Tuesday, 15th June 2010
Reid All About It
 
New Zealand vs Slovakia
in Rustenburg.
The team to win this game would top Group
F; the group with the world champions, Italy.
Chris Killen had two attempts on goal within the first five minutes,
as the All Whites sought to get a foothold in the game.
New Zealand continued to apply the pressure; although Slovakia did
look threatening on the break.
Neither team did enough to break the deadlock though; on a sunny but
chilly afternoon in Rustenburg. Simon Elliott put a few balls into the Slovakia area and
Vladimir Weiss had a few runs at New Zealand, but otherwise - stalemate.
Half-time: 0:0
Slovakia started the second-half more positively; scoring on their
second attack, Robert Vittek heading into the bottom corner from Stanislav Sestak's
right-wing cross.
But for an excellent tackle by Winston Reid, in the penalty area,
Slovakia could have doubled their lead in the 69th minute.
For most of the second-half, New Zealand never looked like threatening
Slovakia at all; Sestak causing the Kiwis all sorts of problems, until he was taken off in
the 81st minute. The goalscorer, Robert Vittek, soon joined him.
Shane Smeltz had a chance to head New Zealand level in the closing
minutes, but wasted the opportunity. He made up for that miss with the cross from the left
for Winston Reid to head in off the post and keep the group tight in the dying seconds of
the game.
The Slovakia team were totally shell-shocked.
Final Score:
New Zealand 1 Slovakia 1
 Goalscorers:
0:1 Robert Vittek (50 mins)
1:1 Winston Reid (93 mins)
Man of The Match:
Winston Reid - From a saving tackle when the game was still at one-nil to the equalising
goal in the last seconds of time added on. Awesome!
Teams
 New Zealand:
1 Mark Paston; 19 Tommy Smith, 6 Ryan Nelsen, 4 Winston Reid; 3 Tony Lochhead, 5 Ivan
Vicelich, 7 Simon Elliott, 11 Leo Bertos; 9 Shane Smeltz, 14 Rory Fallon, 10 Chris Killen.
 Slovakia:
1 Jan Mucha; 4 Marek Cech, 3 Martin Skrtel, 16 Jan Durica, 5 Radoslav Zabavnik; 17 Marek
Hamsik, 6 Zdeno Strba, 7 Vladimir Weiss; 9 Stanislav Sestak, 18 Erik Jendrisek, 11 Robert
Vittek.
Referee:
Jerome Damon (South Africa)
 Substitutions:
72 Mins (New Zealand) - 20 Chris Wood on for 10 Chris Killen
78 Mins (New Zealand) - 21 Jeremy Christie on for 5 Ivan Vicelich
81 Mins (Slovakia) - 13 Filip Holosko on for 9 Stanislav Sestak
84 Mins (Slovakia) - 15 Miroslav Stoch on for 11 Robert Vittek
91 Mins (Slovakia) - 19 Juraj Kucka on for 7 Vladimir Weiss
 3 Yellow
Cards:
42 Mins - Tony Lochhead (New Zealand)
55 Mins - Zdeno Strba (Slovakia)
93 Mins - Winston Reid (New Zealand)
 0 Red Cards.
Previous Encounters:
New Zealand and Slovakia meet for the first time in World Cup football; which is not
surprising, considering this is Slovakia's first appearance at a World Cup Finals and New
Zealand's second.
Czechoslovakia and New Zealand both played in Spain 1982, however, but didn't meet.
2010 World Cup Finals - Knockout Stage.
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