Footballers make history

The New Zealand men’s football team delivered another memorable moment when they held Romania to a 0-0 draw in their final Olympic pool match tonight.

The result meant that for the first time, New Zealand progressed to the quarter-finals at an Olympic Games.

Romania and New Zealand finished their pool with four points each, but New Zealand went through on goal difference. Their differential was +3, Romania’s was 0. The pool was won by Korea who, ironically, New Zealand pummelled in their opening match.

Tonight’s game was tense throughout and reminded New Zealand football fans of the second half of the thrilling Bahrain-New Zealand World Cup qualifier in Wellington in 2009 when one goal would spell disaster for either team.

There was the same sort of feeling tonight. New Zealand could not afford to lose, so a goal would be disastrous; Romania had to win because they knew their goal differential was bad. A draw worked in New Zealand’s favour.

Surprisingly, the Romanians played rather defensively for the first hour and New Zealand had a comfortable time of it.

In the last half-hour, when scoring a goal became imperative, Romania finally pushed forward and were somewhat more threatening, but New Zealand, with Nando Pjanker and Gianni Stensness prominent, defended efficiently.

There were precious few real scoring opportunities. Chris Wood lurked menacingly up front but was given little space and Joe Bell was probably in more of the action.

New Zealand had 60 percent of the possession and had more shots and more corners. They played more positively and deserved to be the team who ended the game smiling.