New Zealand – Road to South Africa 2010 part 2

September 20, 2009

The battle to be the worst team at South Africa 2010 begins on October 10th as New Zealand now know who stands in their way of qualification as they travel to Bahrain for the first leg of the World Cup Playoff. Bahrain is in this position thanks to a stoppage time equaliser against Saudi Arabia seeing them through the Asian play-off, courtesy of the away goals rule.

So, which country will be victorious? I must confess my knowledge of football in Bahrain is perhaps not what it should be, but after a little research, the hard facts point to a Bahrain win. FIFA rank Bahrain as 64th in the world whereas New Zealand are ranked 100th. Bahrain also has recent experience of getting to this stage of qualifying as they narrowly lost to Trinidad and Tobago in their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign. However, perhaps the most telling statistic is the way both teams have recently performed against the same standard of opposition. That opposition is Thailand, and whereas New Zealand lost 3-1 in March this year, Bahrain beat Thailand 3-2 in June 2008.

New Zealand’s best hope is with their star players, such as Ryan Nelsen (Blackburn) and Chris Killen (Celtic) who play in the highest English and Scottish leagues and most of the New Zealand squad members play in the very competitive A- League the highest league in Australia. Bahrain, however, do have a trio of players playing in the highest leagues in Switzerland and Belgium. Abdulla Baba Fatadi, Abdullah Omar (both Neuchatatel Xamax) and Jaycee John (Mouscron) are regulars in their teams and most of the Bahrain squad play in the Qatar national league or Kuwait national league, leagues that are amongst the most competitive in Asia.

I predicted in my previous article that New Zealand will scrape through over the two legs and provided that all their stars are fit and available to play, I see no reason to change that prediction and believe that New Zealand will make it to South Africa 2010.

Rob Davies

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