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Oh yes, Sportsfreak is part of an international gathering of wisecrakers as part of The Guardians’ uber-gathering of people covering the World Cup. At the start of November, The Guardian ran a competition for those websites / blogs around the world to be part of what they called the “Guardian's fans' network” at the 2010 World Cup. Being all posh and mainstream, they had a proper questionnaire that people were invited to fill out: Here was our exam paper. • Which country do you support? New Zealand Do you live in the country you support? If not, what is your relationship to it? Yes; This is being typed this about 1km away from where the All Whites play Bahrain in 48 hours. Why are you the right person to be in the Guardian fans' network? (in 200 words or less). Historically, football here has been enjoyed vicariously through matches in England. But in this modern age where we have a professional club in the A-League, almost guaranteed Confederations Cup participation, and most All Whites have Kiwi accents, there is a certain cutting of the chord. There is no such side as Blackburn Rovers. No, it is Ryan Nelson’s Blackburn Rovers. There will be a sea of Leeds, Spurs and Chelsea away strips for the “All White on the Night” play-off against Bahrain on Saturday, but we’ll ignore that part. Football is set for a level of interest never seen before in the Shaky Isles between now and June, and we’re as well equipped as anyone to assess the mood. To write about football in New Zealand to a local market you need to throw in spurious rugby analogies. To write about football in New Zealand to a global market you just need to mock those supposedly superior nations who will not be taking part in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, home of the Springboks. So we are more than capable of writing to instructions; taking the relevant cheap shots along the way.
How do you think your country will do in South Africa and why? (in 200 words or less). It’s all about the pride. And the point. Clearly, New Zealand will not pass the first round. But they will not be embarrassed either. Ricki Herbert is a very astute coach, and his sides know how to play it tight without parking the bus in the Angola 2006 way. In this year’s Confederations Cup, the only thing worse than the vuvuzelas was the way the All Whites froze for 10 minutes against Spain. But they learnt from that, have discovered Ben Sigmund, and got Nelson back. It’s hard to see that happening again. Goals will be a problem though. Not because of a lack of strikers; Killen, 42, is complemented by Fallon and Smeltz who is likely to pick up a European contract in the next year. The issue is more around a midfield that takes sluggishness to a new level. The exception to this is Michael McGlinchey, who recently returned to his country of birth for the first time since he was 6 months old. Every World Cup needs at least one Scotsman. Player to watch? In 1982 a 17 year-old called Wynton Rufer arrived on the world stage. This time around look out for Chris Wood Links to your blog, twitter stream and/or a couple of articles you've published. To concentrate on the articles about the All Whites Campaign, here’s the strange route to South Africa , the preview of the away leg , and this weekend's sudden death match. As well as having to explain simple things. The more observant amongst you will have noticed that we spelt Ryan Nelsen’s name wrong. But this is the Grauniad; famous for such features. We believe that was the clincher. We are in. What happens now? On Saturday morning NZT all the selected contributors, and that includes someone from North Korea, will be giving their take on things via Twitter, which will simultaneously appear on something called a “Scribble Live feed” on the Guardian’s minute-by-minute coverage of Charlize Theron picking balls out of a bucket. We don’t really know how that will work either, but it’s just the start of 8 months of knocking it around with a network. Stay tuned. Comments and suggested Tweets here On Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sportzfreak
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