It's so good to be a Kiwi in a foreign country, and to be able to be patriotic and celebrate that patriotism. I drove over to a sports bar at one of the international hotels to watch NZ play Italy. Of course it wasn't a big named match around UAE and the chances of NZ winning being ranked 78 was pretty slim so there weren't many there watching, apart from 6 other Kiwis who work for our company. I'd just missed the first goal, was able to bemoan the fact they scored from a debatable penalty offense. I am Kiwi, so of course the ref probably got it wrong! However we held them out, cheered mightly when NZ got close to scoring again, and clapped and cheered on the end whistle, as you do!
I have taken a pic of the headline in the sports section of the paper quoting Ricky Herbert. And I also have a very pixelated pic taken during the game on my cell phone. Why, because on our side of the world it was only 6 in the evening, we were bright eyed and cheering loudly, and because I was proud to be a Kiwi, and prouder still to be a Kiwi in a soccer passionate nation, who really didn't care about this tiny nation down under, and even prouder still because 25 professional players, held last year's cup winners with at least 3,500 professional players to choose from, to a draw.
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