BIG UNDERDOGS BUT KIWI CAN STILL DO IT
IT HAS taken an Englishman to put football back on the map in a rugby-loving country. Anthony Hudson has taken New Zealand to within a play-off against Peru of reaching next summer’s World Cup finals.
The biggest crowd for a football match in Kiwi history will watch the first leg in the early hours of Saturday morning followed by the return in Lima next Wednesday.
New Zealand are massive underdogs – they are 122nd in the FIFA rankings, just below Vietnam, while Peru are 10th, two places above England – yet Hudson, son of England maverick Alan, insists they can hold their own.
The 36-year-old said: “We’ve been knocking on the door for a while and we’re not far from beating these bigger teams. Now is the time that we have to get over the line.
“We’re not going into these games saying we’re underdogs and then just shrug our shoulders if we lose.
“We’re deadly focused, we know exactly what we need to do and we believe that we can beat these teams.”
Hudson has worked minor miracles at New Zealand. They pick from a small pool of players that includes Burnley’s Chris Wood and West Ham defender Winston Reid, and travel arrangements are a nightmare, with jetlag common.
But Hudson says the two-leeged play-off has got the whole nation buzzing about football when normally sporting talk centres on the All Blacks.
Hudson, linked with Norwich earlier this year, said: “We knew it was going to be tough playing the South American qualifiers rather than going through Asia.
“Peru are a top team on a great run of form, but I believe we can do it. The odds are against us, but we’ve got a good little football team and a closeknit group. The biggest challenge we will face is the travel and preparation between the two games.”
It has been a long and winding road for Hudson – one of the youngest-ever managers to get his FIFA pro licence – after managing Newport, Bahrain and now New Zealand.
International managers are normally elder statesmen but Hudson, who had a spell coaching the Tottenham reserve team in 2010, when Harry Redknapp reportedly likened him to a young Jose Mourinho, insists his dream of managing in the Premier League will be helped by his unusual path.
Hudson, who was on West Ham’s books as a young player, added: “I’ve never shied away from saying the Premier League is where I want to be and time is on my side. I used to set myself targets and be in a rush to do something but now I’m just taking my time to make the right decision.
“I’m more focused now on being the best manager I can be, rather than be in a rush all the time. I think it’s taken a lot of pressure off me and I’m more effective as a result.
“I love what I do and I’m enjoying every minute of it. But the end goal remains the same.”