Almost 20,000 football supporters came out in Wellington on Wednesday to celebrate the success of the New Zealand football team, the All Whites. The Wellington City Council organised a special parade for the team and the Prime Minister, John Key, was also there to meet them.

The All Whites were the only unbeaten team in the recent World Cup, held in South Africa. Although they did not go into the second round, they were proud that good teams like Italy, the last World Cup winners, were unable to beat them.

This weekend there was more excitement for New Zealand football fans as a very good team from Argentina, called Boca Juniors, was in Wellington to play the Wellington Phoenix club at the Westpac Stadium on Friday night. However people who went to the stadium were not allowed to take musical instruments. The organisers wanted to make sure that the noisy African horn, which was played at the World Cup, is not played during games here.

Contributed by Chris Mahoney

Listen to other news about the All Whites: June 16th 2010, November 17 2009

and November 11 2009

Question

Do you think more young New Zealanders will choose to play soccer now?