Christie on high as reality sinks in

Millions of people around the globe have made the three pen strokes on their World Cup wallcharts that have given Kiwi football credibility.
In the box for "New Zealand v Slovakia", fans worldwide wrote 1-1.
Slovakia had seemed to be cruising to a 1-0 win in Rustenburg yesterday until Winston Reid headed a dramatic 93rd-minute equaliser to snatch the greatest result in Kiwi football history.
For Northlander Jeremy Christie, who played the last 15 minutes in midfield, the result was further confirmation of the character in this All Whites side.
 
"We keep going to the last minute and to score late on just sums up what we're all about," he said.
And with New Zealand's first  World Cup point secured, Christie and his teammates will go into Monday's game against Italy with confidence at an all-time high.
"They're world champions so it's going to be a massive challenge for us but this will give us confidence knowing we're not in the World Cup just to make up the numbers.
 
"Everybody seems to be buzzing about it back home, even non-football people. Hopefully everyone in New Zealand is proud of us - that's one of our main goals."
For Christie, taking the field had fulfilled  a dream that began as a young boy playing for Hikurangi at the local school and then matured on Kensington Park in the colours of Whangarei City.
"To look back at when I was at Hikurangi and playing for Whangarei - to be playing at a World Cup, it's amazing, a dream come true.
"There are a few of us [in the All Whites] who've known each other from going to school together at Mt Albert Grammar.
"Every now and again, we get together and we're like: who would have thought 10 years ago that we'd be playing at the World Cup?"
Christie started the warm-up games against Serbia and Slovenia but had been dropped from the Slovakia starting line-up in favour of Ivan Vicelich.
"Ivan's a fantastic player with loads of experience and he's doing well in there. I was glad to be able to contribute ...  whatever role I get would be great."