Road to South Africa: Q & A with '82 coach John Adshead

Adrian Elrick and Bobby Almond of New Zealand proudly holds the Kiwis banner after victory over China in a sudden-death World Cup qualifying match. Photo / NZ Herald Archive

The All Whites' 1982 coach recalls NZ's last World Cup campaign and casts his eye over the the All Whites' chances in South Africa next month.

It's been 28 years since you took the All Whites to the World Cup in Spain. What are your most vivid memories of the campaign?

It's a part of your life. It's something, that when we actually qualified, didn't actually mean too much to me. It was a very quiet night in Singapore for me (after beating China in a sudden-death elimination).

But the memories of that, because it was such a big occasion, they just never go. I mean you can virtually recount every qualifying game, every goal that was scored, who scored it and how it was scored.

It was a terrific rollercoaster ride as we've explained it before, I mean we were in, we were out, it was an amazing, amazing journey, and a long journey over a period of 18 months.

The World Cup itself, the All Whites had an awfully tough draw. What do you recall of the actual tournament and everything that happened there?

The World Cup gives you a sense of importance, it doesn't matter if you're Brazil or whether you're New Zealand. We were both in the same group as it happened.

But on arrival in Madrid - the welcome, the security, everything about it, you were made such a fuss of.

You're a World Cup team, you're a World Cup coach and you're World Cup players and when I looked at the players in that airport, they all seemed to grow about six inches and they had a stature about them.

And I thought these lads, you want them to be professional, you want them to be superstars, well they can do that for you. And you could just see them say, 'this is us'.

You were made to feel very special. It's the world stage and there's nothing bigger and we'd earned every single right to be there.

At the time, how did you rate your team's chances going into three big matches against Scotland, Brazil and the USSR - and how do you compare that group with what the All Whites will face in South Africa?

Well, I always felt we were a very well organised and disciplined side. At the time there was a statement that came out of the Scottish press, which said New Zealand was really just a team of kickers and teams like that shouldn't be around the World Cup.

We were in fact the only team not to get a yellow card; we were top of the tree in the good behavioural stakes throughout the first round.

We weren't concerned about who we were going to play but were determined we weren't going there to be negative. We wanted to play the game as it was meant to be played, and the proof was there in the second half of the game we played against Scotland. I was very disappointed when we came in (at halftime) 3-0 down, because we hadn't even looked to go forward.

But when we opened the game up in the second half, let's not forget, within 10 or 15 minutes it was 3-2 and the panic in the Scottish side was there for all to see. And they (Scotland) then scored two very lucky goals to get what looked on paper to be a far better victory than it actually was.

You know I've looked at passages of the games against Brazil where we put 17 passes together; and we were very unlucky against the Soviet Union, very unlucky - they were a great side.

At the end of the day, when we came back I was very proud of the way we'd played. Comments from the press said 'this is the greatest con man in history - he comes home and says they played well and they lost every game'. But we did play well, in relative terms to who we were and who we played against.

So then what are this side's chances against Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia?

Realistically, I don't train with them, I'm not in the dressing room, I don't know what's there. But from a distance, I would look at the teams they're playing against, look at the quality within the national side and say they're in exactly the same boat as we were.

It will be very, very difficult I think for them to get a result. I think the key factor is, and what we went there for, to score. Deep down, you've got to say, if we're not going to win games, then we have to score goals and stay close.

And I think that would be a fair assessment of what New Zealand would like to achieve. Of course they want to get a result, whether that's a point or whether that's a win - but I personally don't look at it as a very realistic thing. But I'm sure that will not affect the national coach and the national players.

They will go out there with a very positive approach to win a game, but I'm talking from a football coaching point of view realistically, I can't see a result there.

Because on paper that '82' side was in a far more difficult group than this team is facing - even though Paraguay and Slovakia are good teams - they're not Brazil, the USSR or Scotland, who at that time were a very good side?

I think in football it's all about what happens on the day.

One, don't forget we played 15 games to get there, so we played a lot of football together. This team hasn't, so we had pluses.

The other side of the coin is we've got a hell of a lot of experienced players in this side who play at the highest level of the game, which we never had (in 1982). We had no Premier League players in there, and you've got so many in this side who have had a taste of real professional football over several years now.

So it's a very experienced side. So with that, you've got to turn around and say, 'on the day', and I would say particularly against Paraguay, and against Italy in actual fact, because Italy is renowned in all World Cups, they are notoriously slow starters. And who knows, with the all the raw enthusiasm coming out of New Zealand and all the expectation on Italy, that's the sort of day you get an upset... so it can happen.

Strangely enough I see New Zealand's most difficult game against Slovakia. I think Paraguay and Italy could try to play it a little bit nice and New Zealand could get on top of that sort of thing and not let them play. Whereas against Slovakia you're going to get a very strong, forceful, European-type side, and New Zealand won't overpower them physically, they won't - whereas they could do with the other two sides.

I see Slovakia as the side that could even win that group.