Christchurch.
Good pre-match crowd in the pub. Pity (most of) the staff there were so miserable. Good to meet some of the locals and our Canadian supporter too.
Great match crowd numbers I thought. Bit of angst in the Zone at the start. One guy rocks in and says "You guys need to move these are my seats and there's 21 of us". There were actually only 3 and they moved at half time. Chanting was an epic fail. Turns out the Cantabs like to clap. Amusingly they also didn't really get the shirts off thing either.
Game was scary, in the "oh god we really need to score another" kinda way.
After match, the only place open was the casino. Didn't put any money anywhere the gambling part but drank a wee bit.
Recommendation - Don't book an 8.10am flight home the morning after a game.
Hmm a bit condescening, alot of cantabs in the zone are veterans of SA, Bahrain game, Jaimaica in aucks, and loads of nix and All Whites games in wellington and as such are not virgins to enjoying football, I think the general feeling was that the performance was just so poor the atmosphere died out a bit and didnt really warrant shirts off. I would still say that the atmosphere was as good as anything I’ve seen for the All Whites since Bahrain and after match celebrations in SA.
P.S. No idea why ticketek dont make it more clear that the WNZ is stading and shouting only, always dramas with people trying to stay seated etc. General admision would be the solution surely.