Soccer: It's All White on the night

Bobby Almond and Adrian Elrick celebrate qualification in 1982. Photo / NZ Herald

Wynton Rufer doesn't remember the game. It's a shame because New Zealand's greatest player has little memory of this country's greatest football achievement.

On January 10, 1982, the All Whites beat China 2-1 in Singapore in a winner-take-all playoff to decide the last of the 24 teams to qualify for the 1982 World Cup.

It was a night of high emotion. It was, as coach John Adshead coined it, the Impossible Dream.

Rufer knows what happened that steamy night in Singapore. He's watched the video countless times and seen himself bury a 20-yard thundering shot past the Chinese goalkeeper to give the All Whites a crucial 2-0 lead early in the second half.

Rufer was, at that stage, a precocious 19-year-old brought in late in New Zealand's campaign to score goals. This was his fourth in three games and his most significant.

But earlier in the game Rufer took an elbow to the head and was concussed. The wound required stitches and an unwieldy bandage to stop the bleeding.

For a player like Rufer, who made an art form of collecting mementoes and acquiring photos of himself with famous footballers (just minutes before the World Cup match with Brazil, he was found posing with Pele), it was unsatisfying.

"I don't remember anything from the game," he says. "Obviously the goal has been played over quite a few times. The long kick from [goalkeeper] Richard Wilson, Grant Turner flicks it on and I have gone through and hit a nice shot to give us a 2-0 lead. Thanks to TV, I'm able to remember it."

Thanks to Rufer, New Zealand had one foot on the plane to Spain.

But such a dramatic story wouldn't be complete if there wasn't a final twist. China scored from an indirect free kick inside New Zealand's penalty area in the 75th minute, setting up a tense finale.

The players were virtually out on their feet. Rufer and Allan Boath had both succumbed to injuries and Ricki Herbert was moved up front because he was cramping as the searing heat and humidity took its toll. Captain Steve Sumner, assessing the situation, ordered his players to sit back and try to absorb what the Chinese threw at them.

"The last 20 minutes was the longest 20 minutes of my life," coach John Adshead says. "It seemed to go on for ever and ever and ever with no ending. It was just amazing."

* * *

It was appropriate the All Whites' journey came down to one, drama-filled match.

Their whole campaign had been filled with colour from the first game when they drew with Australia 3-3 at Mt Smart Stadium. They played more games (15), scored more goals (44) and travelled further (88,500km) and took longer than any other nation in history to qualify for a World Cup.

They also set a world record for goals in one match (13-0 against Fiji) and the longest time without conceding a goal (921 minutes). There was also the 2-0 defeat of Australia in Sydney, the attack on the referee in the controversial 2-1 defeat to Kuwait in Auckland and the stunning 5-0 defeat of Saudi Arabia to force the playoff.

"It was like a 14-part soap opera," says defender Bobby Almond. "It couldn't have been scripted any better. I know it sounds cliched but it was just meant to be. It was appropriate it all came down to one game because if there's one thing we did well, it was drama."

From the time New Zealand forced the playoff with their stunning 5-0 win in Saudi Arabia, things were against them. Fifa initially wanted the game to be played in Kuala Lumpur but New Zealand Football Association boss Charlie Dempsey complained that it would favour China because of the predominantly Asian crowd.

Fifa agreed and decided on a draw between Melbourne and Singapore. Singapore, which has a predominantly Chinese population, won.

"We felt a bit cheated," Adshead says. "Fifa said they would take it to a neutral country and I don't think Singapore was that neutral. Right from the off, we felt it was an away game. We felt we were going into a fairly lonely area."

They based themselves in New Zealand until two days before the match and complications arose as soon as they got there. They were told they wouldn't be allowed to train at the National Stadium because it had been booked for a religious ceremony (it's a Fifa requirement for teams to have at least one training session on the pitch) and when they finally got a light session there and were ready to go back to the hotel, they discovered the team bus had disappeared.

Of even greater concern, however, was the fitness of Almond. The former Tottenham youth team player had gone over on his ankle during their first training session trying to score a "25-yard screamer" and sent a massive scare through the side.

"I thought, Oh God'," Adshead remembers. "I don't believe this. You have eight or nine players out there who could do an ankle and you wouldn't really be as concerned because we had cover for them. But Bobby was such a crucial part of it all. He had to go and get bloody injured."

The medical staff worked round the clock to get Almond on the pitch, coming to his room hourly day and night to ice his ankle. He attempted to jog on it the next morning and declared he thought he would be able to at least start.

"They put faith in me that I was telling the truth and I could do a job," Almond says. "I had what I assume was a cortisone injection before the match but I'm not sure how much effect it had. Adrenaline got me through."

News Almond was going to play gave the side a boost. He was a key member of the defence, having played all 14 previous matches and, as it turned out, played a blinder against China. He marshalled the defence superbly and in the dying moments threw himself at a shot. Not once did he feel the ankle.

Almond's scare wasn't the end of the drama. Just moments before kickoff, Adshead beckoned Terry Maddaford, who was in Singapore covering the match for the New Zealand Herald, to the sideline.

