New Zealand’s All Whites stunned the world’s fifteenth-ranked football-playing nation, Serbia, 1-0 in a friendly international in front of 14,000 fans at the Hypo Group Arena (formerly Worthersee Stadium) in Klagenfurt, Austria, on May 29, a result which will send shockwaves around the footballing world, and rightly so. The 78th-ranked Kiwis withstood a barrage of Serbian raids in the later stages of the match to record unquestionably the biggest triumph in New Zealand’s footballing history, one earned on the back of a superbly taken goal from Shane Smeltz half-way through the first half. To that point in the match, the All Whites had dealt capably with the few raids Serbia had mustered to that point, the only threatening one of these being an eighth minute free-kick from Milos Ninkovic which Mark Paston punched off the head of Marko Pantelic at the near post. The Serbians were forced into an early change - they ultimately made six compared to the solitary substitution introduced by the All Whites - when Ivan Obradovic came off worse in an aerial duel with Rory Fallon which left the fullback with a blood nose. While Serbia were coming to terms with that change, the All Whites launched their first attack of note, and it ultimately settled the contest. Winston Reid’s 22nd minute ball forward was flicked on by the outstanding Fallon, who got the better of Serbian captain Nemanja Vidic in this aerial duel to direct the ball into space for Smeltz to chase. The striker did so, and won his foot-race with Antonio Rukavina before checking inside the full-back and, from fifteen yards, steering an unerring right-foot drive into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal defended by the wrong-footed Vladimir Stojkovic. It was a superbly taken strike, and one which the All Whites came close to supplementing inside ninety seconds. The best move of the match by either side was started by Tommy Smith, one of four changes All Whites’ coach Ricki Herbert made to the team which so undeservedly lost to Australia in Melbourne five days earlier. The defender combined with Tony Lochhead before linking with Jeremy Christie, who, with aplomb, stepped into the void created by the absence of vice-captain Tim Brown, who underwent surgery in Auckland during the week on the shoulder he fractured in seemingly innocuous fashion against the Socceroos. Christie played the ball back to Smith, who sent Chris Wood scampering through the inside left channel before holding the ball up well and angling it back to Fallon. The striker let fly from twenty yards with a shot which Stojkovic did well to parry, straight into the path of Smeltz, who was unable to direct the rebound on target. Radomir Antic’s side was struggling to cope with the idea of trailing the champions of Oceania on the scoreboard, but after a tame effort from Nenad Milijas had given Paston scant cause for concern on the half-hour, they began to perform like a team which won its European qualifying group to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals. Seven minutes before half-time, Ninkovic curled in a free-kick which Christie attempted to head clear, but only succeeded in directing to the totally unmarked figure of Neven Subotic on the far post. With the goal at his mercy, the central defender headed down and wide - a bad miss. Three minutes later, only a timely tackle by Ryan Nelsen kept the Kiwis’ noses in front after a deft back-heel by substitute Aleksandar Kolarov had allowed Milijas to play in Pantelic, who got the better of Reid in the penalty area before the All Whites captain curtailed his progress in typical no-nonsense fashion. New Zealand began the second spell in nervous fashion, and Serbia weren’t slow in looking to take full advantage. A slick one-two between Zoran Tosic and Kolarov saw the former leave Reid on the turf as he got in behind the defence to set up Pantelic for a shot. Nelsen deflected it to safety in the 47th minute. The All Whites hit back within ten minutes, a Lochhead cross being flicked on by Fallon just beyond the stretching figure of Wood, who promptly pulled up lame with cramp, and was replaced by Jeremy Brockie on the hour. Before the change, New Zealand twice went close to doubling their lead. After Fallon had sent a header sailing over the bar following a Leo Bertos corner, another delivery by the wing-back was cleared, only for Nelsen to scamper after the ball and retrieve it before it crossed the touchline. The captain played it back to the impressive Simon  Elliott, whose clipped ball into the danger zone was

