Dylan Cleaver: All Whites vs Peru in Lima is unmissable viewing

Premier League star Chris Wood's presence gives the All Whites some international credibility. Picture / Photosport

Far across the ocean, in a country most famous for its Inca Trail, the All Whites' tortuous World Cup journey has reached its final destination.

Set your watches for 3.15pm. If it means organising an offsite "meeting" with clients or contacts, so be it. If that meeting happens to be in a licenced establishment with large, high-def DTVs, that's okay, your boss will understand.

This might be the only game of football you watch in 2017, but the All Whites taking on South American powerhouse Peru in Lima - population 10,000,000 and loose change - will be appointment viewing.

This is the World Cup for New Zealand. It's the getting there that counts because, newsflash, they're probably not going to win it if they do. This next 90 minutes is the culmination of four years - the rest is gravy.

Lima's Estadio Nacional will be rocking, but the All Whites can kill the music. We've seen it twice in two days: first at the San Siro in Milan, when Sweden orchestrated Italy's first qualification failure since 1958, and then in Dublin where the Danes ensured Irish eyes weren't smiling.

The Scandinavians won't have anything on the All Whites if they can halt Peru's conquistadors, however. As just one example, they did not have to contend with a shaman putting a hex on the All Whites by tying a snake in a knot nor, it seems, did their respective buses get stuck while trying to enter a stadium.

Most importantly, neither Sweden nor Denmark had such an apparent disparity in skill and technique to their hosts. What we know about Peru might be contained on the back of a single scrap of confetti, but they're South American. They did crazy stuff like draw with Argentina (twice) and beat Uruguay. So they're good.

To add to the drama, when the All Whites take the field, they'll be playing for the last World Cup spot: this is the last match to decide the 32 teams in the tournament.

Meanwhile, it has been 10 matches since the All Whites won a game against non-Oceania competition - and that was a lacklustre 1-0 win against Oman. Since then they have drawn 1-1 against an under-strength US team and lost to Mexico twice, Northern Ireland, Belarus, Russia, Portugal and Japan.

The 0-0 draw against Peru in the first leg in Wellington was arguably their best result in coach Anthony Hudson's reign.

See, peaking at the right time.

In Hudson's defence, and he is a man who has divided the New Zealand football community, the 30-something Seattle-born Englishman has rarely had a full complement to work with. In that respect, Premier League stars Chris Wood and Winston Reid instantly transform the All Whites from a team of gritty no-names to a team of gritty two-names.

At the other end of the scale you have Deklan Wynne, who plays for Whitecaps FC 2 in the second tier of North American football. How sweet would it be for him to lace it up at the World Cup after his ineligibility debacle prevented New Zealand taking their place at the Olympics?

To do the improbable, the All Whites are either going to have to nick a goal somewhere and hope Peru choke on the pressure of expectation, or park a large bus in front of the goal and wait for a penalty shootout.

It's football. Either scenario could happen.

It happened in a roundabout way in 2009, though this feels different to that November night when the All Whites qualified for their second World Cup by defending the away leg then nicking a Rory Fallon goal in the second.

That was against Bahrain. At home. It was a match that felt rooted in reality. This, by contrast, feels more like an impossible dream.

Some time around 5pm today we'll know if that was the case. If the All Whites, pulled together from big leagues and small, somehow live the dream, we can say with certainty that they will be sent to Russia, with love.