A memory to keep: Paston reflects on ‘that’ save
WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN: SEVEN DAYS TO GO
Ask almost any All Whites fan what they remember of Mark Paston in 2009 and it will be his penalty save against Bahrain. That stop, down low to his right in the second half of the second leg of the intercontinental playoff, ensured New Zealand preserved their 1-0 lead at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, helping send the All Whites to the 2010 World Cup, their first appearance at football’s showpiece event since 1982.
But ask the big goalkeeper about his enduring memory of that November night and you get a different response. He remembers the moment deep into second-half stoppage time when Bahrain heaved a long ball into his box from inside their own half.
‘‘What I remember more than the penalty save is probably the bit where they lumped the ball in right at the end and I have a decision whether to come for it or not,’’ the 40-year-old recounted yesterday.
‘‘It was quite a windy night, luckily I played my football in Wellington because I knew what the stadium was like. I could have come for that ball and may have missed it and he probably would have headed it in. I held myself back on the line and caught it pretty comfortably. The scenario goes through my head about what if I had come for it and not got it.’’
Paston admitted to a bit of luck coming into the decisive penalty save, which came after Rory Fallon, Paston’s room-mate during their camp in Wellington, headed New Zealand ahead in the first half.
In the moments before the spot kick, Ricki Herbert and his staff had been trying desperately to get a message to Paston about which way the taker, Sayed Adnan, would go.
But it mattered little as Paston was ‘‘in a bubble’’ and listening to no-one. He had chosen to dive right, and also played a small, subconscious trick on Adnan.
‘‘If you look very carefully, I’d made a slightly bigger right-hand side. That was one of my tricks I used to do. You do it quite early on to try and make up their mind about which was they’ll go. You don’t make it too obvious. You try to make them think ‘that’s bigger that side, I’ll go there’, but if it’s too obvious then he knows I know I want him to go there and he’ll go the other way.
‘‘He hit it quite well, but it was too close to me, almost too close. Those ones can either go under you or they pop out straight back into the mix and they have a nice easy tap-in. Luckily, I was in pretty good form and everything was sticking at that point in time. I held the ball, got up pretty easily and got on with the game.’’
After initial ‘‘wild celebrations’’ after the final whistle, Paston was whisked away into a room to receive a man of the match award.
‘‘It was bizarre. It was deadly quiet, you walk in and someone hands me something and there’s a TV camera. Everyone else is out celebrating doing the laps and everything, so I actually missed a lot of the stuff in the stadium. Then we had a press conference and we ended up missing the team bus, which they apparently had a good time on.’’
His advice for this year’s crop of All Whites as they prepare to take on Peru in the intercontinental playoff was to
stick together and put the pressure firmly back on Peru.
‘‘Look at the guy to your left and right and say you’re going to do this together.
‘‘They’re a talented bunch, when
you look at where a lot of them are playing it’s probably more talented than the squad was back in 2009. As long as they go out there and are willing to die for each other they’ll go pretty close, I think.’’