New Zealand World Cup 2010 Profile

May 12th, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

New Zealand have qualified for World Cup 2010. That in itself is an achievement, having only ever qualified once before in 1982. Lifting the trophy is not realistic. Getting out of Group F is probably not realistic. But a good performance at World Cup 2010 would do wonders for growing the sport of soccer in New Zealand.

Read on for a team profile of the team that should be everyone’s favourite World Cup 2010 underdog.

Nickname: The All Whites. In contrast to the more famous rugby team, who are known as the All Blacks.

FIFA World Ranking as of April 28th 2010: #78

Group F Matches:
New Zealand vs Slovakia – June 15th, Rustenburg, 1:30pm
New Zealand vs Italy – June 20th, Nelspruit, 4pm
New Zealand vs Paraguay – June 24th, 4pm

Kit: New Zealand will be rocking this all white number:


Find your New Zealand World Cup jersey in our store.

Coach: 49 year old Ricki Herbert is Mr. New Zealand. He played for the All Whites in their one previous World Cup campaign in 1982, and currently coaches not just the national team, but also the Wellington Phoenix, who are the one New Zealand based team in the A-League. So he has two full time jobs. Presumably the man doesn’t sleep. Bonus side note that impresses me but maybe doesn’t impress anyone else: He used to play for Wolves.

Key Players: Captain Ryan Nelsen plays centre back for Blackburn Rovers and will happily challenge you in the air. Midfielder Tim Brown is a defensive midfielder but goes box to box and is capable of unleashing a shot. Forward Chris Killen has played for Celtic, and is currently at Middlesbrough, while West Brom striker Chris Wood is just 18 years old and tipped for big things, but the man with the best goalscoring record is Gold Coast United striker Shane Smeltz.

One possibly important thing is that five of the 30 man preliminary squad – including Tim Brown – also play under Herbert for Wellington Phoenix. That has to be good for team spirit. Unless they all hate him. Though I’m pretty sure they don’t.

Much will depend on Nelsen – probably the All Whites most accomplished player – holding things together at the back. Even if the scorelines go badly, we can expect some heroic performances from the New Zealand captain.

Player with best YouTube video: Chris Wood scoring for West Brom against Huddersfield. Not for the quality of the goal, more for the camerawork and the celebration.

Probably even better. Here is the New Zealand U-17 team doing the Haka (usually only performed by rugby union team) after beating Tahiti:

Player with best name: It’s Shane Smeltz.

Player with best nickname: I’ve seen Ryan Nelsen referred to as both “Nellie” and “Admiral Nelsen” in this BigSoccer thread.

Qualification: Since Australia upped sticks and moved to Asia, New Zeland owned the Oceania qualifying group. Beating the likes of New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands with ease. But ruling Oceania is only worth half a World Cup qualifying spot. So it was all about the World Cup playoff with Bahrain. A 0-0 draw in Bahrain was followed by a 1-0 win at home with this goal from Rory Fallon:

And this penalty save from Mark Paston to prevent Bahrain equalizing (and going ahead on away goals)

Interesting: Shane Smeltz was born in Germany.

National Anthem: “God Defend New Zealand”

World Cup History:
1982 – First Round.
That’s it.

Expectations: Honestly, it would be a miracle if New Zealand get out of the group stage. It would also be an achievement if they finished third rather than fourth. But even a brave performance and three close defeats would be honourable.

Squad: New Zealand World Cup Squad

Blog: Craig mans the New Zealand World Cup Blog.

- More World Cup 2010 Team Profiles.