New Zealand Football caught up with the All Whites goal scoring hero from that day, Shane Smeltz, for his memories from that magical match.
Some people might suggest that shocking Slovakia in the opening game of a World Cup is one thing but facing the World Cup holders Italy is a quite different proposition. How were you feeling before taking the pitch against the Azzurri?
Everyone imagines you being quite nervous going out against reigning world champions Italy, a team full of stars, and we’re little old New Zealand not expected to do anything. It was quite the opposite. We had an amazing buzz from the previous game and I think that carried into the Italy game. During warm-up, the build-up for the game and walking out onto the pitch was an unbelievable feeling of excitement, real togetherness in the group and a quiet feeling that we could actually do something.
And we ended up obviously proving that to be the case.
We certainly didn’t speak before the game about having a win against Italy. We basically said we’d look at each other, put everything on the line and I think everything just fell into place.
We got off to a great start scoring the goal after seven minutes and that just spurred us on again. I think the big thing that I noticed during the game was that the Italians probably underestimated us a little bit and thought it would be a guaranteed three points in a World Cup. I think after about five minutes they knew they were in a game. Sometimes it can be a little bit too late and they caused a bigger a hole than they thought and they had to dig themselves out of. It was obviously a great day as a whole.
What do you remember about the first few seconds after scoring the goal that gave New Zealand the lead against Italy?
The first few seconds of me touching the ball and it going into the back of net it felt in my own mind the whole place was dead quiet. It just seemed like almost as if maybe everyone believed this wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s the way it felt. It’s almost like shutting your eyes and thinking ‘is this really happening?’ and you continue your celebration and before you know it you’re in the corner and celebrating with all your team mates.
Even now, you have to pinch yourself to realise what’s happened and the stage that you’ve done it on. I get excited now just watching the World Cup and to think now that four years ago we were on the stage and scoring a goal against the reigning world champions at that the time. It was an amazing thing.
What did scoring that goal, in that game, against that opponent do for you personally as a footballer?
There are always challenges and obstacles to overcome in football – whether it’s going to a new club or a new environment and every game or training session has its challenges. When you’ve got in the back of your mind that you’ve been on the world stage and you’ve performed you can always call upon that.
As an individual you can certainly use that for the future and say you’ve been on the greatest stage in the world and performed. I think that’s something that not only yourself, but everyone remembers. I talk to people still today and it’s always something that’s brought up; how well we did and scoring a goal and it’s still today a topic of conversation so it’s a great achievement I think.
It’s something everyone in that squad can be proud of and everyone had to perform in that tournament to the best of their ability and I think we did that. We had to so we could achieve what we did.
Have you watched the game since?
I’ve watched it a few times since the game but I haven’t watched it recently. But it’s certainly something that’s in the history books and I can always go and look at that goal and it’s there to see. Not only the goal, I get great satisfaction from watching that performance. Not only the Italy game but the three games and still today I’m so proud of the group of players. I think that will be something we’ll be talking about in 10, 20, 30 years.
Watching the tournament now, what comes to mind first about your own World Cup experience?
Up until we were knocked out by Mexico, the dream and the ambition was to make another World Cup because once you’ve tasted that sort of success you obviously want to feel and taste that again. That was certainly an ambition of mine and I think everyone else involved in that campaign.
Looking at it now, as I sit back and watch this World Cup unfold, it’s an amazing feeling just to think that we’ve created history. It is in the history books; us going undefeated, myself scoring a goal, Winston Reid scoring a goal, these are things people can’t take away.
It’s such an amazing tournament and to see everyone – football fans and non-football fans – get excited for the World Cup and to realise four years ago what you were doing. When you’re in it you don’t have the full concept of what’s going on. Now from the outside you can see the whole scale of things and it’s certainly something that we’re all very proud of.
What are your thoughts on what you’ve seen so far at the 2014 tournament so far?
Personally what I’ve noticed is that the tournament is wide open. There have been a few shock results and a few big teams which probably haven’t performed as well you’d think and that makes for a great tournament.
Some of the games have been fantastic and what’s made it that way is that the groups are spaced out quiet evenly in terms of the big names. You can’t really say there is one group of death, there’s probably three or four. That makes for some great games and interesting viewing to see who is going to get through.
I really like Germany. They may have had a couple of issues going to the tournament but they always perform on the big stage. I think they’ve changed their style of play a little bit. They’ve always been little bigger and more physical but I think they are a bit more technical now and I think that’s probably given them another weapon to move forward. I think they are definitely one to watch and they are my pick to go through and win it.
Video Content: Relive the magical moment when All White Shane Smeltz scored against regining world champions Italy in South Africa 2010 click here .
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football
For more on New Zealand football go to www.nzfootball.co.nz

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