Soccer: Nelsen's pluck is key to huge payback

There was a deserved "mission accomplished" tag to the New Zealand performance in holding higher-rated Bahrain to 0-0 in Manama yesterday, but will coach Ricki Herbert be tempted to revert to Plan A for the return leg in Wellington next month?

In ditching his long-established 4-4-2 formation - mainly, he insists, to counter the Bahrainis' game plan at the National Stadium - Herbert, assistant Brian Turner and technical adviser Raul Blanco got it right.

In handing a more demanding workload to his players, Herbert called for a huge effort. He got it.

Apart from a couple of muffed chances from strikers who should have done better and a superb reflex save from goalkeeper Mark Paston, the home side rarely challenged the well-disciplined All Whites defence.

Captain Ryan Nelsen ran the show. How thankful Herbert must have been when his medical staff gave the burly Blackburn Rovers defender the all-clear to play. He was inspirational and his pluck and enthusiasm filtered right through the team.

Thoughts have now turned to Wellington and the tie-decider on November 14.

Herbert will again bring together his disparate team from all corners of the globe. He is fortunate his three players in England - Ryan Nelsen, Rory Fallon and Chris Wood - will all play on November 7. Chris Killen's Celtic are away to Falkirk a day later.

His United States-based players will be free of MLS duties and Wellington Phoenix play Perth Glory at the same Westpac Stadium ground the Sunday before the World Cup qualifier.

Shane Smeltz and Michael McGlinchey have their A-League games a day earlier.

Herbert should have all his players ready for training four or five days before the match. His work in that period will be crucial.

The Bahrainis jet into Sydney on a private plane for three days before the hop across the Tasman.

It has the makings of a classic.

"I think New Zealand will play a lot more football here," said former All Whites coach John Adshead. "Shane Smeltz was asked in this game to do something he would not normally do. Just as I felt sorry for Elliott and Brown in midfield.

"But we earned everything we got. I thought Bahrain played it too slowly for the first 25 minutes which played into our hands," said Adshead.

Frank van Hattum, the goalkeeper in Adshead's All Whites in Spain for the 1982 World Cup and chairman of New Zealand Football, is delighted the tie is still very much alive.

"It sets it up perfectly for Wellington," said van Hattum. "But we should not underestimate the enormity of the task. The edge, I feel, will be in the crowd more than the weather. I can see a sellout crowd of over 30,000. We have already presold 15,000 tickets and have deliberately priced it so everyone can afford to go."

One concern, though, is the away goal rule. If the return leg ends 0-0 (after 90 minutes), extra time (of 30 minutes) will be played. Any goal scored by Bahrain would count double, leaving New Zealand the challenge of scoring twice to take the spoils.

And what spoils. From the US$1.3 million ($1.7 million) Adshead and his lot collected in 1982, the stakes have risen to US$6 or US$7 million.