'Our greatest result'   16 Jun 2010

In just their second appearance at the world's biggest sporting event and their first for 28 years, the All-Whites defied their lowly FIFA ranking of 78 to snatch a draw against a Slovakian team ranked 44 places higher than them thanks to Winston Reid's injury-time equaliser.

The 21-year-old, who only committed to playing for New Zealand in March given he also has Danish citizenship having been based there (where he plays his club football) since he was ten years old, headed home following an inch perfect cross from Shane Smeltz to send the Kiwi fans in the stadium into raptures.

While the All-Whites' lead-up form had been good, an unlucky 2-1 loss to Australia in Melbourne followed by a 1-0 win over highly-rated Serbia, their performance against Slovakia will make the entire world sit up and take notice of a country whose sporting achievements are normally more associated with rugby and cricket.

"I would have to say it would have to be right up there (in terms of New Zealand's greatest ever results)," Herbert said after the game.

"We have never picked up a point at the World Cup before and we though the Serbia result was a good win but people will say that was only a friendly match."

"But we have thrown some really good punches tonight and got what I thought was a really well-deserved result."

And Herbert, a member of the Kiwis' squad back in 1982 when they last played in the World Cup, can hardly wait to see the impact this result will have back home as the sport he loves finally gets its moment in the spotlight in New Zealand.

"There are a lot of [New Zealand] journalists in this room that normally cover a raft of other sporting codes so it's a special night for me," he said when asked what he thought the reaction to the sensational result would be back home.

"I am a Kiwi boy and I couldn't be any prouder to think that the sport I love is going to be leading the newspapers and television in New Zealand for a few days to come."

Herbert said he could not be more proud of his team, particularly given the way it simply refused to concede defeat.

"We came across [to South Africa] with intentions to make a difference and we have done that," he said.

"And I thought we played very well tonight against a highly ranked team so I am very, very proud."

"We were really focused on this opening game and I thought the opening game was our best chance to get something and I would have been disappointed with a loss."

"But we just kept coming [even after going behind] and we thought we would get a chance [to equalise] and Smeltzy probably had a better one and could have scored [just before he set up the equaliser] but then Winston [Reid] popped up and headed us back into it."

SOURCE : Sportal

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