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Bahrain's national football side - Source: Reuters -
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Since their arrival on Thursday night the Bahrain team have been
hard to corner.
Despite the large media contingent assembled at Wellington airport,
the players were rushed through and generally unwilling to answer
questions.
One of the team took a brief interest in a blonde radio journalist
but soon regretted it.
After accosting the player our news guru then managed to ask quite
bizarre (and frankly disrespectful) questions.
Blonde journalist: Do you have any animals at home?
Bahrain player: "Huh.... what...
Blonde journalist: What do you think of our women?
Bahrain: "I don't know...
Blonde journalist: "Have you just come here to score our
chicks?"
By now he had turned and gone. For the sake of our country's image
let's hope he didn't understand her trivial inquiries.
We had to do better.
After wandering the central city for a while on Friday, we stumbled
across some members of the Bahrain team shopping in Lambton
Quay.
They were friendly, happy to chat and obviously feeling the
cold.
Are these some of the men that could steal the New Zealand
dream?
The sunny morning had gone and a bone-chilling southerly was
blowing through the capital.
How were they handling this weather?
"It's fine for him," one of them (of African descent) said,
laughing and pointing at his team mate, "but I'm freezing."
After some more pleasantries we left them to continue their search
for some "nice clothes".
Earlier across town we ran into veteran All Whites defender Ivan
Vicelich in a cafe near Oriental Bay.
Vicelich, who has won a record 64 caps, was having a coffee with a
friend and trying to relax ahead of Saturday's clash.
tvnz.co.nz was reluctant to interrupt but the affable 33-year-old
was happy to have a chat.
Asked about a curfew he joked that they were not allowed to venture
more than 25 metres from their nearby hotel.
He seemed quite at ease - well, as relaxed as you can be ahead of
the biggest match of your life.
We wished him well and left him to enjoy his "flat white" -
hopefully not a bad omen ahead of the match on Saturday.
