes to
eighty eight minutes, it gets close enough for you to
start really believing that you're going to do this thing.
What do you remember about the final few moments of
the game and whose voices were the loudest ones out there?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I think everyone was just screaming at each other kind
of to kind of come back and to defend and
stuff like that. We got the whole team back and
just defended for our lives. Obviously, when you're up, especially
in football, if you're up like that, the team has
to kind of press you and try to put pressure
on you to to try and get that goal, you know.
So we knew if if we were going to concede there,
(09:34):
we would have been done for. So we pretty much defended.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
For our lives.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
And I actually remember the moment where there was an
actual free kick and one of the lads got a
head onto it and passially got the save. It wasn't
the header wasn't great, but it was like, you know,
those types of moments in football, they can they can
really kind of do a lot of devastation to your team,
you know, because it's all you need is one moment.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So it was, yeah, it was. It was. There was
probably the first time.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
In my whole career where I felt complete, complete nerves
of we can't let this slip through our hands because
we're so close.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Now, and then the final whistle goes euphoria. What happens
immediately after the final whistle?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
For me, it was relief, Yeah, yeah, it was. It
was just pure relief of kind of the whole kind
of build up to that, you know, from from where
we started to that build up to that final whistle.
I just fell to my knees and I was just
so thankful that we you know, we made it.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
It was just complete relief. And to be fair, I
was like all the lads were partying that night. I
actually had it early night. I was so exhausted, like mentally.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The other story I've heard is about the bus trip
back from the stadium back to where you were staying
around Oriental Parade and how long that took because there
were so many fans out celebrating and what they must
have clocked that that was the New Zealand team bus.
What happened along sort of Courtney Place, Oh, it was packed.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
We were along the waterway. So you know, as you
go from sky Stadium or Caketon whatever you call it,
along the waterway, yep. And it was packed. There was
Choca block and there was actually there was a guy.
There was a guy running after the bus. He was
actually behind the bus on the main road, like running
(11:27):
after the bus, and he was.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
There for about ten minutes.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
I was like, this guy is like proper, like he's
done well, like it's proper, sweating up a storm.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
And everyone was at the back.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Of the bus like banging on the bus like like
all celebrated in that and like you could see the
pure joy in the in the guy's face. And he's
out there somewhere in Wellington, you know, and he always
have that memory and always have that memory.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Of that guy running after the bus. It was brilliant.
It was just one of those great moments, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And what this all led to, of course, was seven
months later you went to the World Cup in South
Africa and i'mbeating campaign with draws against Slovakia, Italy Paraguay.
What a moment in any footballer's career to go to
a World Cup. Very few New Zealanders have done it,
you know, What was it like going to a World Cup?
Speaker 4 (12:15):
It was surreal because all I ever wanted to do
when I was younger, too, kind of two dreams was
to be a kind of a top pro and the
other one was to play in a World Cup. And
I didn't ever think I'd ever get close to a
World Cup, and so to have that dream come to reality,
it was kind of surreal because I've as a kid,
you you know, you always dream about playing in a
(12:36):
World Cup and when you're you know, outside playing with
your mates, you know, you pretend it's a World Cup.
And then to actually walk out into that stadium, you know,
in that first game, and that was a kind of
another iconic moment with Winnie. But to walk out into
that stadium, I was just like, Wow, I'm actually playing
in a World Cup here, and it's kind of it's
(12:59):
surreal and a lot of these lads, for me, I
have no.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Doubt that we'll get to this World Cup.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
A lot of these lads will have those emotions running
through their heads. You know that they're potentially going to
be in the biggest, biggest tournament in the world, and
it's you know, you rarely understand that when you go
to these World Cups.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
That's so huge.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, it's yeah, it's close enough to touch for the current,
the current crop, the pathway, the road there is slightly
different from what you went through. But let's hope they
can complete the job and head off to a World
Cup next year. Rory love walking down memory Lane with you.
I get the feeling you'll be reminded about that night
until the day that you die. Mate. It's something that
so many people, me included, just have such fond memories of.
(13:45):
Thanks for joining us for a bit of.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
A chat mate, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
No, thanks for joining us. Rory fellon there, owner of
one of the most iconic moments in our sporting history
November fourteen, two thousand and nine, has goal against bah
Rain taking New Zealand to the twenty ten Football World
Cup in South Africa.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
used Talk set B weekends from midday or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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