Herald on Sunday reporter Michael Brown is in South Africa following the All Whites’ Confederations Cup campaign.
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert rated his side's 4-3 loss to Italy as the best performance he had witnessed from a New Zealand team.
Three times the All Whites led the world champions and three times threatened to topple one of the giants of world football. Only a couple of late goals from substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta saved Italy's blushes.
There were equal measures of satisfaction and bitter disappointment within the New Zealand side afterwards but also excitement for what might lie ahead for the upcoming Confederations Cup.
"I had a reasonable career as a player and I played some very good teams and played at a World Cup myself," Herbert said, "but tonight I'm very humbled and proud of a strong group of players. In my opinion that's the best performance I have ever seen.
"Against teams like Italy goals haven't been coming for us but we scored three quality goals tonight against a fantastic team.
"Whilst it was defeat and I have a number of very disappointed players because it could have been even better it's a good sign for me. I think we made a bit of a statement leading into the tournament."
At times throughout the friendly match at Pretoria, the All Whites were the equal of an Italian team stacked with players from some of the biggest clubs in Europe. They had the better of the chances in the first half and could have been leading by more than 2-1 at halftime.
It wasn't until the final stages of the match, with an upset on the cards, that Italy clicked through the gears to finish strongly.
While Italian coach Marrcello Lippi pointed to the fact a number of his stars were rested or on the bench, there are no bad Italian teams.
"Our objectives were slightly different," Lippi explained. "For us it was a training game. It obviously wasn't the same for New Zealand and that's understandable because they were playing the world champions.
"I can see New Zealand are a team who are together and organised and very fit and have a physical presence.
"I hope we play them in the final [of the Confederations Cup] so they get a chance for revenge."
The chances of that are slim. New Zealand open their campaign against Spain, who are both the European champions and world's No 1-ranked side, on Monday morning (NZT) before taking on hosts South Africa and Iraq.
While it might have been a training run in Italy's eyes, there would have been more than a few Italians cussing into their cappuccinos had the All Whites won.
New Zealand are minnows whose biggest achievement was making the 1982 World Cup. Italy are humpback whales who have won four World Cups.
Herbert admitted he allowed himself to dream of collecting the biggest scalp in his coaching career as the clock wore down.
"When you are in this industry, anything is possible," he said. "To say [before the match] that we would score three goals, I would have been lying.
"History tells you Italy versus New Zealand there's a huge gulf but we played our part tonight. It wasn't backs against the wall for 90 minutes.
"It's massive for the credibility of New Zealand football because we are always under pressure and we take a few hits now and then.
"We are realistic. In four days' time, we could get a pasting from Spain but I'm not sure the world champions would have been happy to concede three goals against New Zealand.
"The confidence was already there in this team but now there will be a little belief."
