New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND
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Team Profile
The New Zealand national football team, nicknamed the All Whites, is the national association football team of New Zealand and is controlled by New Zealand Football.
South Africa 2010 will New Zealand’s second World Cup showing. Their first World Cup Soccer appearace was in Spain 2=1982, which was one of their teams greatest soccer achievements, even though they lost all three matches played.
New Zealand formerly battled Australia for top honours in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). But unfortunately for New Zealand football fans, Australia have proved to be an insurmountable hurdle since then – at least as far as FIFA World Cup qualifying goes. Australia now play in the Asian Football Confederation and therefore leaving New Zealand as the only seeded team left in OFC.
New Zealand has produced one of the greatest footballers to come from Oceana, Wynton Rufer. Zufer went on to win a European Cup Winners’ Cup medal in 1992 and was also later named the FIFA Oceana Player of the Century.
New Zealand has also competed in three FIFA Confederations Cups, Mexico 1999, France 2003 and South Africa 2009. In each of these showings, the All Whites failed to make it past the first round. At the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup New Zealand earned their first point at a FIFA tournament with a draw against Iraq.
Since Australia’s departure to the AFC, New Zealand has emerged as Oceania’s leading football nation, with their men’s and women’s youth teams qualifying for the FIFA U-17 and U-20 FIFA World Cups and Auckland City qualifying for the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2006.
New Zealand defeated Bahrain in the World Cup 2010 qualifying playoff round in order to advance to South Africa 2010.
OFC Group Standings
| Team | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goals For | Goals Agst | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand (Q) | 5 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 5 | 15 |
| New Caledonia | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Fiji | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 7 |
| Vanuatu | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 4 |
Official Site: http://www.nzfootball.co.nz
