A new national sport
Who would thought that All Whites could remain unbeaten after all three matches in group stage? I certainly didn't see it coming. Against all odds, being widely recognised as the weakest team in the world cup, who probably "doesn't deserve" to be there, All Whites have achieved exceptionally well. While All whites didn't progress, they should still be very very proud of themselves - in fact, if the ref disallow the offside goal against Slovakia, all whites should already in the knock out stage.
However, I have to say that, after watching all three games, it is clear that there is still a huge gap between All Whites and other teams. The team almost defended their way out of every march. It is a tactic but victory is not achieved through just defend. This kind of explains All Whites ability to draw with other international teams, but it is extremely rare to see a victory.
There is still a long way to go, but what All Whites achieved is exceptional - it generated a huge national interest on soccer and encouraged the widest imagination. This is quite similar to the situation after socceroos' performance in 2006' world cup, and we could also see soccer on its way to become one of the national sport in New Zealand.
