Steve Sumner is no stranger to sporting war zones. The 47-year-old English-born Cantabrian will recall his old battle stories at the 20-year reunion of the 1982 All Whites World Cup team next month.

And at the top of the list, alongside the goal he scored against Scotland in the World Cup in Spain, will be the hellish atmosphere the All Whites encountered in their 2-1 win over China in the final qualifier in Singapore.

"We were lined up in the tunnel with China like Gladiators," Sumner said. "It was almost like gladiators waiting to walk out into this steaming hot arena surrounded by 60,000 people. "Everyone was greased up ready for this battle." The All Whites fronted up on battlefields around the world during their globe-trotting qualifying campaign.

From P25SUMNER'S passport sports stamps from Australia, Fiji, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

His All Whites set records for the most games played to reach a world cup, 15, most goals scored, 44, and least conceded, 10.

They also dodged rockets, stones and other projectiles during their campaign."The side had a great camaraderie. It was a bunch of hard-nosed guys," Sumner said.

And their efforts earned them a place in the biggest sporting event in the world and a clash with the team considered the sport's greatest - Brazil.

"Here we were, a bunch of amateurs from a rugby-mad nation playing against the best soccer team in the world."

But those dramas were a world away when the All Whites launched their mammoth campaign against Australia on a sunny Auckland afternoon in early 1981.

The cocky Socceroos arrived in New Zealand confident they'd thump the John Adshead and Kevin Fallon-coached All Whites.

The Aussies had held regular camps for five months leading up to the game and had devised a game plan they believed would take them to Spain.

What they didn't count on was one of the gutsiest sporting teams New Zealand has ever produced.

"We got together seven days before the first game," Sumner said.

"I felt we would be under done. But such was the feeling in the camp that we came back three times in that game to draw 3-3.

"Australia underestimated us. I'd say at least six of our World Cup squad would be in any all-time All Whites team.

"The key was we had all those good players on the field at once."The All Whites then headed to Fiji and snatched a 4-0 win. A 0-0 draw with Taiwan in Taipei followed.

Concerns about how tough the All Whites' World Cup journey would be were confirmed during their next clash against Indonesia.

More than 110,000 Indonesians crammed into the Jakarta stadium which Sumner likened to "a run-down Wembley".

It was an introduction to the type of soccer war zone that became a feature of the All Whites' campaign.

"They were a hostile crowd throwing rocks 20-30m on to the pitch," Sumner said.

"They weren't stones. They were great big slabs of rock. They also put pebbles in cups, squashed them around the top, and then threw them on to the pitch."A huge watermelon was also thrown on to our dug-out.

"The crowd was so loud we couldn't hear our teammates' calls. It was almost too loud to hear our own voices."

The All Whites escaped the pressure-cooker atmosphere with a 2-0 win.

The All Whites then racked up a World Cup record 13-0 win over Fiji in Auckland with Sumner scoring six goals.

"Australia had beaten them 10-0 so there was a feeling within our side that we had to do better," he said.

Sumner's All Whites then played the Socceroos in Sydney in a clash they had to win to reach the second stage of the World Cup qualifiers.

Goals from Grant Turner and Steve Wooddin secured a dramatic 2-0 win."Grant's is still the best headed goal I've seen," Sumner said.

"I can't remember a more astonishing leap.

"You talk about Michael Jordan with hang time. But if you have a good look at Grant's effort it was a marvellous goal."But the All Whites didn't have long to celebrate their qualification to the second round.

They had several brief camps in New Zealand before taking on China, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in a home-and-away series.

The All Whites launched the second leg with a 0-0 draw in front of 80,000 in China.

A late Ricki Herbert goal secured a 1-0 win in the return leg in Auckland.By now the side were attracting crowds of up to 34,000 to Mt Smart Stadium.Many of the new-found supporters were former rugby fans who had dumped the code in protest against the 1981 Springboks tour.

Passions boiled over when the All Whites took on Kuwait in Auckland on October 10, 1981.

The dodgy refereeing of Indonesia's Hardjowasito Sudarso incensed the crowd.Sudarso awarded 33 freekicks to Kuwait - and two penalties - to the 10 freekicks he awarded the All Whites.

Sumner managed to do what few others achieved - keep his cool.

Sudarso had a can thrown at him by a teenager who ran on to the pitch and was the target of a post-match pitch invasion.

When Sudarso escaped to the dressing rooms the crowd turned its attention to the Kuwait players.

"The crowd came on to the pitch incensed and sadly attacked the Kuwait players," Sumner said.

"It showed how much that team had won people's hearts."Sudarso gave his first penalty after Sumner was struck on the arm by the ball."Within a wink of an eye he'd blown for a penalty," Sumner said.

Goalkeeper Richard Wilson saved the first penalty but could no nothing to stop the second.

It was awarded after the ball hit John Hill as he turned when a Kuwait player sent over a cross.

"He turned on the corner of the penalty box," Sumner said.

"It was just crazy. There was no intent in either situation.

"Afterwards the dressing room was like a bomb site."But the All Whites picked themselves up to get a draw against Saudi Arabia in their final match at Mt Smart Stadium.

The All Whites then flew to Kuwait and played in front of a hostile 80,000-strong crowd"They'd seen what had happened to their team in New Zealand and wanted to make us feel as uncomfortable as we could.

"There were rockets flying across the pitch when we walked on.

"There were banners saying, `Go back to your kangaroos'. Well, they almost got it right."Sumner scored the All Whites' first goal to level the scores at 1-1.It was Wynton Rufer's All Whites starting debut and he showed his class to score the next goal.

An unlikely victory seemed on the cards until Kuwait equalised late in injury time.

The All Whites were then faced with an almost impossible task to qualify for the World Cup.

A six-goal win over Saudi Arabia in Riyadh would guarantee them a place and a five-goal win would force a playoff with China at a neutral venue.To make things harder the match was played on astro-turf - the first time the majority of the All Whites had played on an artificial surface.

Thousands of New Zealanders were glued to their TV sets late that night to see if the All Whites' incredible dream would come true.

And at halftime - with the score 5-0 - it seemed the impossible would happen."There was a feeling within the team before the game that there was no reason why it couldn't happen," Sumner said.

"Adshead said, `You deserve to be here. All I ask of you is that we get a good victory'. He wasn't even talking about five goals.

"At halftime we went from being calm and relaxed to hyperventilating."We went back out with that anxiety and couldn't score. I had three good chances to score and failed."The result forced the showdown with China in searing Singapore heat.

Adshead saved some of his best words of inspiration for the build-up."We heard the buzzer go and normally you get up, have your last leak and go. But Adsie turned to us and said, 'Sit down.'

"He went into one of his special speeches that only he could make. He said, `This is why we are here. So many people have come from New Zealand to watch us'.

"He left China in the tunnel for five minutes by themselves and kept saying, `Let them wait'."Wooddin fired in a long-range shot to open the scoring. Rufer scored the second."John amped us up and we set the house on fire for the first 20 minutes and we scored two goals," Sumner said.

"China couldn't get into the game."But as the match went on the intense heat took its toll on the New Zealanders."I've never felt anything like what we went through in the last 20 minutes," Sumner said.

"We had cramp that we couldn't get rid of. We were totally dehydrated and drenched in our sweat.

"We had guys going down all over the place.

"It became a case of every man and his dog grab an oar and row as fast as you can.

"At the end of the game I drank six huge glasses of cold orange juice without any feeling at all. I was that dehydrated.

"We were in the room for an hour. It was a sensational feeling.

"Kevin Fallon got up and said, `Here we are, one of the smallest nations in the world taking on the biggest in soccer and beating them'."