"John said to me," Maddaford remembers, "that I want to tell you this before the game and not after. A gentleman rang me last night and said the referee cannot let you win the game'. And if you watch the game, the referee panicked. He was under some pressure."

Claims of match fixing had surfaced after their incredible 5-0 defeat of Saudi Arabia that forced the playoff. Teams simply don't go to a foreign country, particularly one so alien as Saudi Arabia, and win that easily. At the very least, Brian Turner, who scored two goals that day, questioned the effort of their goalkeeper. There were also suggestions of underhand actions around the 2-1 defeat to Kuwait in Auckland.

As it transpired, the referee wasn't a central character in the final episode of the mini-series. China simply couldn't break down New Zealand's defence.

"If China had any nous, they should have taken us wide and stretched us when we tired," Adshead says. "But they constantly wanted to come at us through the middle of the park and that was our strength. We were organised. They were always going to find it difficult to break us down. They scored from a free kick so it wasn't from open play."

* * *

The celebrations started as soon as the final whistle went. New Zealand, a nation at the bottom of the world, with a tiny population, had just beaten the world's largest country for a place at the World Cup.

Glen Dods and Grant Turner burst into tears, coach Kevin Fallon hugged anything in sight, saying "I love ya, mate" and John Hill leapt into goalkeeper Richard Wilson's arms.

For some, though, it was a time to reflect. Others didn't know how to react.

"When the whistle went, it wasn't a feeling of immense joy," Adshead says. "It was quite a strange feeling. It was quite an empty feeling. It was all over. What we had worked for nearly two years to do had finally happened.

"I didn't even celebrate that night with the players. I had a quiet dinner with [former New Zealand striker] Alan Vest and went to bed. I had a lot to do the next day. It was a strange feeling when it was all over."

The players gathered in the changing room where Fallon popped champagne provided by the small contingent of the New Zealand Army stationed in Singapore. Dempsey began organising a party back at the hotel, once he'd wiped away the tears, and the players laughed and sang in wonderment at what they had achieved.

They were prevented from leaving the stadium for some time, with security fearing sections of the crowd would stone the team's bus. The players were oblivious to it all before heading back to the hotel, where Dempsey put $500 on the bar.

Back in New Zealand, though, Brian Turner was also in tears. The striker had started 12 matches throughout the campaign, scoring nine goals.

A yellow card picked up in the final game against Saudi Arabia meant he missed the playoff through suspension. Along with Sam Malcolmson, Billy McClure and Dave Bright, he was left behind in Auckland.

For Turner, it was the best and worst night of his footballing career.

"There's no doubt that was the biggest disappointment of my football career, to miss that game," Turner says. "We had some excess money from the big appeal to get the team to Singapore and I asked Charlie if the other six players in the squad not travelling could go. I tried to say to him that it could be the greatest night in New Zealand football history and some [players involved in the campaign] might miss out. It fell on deaf ears."

Turner couldn't bear to watch the final stages of the match on TV, so he went for a walk along Sandringham Rd.

There were many lights on as people caught up in the excitement tuned in. Turner wondered what the score was.

When he returned home and slipped through the gate, his wife opened the front door. "You made it," she said.

"I couldn't help myself," Turner recalls. "I sat on the lawn and cried. For a football player in New Zealand to qualify for the World Cup was a dream. It was out of this world."

* * *

The team received a heroes' welcome when they returned to Auckland.

More than 3000 people had gathered at the airport to share in the celebrations.

Many were the same people who had dipped into their pockets and raised $70,000 in three days to get the team to Singapore after it was discovered they had no money left for the playoff.

The crowd chanted Kiwi, Kiwi' when the players emerged and a song the players had recorded with Ray Woolf, called Heading for the Top, was on constant rotation. Almond and Adrian Elrick got into character by wearing Spanish sombreros.

A different scene was being played out at London's Heathrow airport.

Rufer was the only overseas-based player and returned to Norwich, via London. When he stepped off the plane, Fleet St was waiting for him.

"The World Cup draw had been delayed because of the playoff so there was a fair amount of attention on our game," Rufer says. "I was on the back page of the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and The Sun, all the papers. It was like when David Beckham walks off the plane. That was me. It was phenomenal.

"As I walked out, there were about 50 cameras there and I was looking behind me thinking, Jeez, there must be someone famous around'. I kept turning around looking for the celebrity. It was me."

Rufer etched his place in history that night in Singapore and enhanced his reputation with Werder Bremen, where he scored to help the German club win the final of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1992.

If there's one thing he and the rest of the class of '82 would like, however, is for the present generation of All Whites to join them in history.

For the past 27 years, they have been reminded of what they achieved and reminisced about what took place. They are like the World Cup-winning England side of 1966.

"I'm sure I say it for every member of the '82 squad, whether it's players or administration - it's nice to look back on '82 but it would be nice if we can finally remove the mantle and pass it on to the 2009 team," Almond says. "What we achieved won't be forgotten but it would be nice to talk about a more recent team. We have had our day in the sun over and over again."

There will be about a dozen of them at Wellington Stadium for the second leg, as well as Herbert and Turner in the coach's box and New Zealand Football chairman Frank van Hattum.

Rufer will be there. He hopes it ends the same way as the one he played 27 years ago. He also hopes he might actually be able to remember it.