New Zealand football’s greatest celebration is in danger ofbecoming a very distant memory after the national team’s 5-1 lossto Mexico in the first leg of a World Cup qualifying playoff inMexico City.The second leg of the playoff in Wellington on Wednesday is asellout and the expected crowd of 37,000 is set to be the largestfor a football match in the history of this rugby-mad nation.But hopes of a repeat of the 2010 match in Wellington in whichNew Zealand beat Bahrain 1-0 to qualify for the World Cup finals inSouth Africa have largely been dashed by New Zealand’s resoundingaway loss.On Friday, dozens of tickets to the match were for sale onauction websites and there were few bids.Officials at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium are confident thematch will still attract more than the 35,000 fans who watched theBahrain match four years ago.”We’re expecting a full house and we’ve got no indications weneed to prepare for anything different,” stadium manager ShaneHarmon said.The 2010 match and New Zealand’s subsequent performance in SouthAfrica, where it was the only team to leave the World Cup unbeatenwhile still not progressing beyond pool play, were seen asrevolutionary for football in New Zealand, which has never beenable to break out of… Read full this story
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