Saluting the wing men who helped their mates fly high

Mario Goetze and Andre Schuerrle of Germany celebrates after scoring against Argentina. Photo / Getty Images

Mario Gotze basked in the glory of his World Cup-winning goal for Germany last week but hopefully history will not gloss over the significance of Andre Schurrle exploiting the Argentine flanks and delivering a pinpoint cross, an act which was just as heroic.

Andrew Alderson raises his pom-poms to 10 other examples of forgotten sporting heroes.

10. Chris Kuggeleijn - cricket
Few New Zealand catches have been more notable than his textbook pouch at third slip off Arun Lal to secure Richard Hadlee his 374th and world record test wicket at Bangalore in November 1988. What's more, it was his debut and the first wicket on the opening morning.

9. Simon Dickie - rowing
Everyone remembers the brawn in the boat; what about the brains in the stern? The coxswain directed New Zealand's first two Olympic champion crews - the coxed four at Mexico City and the eight at Munich. He and oarsman Dick Joyce became the first Kiwi double gold medallists after Peter Snell.

8. Bulls - matador dodging
Where would the entire bullfighting industry be without myriad bovine martyrs getting slain? Their prolonged and torturous deaths, as matadors swish their capes in sequined Elvis suits around the soon-to-be corpses, have entertained patrons for centuries.

7. Shane Reed - triathlon
His Beijing Olympic role was simple: get Bevan Docherty or Kris Gemmell a medal. Docherty's bronze ensured the mission was accomplished. Reed had to cover gaps in the field and try to hold everyone in the pack so the other two Kiwis could dominate the run.

6. Tevita Ngalu - weightlifting
The then 39-year-old biscuit factory worker clean-and-jerked 157kg on a torn quadriceps muscle in the 105kg+ class at the Commonwealth and Oceania Championships in Apia to get enough points to enable Richie Patterson to earn his ticket to the London Olympics.

5. Grant Bramwell
What became of New Zealand's only Olympic champion K4 1000m crew after the 1984 Olympics? Three earned relatively high profiles. Alan Thompson fronted Moro ads, Paul MacDonald featured on telly shows like Top Town and Ian Ferguson ran his eponymous kayak business. But Grant Bramwell? He ghosted off to run the family pharmacy business in Gisborne.

4. Kim Jong-il's golf coach
His identity has never emerged - further underlining his coyness - but anyone who can school someone, albeit North Korea's oppressive dictator, to pick up a golf club for the first time in 1994 and shoot 38-under par over 18 holes, including 11 holes-in-one, is worthy of nomination.

3. Keven Mealamu and Jerome Kaino - rugby
Mealamu threw to Kaino early in the 2011 World Cup final; Kaino popped the ball down to Tony Woodcock who scored the All Blacks' solitary try. The precision of the move is eclipsed by the size of the chasm it opened for the loosehead prop but it was rudimentary genius.

2. Daniel Elena - rally driving
Sure, Sebastian Loeb held the wheel, changed the gears and pushed the pedals but he didn't navigate the maps on the way to a record nine consecutive World Rally Championship titles. Loeb must have trusted Elena as much as his seatbelt.

1. Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher - athletics
This pair acted as pace-makers for Roger Bannister at Oxford's Iffley Road track to complete arguably the most famous feat in middle-distance running history. Bannister breasted the tape in 3m 59.4s, or, put more simply, the first sub-four minute mile.