flicked on by Fallon. The incoming figure of Reid was just inches too far away from making contact at point-blank range. Serbia didn’t heed the let-off, and nearly suffered the consequences in the 62nd minute. Smith’s probing ball over the defence released Smeltz through the inside-left channel, but Subotic was able to recover in time, only to direct his clearance straight to Elliott. With half-time substitute goalkeeper Andjelko Djuricic back-pedalling furiously, the veteran midfielder fired a long-range effort towards the target, but narrowly past the far post, much to the dismay of the 62-times-capped All White. That scare was the catalyst for Serbia to step up their game in a big way, and for the bulk of the time which remained, they subjected the All Whites to a thorough examination of their defensive capabilities, occasionally exposing chinks in New Zealand’s armoury via the fresh legs of their numerous substitutes. Two of the newcomers combined in the 63rd minute, with Radosav Petrovic slipping Dragan Mrdja through the inside-right channel and in behind the All Whites’ rearguard. His angled ball across found gangly striker Nikola Zigic lining up an equaliser, only for Reid to come flying in and take the pace off a shot Paston ultimately smothered. The goalkeeper was in action again moments later, tipping a Pantelic shot round the post. He repeated his diving exploits in the 74th minute, this time spectacularly preventing a Nelsen own goal as a teasing cross from Danko Lazovic ricocheted off the defender towards the target. Paston was in action again three minutes later, punching out a cross from Petrovic straight to Zigic. The striker was swiftly closed down by the All Whites’ rearguard, however, and the danger was averted. Eleven minutes from time, Brockie squandered a glorious opportunity to make the game safe for New Zealand. Reid’s free-kick from deep picked out Fallon, who did his English Premier League ambitions no harm with this performance against a team boasting players from a number of Europe’s foremost club competitions. The striker headed the ball down for Smeltz, who touched it into the stride of Brockie. The substitute evaded a couple of challenges as he burst into the penalty area before rattling the side-netting - he should have hit the target from the position in which he found himself. Ten minutes from time, play stopped briefly after a solitary Serbian fan invaded the playing arena. Their army of supporters had made their displeasure known throughout proceedings before this incident, lobbing a couple of flares onto the pitch as the prospect of their team being beaten by lower-ranked opponents. After he had been escorted from the pitch, play resumed, with Mrdja again a source of All White discomfort. But after his teasing cross arced just beyond the incoming figure of Zigic, play again ground to a halt following the appearance of more Serbian supporters on the pitch. It got to a stage where the All Whites were preparing to walk off the pitch, and led to the bizarre sight of Serbian captain Nemanja Vidic making an appeal for calm over the public address system, twenty-five years to the day since then Liverpool captain Phil Neal was forced to do so at the ill-fated 1985 European Cup Final at the Heysel Stadium. Thankfully, there were no such scenes in Klagenfurt, and the Serbian fans relented to allow the match to conclude in timely fashion, with Zigic directing a last-minute header wide of Paston’s left-hand post on receipt of Rukavina’s early cross. The All Whites’ triumph ranks as their greatest-ever victory, and comes just four years after their first-ever win on European soil, a 3-1 win over Georgia during the early stages of a campaign which, after this historic victory, leaves New Zealand well on course to make an impact at the 2010 World Cup Finals. Before they travel to South Africa, they have one more fixture in Europe, in Maribor on Saturday morning, NZ time, against Slovenia, like the Serbians another World Cup Finals contender. Serbia:          Stojkovic (Djuricic, 46); Rukavina, Vidic, Subotic, Obradovic (Kolarov, 20); Tosic, Milijas (Petrovic, 46), Kuzmanovic (Mrdja, 59), Ninkovic (Kacar, 46); Zigic (booked, 44), Pantelic (Lazovic, 66) All Whites:     Paston; Reid, Nelsen, Smith; Bertos (booked, 40), Christie, Elliott, Lochhead (booked, 73); Wood (Brockie, 61), Fallon, Smeltz Referee:     Oliver Drachta (Austria)