ALL WHITES V BAHRAIN - Official 2nd Leg T

Bloody awesome watching those highlights again. What a game that was. The best.

Singing.... "I wanna know, have you ever seen Bahrain, score a goal on a windy day?"

Topleft, listening to the Nov 14 call once again.  Question: why were the technical areas so big?  Did you just go mental coz of the occasion?  Understandable...but if Ricki needed to get some orders out that night, he could of pulled a hammy...

Any chance you could upload that audio somewhere Stevo?

No one could hear Ricki (or Ryan) anyway because the crowd was mental innit.

Spare a thought for our Bahraini opponents in those matches though, six of whom ended up imprisoned by their government and tortured for taking part in peaceful pro-democracy protests in February 2011, including 2011- 2012 Brisbane Roar player Sayed Adnan:

http://www.thenational.ae/sport/other-sport/from-heroes-to-pariahs-bahrain-athletes-pay-a-steep-price#ixzz2Jr4uVPTx

"...they joined a march of several hundred athletes to Pearl Square, the epicentre of Shiite-led protests against Bahrain's Sunni rulers.

It was a terrible miscalculation.

Two weeks after the February march, Alaa Hubail was interrogated on state-run television and called a traitor. He and his brother were arrested a day later along with Ali Saeed Abdullah, the national team goalkeeper, as they trained at their Al Alhi club.

They were among six players from the national team who were put in prison, where they say they were tortured for taking part in the protests.

Mohammed Hubail was tried and sentenced to two years in jail; he is free while he appeals the sentence.

Alaa's case is pending. They have gone from celebrities to pariahs among Bahrain's pro-government faction - barred from playing on the national team and blacklisted from the local league for what they contend was simply following the advice of the Crown Prince.

Many of the soccer players are trying to move on with their lives. National team defender Sayed Mohammed Adnan went into voluntary exile and has joined Australian A-League champion Brisbane Roar. Alaa recently signed a deal to play for an Omani football club.

His brother Mohammed is still looking for a place to go. He rejected an offer to return to Al Ahli because the club demanded that he sign a statement admitting to his crimes. Mohammed told AP he was still trying to come to grips with the abuse he says he suffered in prison where he allegedly was blindfolded, handcuffed and kicked and beaten with hoses. He wonders whether he wants to return to soccer and says he is not sure he’d again want to wear Bahrain’s red and white colour if he were asked to re-join the national team.

"Sure, I want to play. But first we need a solution to all of this," he told AP. "I need to know what is going to happen to me. For our community, the nation, how long are we going to be like this?"

I am an idiot. Missed the opportunity today to get my 14/11/09 All Whites spectating shirt signed by more players from those there on the night. 

Can anyone remember which players were at the Wellington Ticker Tape Celebration Parade (even Santa came to celebrate) on Sunday 15 November???

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3064831/White-out-steals-Santas-show

Comments from that story

I don't think all this talk about how soccer is going to dominate from now onwards is true...when are we ever going to see another soccer match in NZ like the one on sat night? in another 27 years? soccer will go back into the shadow of rugby where it belongs.

I'll have a chat to Grant tomorrow. Can you please smooze Celia?

Fantastic...

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/player/ondemand/1170190189-radio-sport-first-xv--a-beautiful-game

An ironic 'bump'.

Those were the days.

What a day. 

Night. Gonna happen again. Woo hoo!!!!!!

Every time I watch such footage I get emotional - some  great fan footage here of the stadium erupting v Bahrain:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzsRSWWLB1o&list=PL40A37E5239B51BDD

Hope it's a lively crowd again tomorrow...

Nice lengthy feature put together by the Herald today with players looking back at the 2009 play-offs:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/allwhitesbahrain/

When we left for the stadium, there was a bit of a rush. There were people out the front of our hotel yelling and screaming and even when we got into the stadium there were people lining up and screaming at us. Straight away we knew this was going to be one of the biggest games in 28 years of New Zealand football.

I still remember it. I heard the thud of the ball hitting his head and then I tried to chase him - and he's a slow bastard - but he outsprinted me because he was so happy.

My grandad was about 84 at the time. He was out 'til five in the morning with us and my old man lasted the whole night.

Then we got on the bus. The bus was the craziest ride I have ever taken in my life. The ride from the stadium to the hotel should take us only 10 minutes. It took us over 30. Everyone was stopping the bus. There were hundreds of people on the street stopping the bus at every opportunity. People were streaming out of the bars jumping in front of the bus, banging on the windows. There was one lad who must have been running for at least 20 minutes alongside the bus and everyone was just watching him. Either he was a fit boy or extremely drunk.

....As soon as we got changed, we all met up at a private bar and that’s where I met up with my mum and dad. When I got to the bar my dad was there and he was absolutely steaming. He was outside, drinking whisky out of the glass with a massive cigar celebrating. And the first thing I remember was walking into the bar and seeing him. He was so drunk I don’t think he even recognised me until I was like, 'Dad, hey it’s me'. But that moment when I saw him and we first hugged is something that will be with me 'til the day I die. We both realised what that meant.

Last night was good. V good. But despite how well we played, plus the full house, etc. the adrenaline rush on that night was unforgettable.

Last night was good. V good. But despite how well we played, plus the full house, etc. the adrenaline rush on that night was unforgettable.

A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE ALL WHITES’ HISTORIC WORLD CUP QUALIFYING WIN

5 years ago today. Get your ears around this

https://soundcloud.com/piney6/all-whites-v-bahrain-14-november-2009-highlights

Goosebumps and man-tears

Brilliant! The greatest day in NZ sport in my biased opinion. Wow  Piney & Chotee are a great team

I got chills listening to that. Everything about that night came flooding back

It was a pretty chilly night that night too!

I may have just read through most of the thread again..

Just re-enforces the fact that Ricki should be given more credit on these forums. What he did wasn't easy, even if you say that Nelsen was the real coach

Wednesday night, 11-12pm...relive the dream:

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/on-demand/week-on-dema...

umm.... If Nelsen was the real coach, then Ricki had it fudgeing easy?????????????

Bump

Brilliant night, brilliant game 10 year Anniversary - Deserves a Tee Shirt! "It'll be All White on the Night!"

Seems a lifetime ago.

One of the best nights of my life! Was out all day playing football and drinking with wife and friends - got about 15 mates to sit next to me at the game, we won, ended up dancing the night away at 4Kingz IIRC!

EDIT: It's definitely in my top-2 football related memories along with Roma winning the title in 200.

[quote=newzealandpower]

One of the best nights of my life! 

/quote]

And mine. The day was pretty good too.

That would be the best sporting event I've ever seen. It helped that I got to be in the middle of it all - it had just everything. What a game, what a crowd, what a night! I doubt NZ will ever see another event to match it. Maybe some folk that weren't there might doubt it but for anyone that was - they know that it doesn't get any better than that. 

It basically was