N.Z.’s soccer campaign a great success — cup director

Press, 12 May 1981, Page 30

N.Z.’s soccer campaign a great success — cup director

NZPA f Jakarta The New Zealand soccer team’s present World Cup campaign has already been a great success which will pay handsome dividends in future years even if the side does not qualify for Spain in 1982.

This is the view of the New Zealand Football Association’s World Cup director, Mr Charlie Dempsey, who said yesterday that the team was the “most professional” he had known in his 20-year association with national sides. As the New Zealand squad approached the crucial World Cup games against Indonesia and Australia, he praised the dedication of both the players and the coach, Mr John Adshead, and his assistant, Mr Kevin Fallon. Mr Dempsey, who is acting as the tour leader, said that the present trip was the first on which he had not been forced to move in on “incidents” involving players. The 18-man squad has been placed under strict curfew for most of the tour and Mr Fallon confirmed that none of the squad had yet been reprimanded for breaches of team rules. The players, have, in fact, been complimented on their behaviour by the managers of several of the hotels in which they have stayed. Mr Dempsey said that even if the players failed to qualify for the World Cup finals, their dedication meant there could be no doubt they had given of their best.

“We have made a tremendous impression in Fiji; Taiwan and Indonesia and this will pay off handsomely in future years,” he said. Mr Dempsey said he believed that the experience of this team had also more than justified the $160,000 expendi-

ture on the World Cup campaign. “In the countries we have visited, we have found that nothing matches the excitement of World Cup soccer. It has placed a tremendous strain on the players and the coaches but we will simply be leaving the international soccer stage if we pull out of the cup,” he said. Mr Dempsey, whose golfing expeditions while on tour have been the target of constant good-natured bantering from the team, was full of praise for the efforts of the New Zealand coaches. Mr Adshead and Mr Fallon complemented each other well; the former being a fine motivator and the latter gaining the dedication he demanded from the players, he said. New Zealand soccer had learnt from the experience of the long 1979 European tour when Mr Adshead had had no-one to consult, he said. Mr Dempsey said it had been “a stroke of good fortune” that Mr Fallon, the player-coach of the successful Gisborne City side, had agreed to act as assistant coach. The duo had been admirable in the way in which they had presented a common front, whether or not they privately disagreed over matters such as team selection and training, he said. “The only pity is that they did not have the squad in training camp for longer than a week before, the tour,” said Mr Dempsey, observing

that the Taiwanese squad had been together for two months while the Indonesians had spent three months in camp. The effort put in by the New Zealand squad could be assessed on that comparison alone, he said. And as for predictions on the rest of the campaign, Mr Dempsey said simply that he had “a happy feeling” about it. New Zealand will finish its qualifying matches before its toughest rivals, Australia and Indonesia. New Zealand's final match will be in Auckland against Fiji on August 15, while Australia will visit Indonesia fifteen days later for the match which could decide the group winner. The remaining group matches, although some of the dates are only tentative, are (home team given first):— May 16: Australia v. New Zealand; May 20: Australia v. Indonesia; May 23: New Zealand v. Indonesia; May 30: New Zealand v. Taiwan; May 31; Fiji v. Indonesia; June 14: Indonesia v. Taiwan; June 28; Taiwan v. Indonesia; July 26: Fiji v. Australia; August 6: Taiwan v. Fiji; August 10: Indonesia v. Fiji; August 14: Australia v. Fiji; August 15: New Zealand v. Fiji; August 25: Taiwan v. Australia; August 30: Indonesia v. Australia.

No dates are available for Taiwan’s away matches against Australia and Fiji.