The Last Word: Greatest moment in NZ football since...

• Ranking achievements . . .
There is nothing left to say about the All Whites except, maybe, considering where they now rank in modern New Zealand sport.

Rushing to compile lists comparing one sport to another, one athlete to another and one era to another can be as pointless as debating the respective merits of chocolate and cheese.

First you have to accept the 2009 All Whites, while they have done brilliantly, should not be ranked above the 1982 All Whites.

The present team basically had to win one game, and that was at home.

The 1982 team faced the longest qualifying campaign in World Cup history, both in miles travelled and games played, and their crunch game was in Singapore.

Best simply to say the 2009 All Whites provided the greatest moment in New Zealand football SINCE 1982.

But what else in New Zealand team sport can compare in the last 27 years?

• . . . is not easy
It is tempting to immediately mention the 1987 Rugby World Cup.

You know, the first and only time the All Blacks could legitimately claim to be the best in the world.

I'm not convinced.

It was the first tournament, it was hastily assembled, everybody knew we'd win, South Africa wasn't there and most of the world didn't really care.

For global performance, I'd look at the Tall Blacks finishing fourth at the world basketball championships in 2002.

That remains the single most under-rated performance by a New Zealand team in the modern era.

Seriously, fourth in a genuinely global sport? A New Zealand team? That's crazy talk.

Our netballers won world titles in 1987 and 2003.

Great effort and all, but fewer than five countries play the game to any serious level.

Same goes for rugby league.

The Kiwis' win in the World Cup last year was epic, but that is another sport that has just a few chairs at the top table.

Since the New Zealand men's team won Olympic gold in 1976, genuine success in hockey has been sporadic - neither the men nor the women have won an Olympic medal of any colour since then - and our cricketers have won a Champions Trophy but have never got past the World Cup semifinals.

Rowing has produced multiple world champion crews, including the remarkable Evers-Swindell sisters, who won back-to-back Olympic gold medals.

But do two people make a team?

Michael Campbell and company won the Eisenhower Trophy for amateur golf in 1992, but golf's great achievements are in the professional ranks, and while the Black Ferns won three consecutive women's Rugby World Cups, women's rugby has even less global profile than men's rugby.

Softball is a contender, with the Black Sox another team to win three straight world titles.

And, while America's Cup teams appear in court more often than Millie Elder, Team New Zealand's victories in 1995 and 2000 deserve a mention.

If I stick to ranking the traditional teams (no Evers-Swindells, in other words), I'd lean towards having both football squads in a group of five at the top along with the 1987 All Blacks, the 2002 Tall Blacks and the 2008 Kiwis.

• The obvious headline
Regular Otago Daily Times reader James Dignan can't believe we and other newspapers missed the chance to sum up the All Whites' win against Bahrain with a snappy and obvious phrase.

You will recall the slogan used to promote the game had been ONE SHOT FOR GLORY.

Then who goes and scores the only goal of the game?

Rory Fallon.
Think about it.
Keep thinking.
Then let it out:
ONE SHOT FOR RORY

• Football came first
I can only assume Alan McDonald was stirring when he had a crack at FOOTBALL fans in his letter to the editor this week.

McDonald, a rugby and boxing man as well as a serial Dunedin City Council candidate, admonished the media and "football people" for "arrogantly" insisting on calling the game "football".

"Football" in this country means rugby union, he thundered, and many other football codes had the right to use the word.

If he is not kidding, McDonald - with whom I have had regular email correspondence over the years; no doubt there will be one from him in my inbox by Monday - is regurgitating the sort of dusty thinking that makes blinkered rugby fans look like miserable killjoys.

The fact is that football was football before any of the other footballs were invented, so the sport has a reasonable claim to the word.

Also, modern rugby folk do not use "football" when referring to their sport any more.

They just don't.

Finally, like the vast majority of the world's population, New Zealanders are getting their heads around using "football" and not "football".

It sounds better.

It makes us feel part of the world football family, dysfunctional as it may be.

The national body is called New Zealand Football, and the national league is called the New Zealand Football Championship.

Many media outlets have decided to go with "football".

In our newspaper, as in others, there has been a gradual shift to the point where some stories have both "football" and "football".

Perhaps it is time the ODT sports editor follows the wishes of the people and makes an official style change. Football it is!

• A Tiger tale
The excitement generated in Australia by the visit of world golf No 1 Tiger Woods did not convince Golf Magazine senior editor Mike Walker.

In a mock letter published this week, Walker focused on the lack of reaction to Tiger hurling a club into the ground that subsequently bounced into the crowd.

"Thankfully, nobody was injured.

Were it not for his fabled competitiveness, Woods would have apologised to his fans and verified that everyone was OK before walking down the fairway.

"Because of Mr Woods's stature and your position as reporters, we realise that it must be tempting to relate this incident to the world at large.

However, we'd like to remind you that Mr Woods occupies an exalted position in the golfing world, and it is of the utmost importance to the game that his public persona remains unblemished.

"In fact, if Mr Woods were subject to criticism for this incident he would consider demanding that Tour events in which he deigns to participate be played at dawn and be closed to all media and fans except a small group of celebrity athlete friends.

"We appreciate your co-operation in the matter.

"In exchange for your silence on the unpleasantness in Australia on Saturday, Mr Woods might acknowledge you by name at some future date.

"He will also consider saying something noteworthy at a future media conference.

"If you need to file a story this week, we'd be happy to provide you with quotes from Mr Woods about the new Gillette Fusion Razor. It really is the future of shaving."

hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz