World Cup 2010

Oz Blog: New Zealand And Australia - We Come From Lands Down Under

Australian fans should celebrate the twin-Tasman assault on South Africa 2010, writes Goal.com's Fiona Crawford.

Nov 18, 2009 1:10:53 AM

Shane Smeltz, New Zealand (Getty Images)

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Shane Smeltz, New Zealand (Getty Images)

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We can all recount where we were when Tim Cahill led the comeback charge to down Japan in Germany and when Zeljko Kalac very nearly made a mess of the must-draw-or-win Croatia match, as well as the spontaneous, euphoric, we-made-it-through-by-the-skin-of-our-teeth celebrations that followed both.

Indeed, Australia was gripped by World Cup fever in 2006, with the hitherto virtually unknown Socceroos players catapulted to household names and, yes, bandwagon jumping became completely rife. But if we thought that 2006’s World Cup was absolutely massive, wait for 2010.

Never before have both Australia and New Zealand made a co-appearance at the World Cup and, with New Zealand’s last appearance way back in 1982, it’s definitely cause for celebration—not least because Australia now has a World Cup buddy.

I mean, not only do New Zealanders also have a penchant for calling their national sporting teams quaint names—I’m still unable to answer my expat friends when they ask why we don’t just call our teams ‘the [insert sport here] national team’—but, much as we try to distance ourselves from them, New Zealanders understand us.

They too struggle to establish football in a rubgy-obsessed country. They too face aeons-long flights to get anywhere to play football. They too are footballing underdogs taking on the world’s footballing heavyweights.

And they too have strange, only-on-this-island animals (Word of warning to any fans planning to try to explain the kiwi to foreign football fans: if the experience of our very own Strapperoo—or giant, anatomically-correct kangaroo mascot created by a football-mad Brisbane-based architect—is anything to go by, other nations not in the know are likely to mistake your native animals for, er, giant rats).

And not only are New Zealanders similar to us, they’re among us, with an estimated 400,000-odd New Zealanders calling Australia home. Combine that figure with the number of New Zealanders who, as with the Australians, have descended on such places as London and it makes you wonder if there are any New Zealanders left in New Zealand.

Either way, it means that there are going to be lots of New Zealanders watching lots of matches in lots of bars around the world, particularly in Australia. And, let’s be honest, it means that we’ll be watching their matches too.

We’re effectively looking at two World Cup options:

One: Australia and New Zealand end up in the same group. Traditional trans-Tasman rivalries will reach fever pitch, with southern hemisphere pride as much as World Cup glory on the line.

Two: Australia and New Zealand will end up in separate groups and Australians will wholeheartedly get behind the All Whites.

Either way, even if we try to deny it, and even if we gain endless hours of juvenile entertainment by pointing out that New Zealanders call eskies ‘chilly bins’ and sound funny when they say such words as ‘six’ and ‘fish and chips’ in the process, we’ll be watching—and very likely cheering on—both teams in 2010.

Best stock up on sleep and anti-anxiety medication now, because it’ll be twice the agony and twice the ecstasy as we follow the teams from the lands down under.

Fiona Crawford, Goal.com

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