All Whites All Right

By Mike Takeuchi

Reprinted Article.

For Tony Lochhead, home may be where the heart is, but South Africa is where his passion still lies.

Following the most successful World Cup run in New Zealand National Team history, the former UCSB soccer player returned to his home in Wellington, New Zealand, on Monday filled with mixed emotions. After making the World Cup group for the first time since their inaugural trip in 1982, the All Whites exceeded their country's expectations and world media predictions by earning three points in Group F and staying unbeaten. Despite this, the team's third-place finish in the group eliminated them from reaching the knockout round.

"Its a great feeling of pride to go there and be undefeated," the 28-year-old said. "We read a lot of stuff written about our team some saying that we shouldn't even be there. So we were quietly looking to prove all those people wrong"

And they did.

On June 15, the team opened the tournament with a 1-1 draw against Slovakia. On June 20, a Shane Smeltz goal early in the match helped the world's 78th-ranked team finish even with No. 5 and defending Cup champion Italy, to put them in position to get into the 16-team knockout round with a win against Paraguay on June 24.

But Paraguay, which merely needed a tie to advance to the next round, played possession soccer and didn't give New Zealand's offense a chance to score in a 0-0 tie.

"It was a funny game," Lochhead said. "We went into it with the same mind set as the previous two. But I guess with Paraguay really only needing a draw, they weren't really coming as forward as much which made it harder for us to create anything. I felt in the second half we had a few more opportunities but not as many as the previous games."

As the team walked off the pitch, Lochhead felt sadness first, but also satisfaction.

"It was a disappointing feeling," he said. "You get a taste of being close to that next round and you really wanted to be there. But on the other hand, if someone had said that you would be undefeated in the tournament before we started, we would have been happy with that as well."

New Zealand was the fifth team in World Cup history to make it through the group stage without dropping a match, a fact that gives New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert - who has led the team since 2005 and was a member of the only other New Zealand team to qualify for the quadrennial tournament - great satisfaction.

"It's quite emotional for us," Herbert told the Associated Press. "It was our second time at the World Cup and to completely reverse what we've done before is quite amazing. The future looks bright for the team."

Lochhead said he will look back at this World Cup with great joy.

"It was an amazing time away," he said. "It was just overall an awesome experience that I will probably look back on many years from now and still be proud of what our team has done."

During the Cup, all of New Zealand was reveling in the team's success according to UCSB student Nishika Kumble. Kumble, who went to high school in Auckland where her parents Sarita and Anand, and her sister Leyla still reside, was in New Zealand during the team's run.

"The country was going crazy for the team," Kumble said. "You can't even get an All Whites jersey anywhere. (This popularity is good) because I think it gives New Zealand more athletic credibility and recognition on the world stage."

Lochhead hopes that will in turn grow the program even more.

"I just hope that the people in charge of Football NZ are going to build on this and make sure we are in a position to do even better the next time round," he said.