I really hope this means football is here to stay. With the Phoenix going well (at least if they can keep securing funding) and with the national team delivering great results at the top level, people are really getting caught up in the drama of football.
And lets be honest, as much as football is a game of incredible skill, it's also a game that has a lot of theatrics to get the blood pumping in outrage or ecstasy. As a side we don't perhaps milk the drama as much as we could, and we probably are a bit worse off for it in terms of what we could achieve. But at the same time we like the fact that our players generally don't dive... generally.
The fact that we can draw with the likes of Italy and Slovakia, and beat Serbia are why football is such a great game - teams can really step up and trip over top teams who aren't entirely on their game. Such upsets are much more unlikely in rugby by virtue of the style of sport which it is.
I brought an All Whites shirt on Saturday, and I'm looking forward to wearing it with pride on Friday morning!
Its just a pity there really isn't an infrastructure internally that people can grasp hold of. I guess getting more people watching the NZFC is one way. Maybe getting to the point where at least its semi-professional. Having the Phoenix is simply not enough. Despite results, their participation is tenuious, relying pretty much on 1 rich guy to support it. Hopefully the late season crowds they got will continue.
The diving stuff is just dreadful. Only way to really solve it is have a video ref in the ear of the onfield refs giving advice once they have seen replays.
To me it remains one of those games, that unless you have an emotional attachment to a team, its still a very hard game to watch & enjoy completely. I think I'm starting to appreciate the tactical side of it. But watching a 0 - 0 result is time better spent doing something else. Like pottery.
cheers
DH
