‘‘We knew it was the end of his career, so we had a very special moment’’ Winston Reid’s swansong triggers gr

+ All Whites v Socceroos preview

Winston Reid’s international football career will come full circle today, just not in the way he had hoped.

The All Whites captain wanted his final matches to be at the World Cup in Qatar in November, but he has had to settle for a clash with Australia at Eden Park in Auckland [kickoff 4pm] as his farewell from national team duty.

He is set to lead the side out against the same team he faced on his debut in 2010, in the city where he was born and first played the game, in front of a crowd that is expected to be more than 30,000-strong.

In June 2010, Reid secured a place in All Whites folklore, scoring a late header against Slovakia in their opening match at the World Cup in South Africa that allowed the country to celebrate a history-making 1-1 draw.

In August that year, he secured a move from FC Midtjylland in Denmark – where he had lived since leaving New Zealand as a 10-year-old – to West Ham United in England and became the sixth and most recent Kiwi footballer to play in the English Premier League – the pinnacle of the club game.

After spending more than 18 months sidelined in 2018-19, he has also added Sporting Kansas City in the United States and Brentford in England to his short list of clubs, but for most of the past year, he has had a singular focus.

Once he finalised a release from his West Ham contract last September, he moved to Dubai, and from then until June, the one thing he wanted more than anything else in football was to qualify for the World Cup again.

In March, he marshalled the All Whites superbly as they navigated the Oceania qualifying tournament in Qatar and in June, he was there again as they faced Costa Rica in a one-off playoff for a place at November’s tournament, but ultimately lost 1-0.

New Zealand sports fans will have Reid’s header at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in 2010 etched in their memories for the rest of time – striker Shane Smeltz turning around on the left edge of the box, his cross curling in, the centre back rising in the box and steering the ball into the corner of the goal before ripping his shirt off as he went wild in celebration.

You wait 11 years for a trans-Tasman men’s football international then another comes along within three days.

The All Whites went down 1-0 to Australia’s Socceroos on Thursday night at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane but will have another chance to claim their first win over their neighbours since 2002 at Eden Park in Auckland this afternoon.

AT A GLANCE

Eden Park, Auckland today, 4pm

Sky Sport 1, live updates on Stuff

Australia $2.20, Draw $3.20, All Whites $3.30

Played 65: Australia 41 wins, All Whites 13 wins, 11 draws

The Socceroos have won nine of the past 11 matches, including each of the past five. Awer Mabil’s first-half goal separated the two teams on Thursday in their first meeting since a 3-0 Australian win in Adelaide in 2011.

The All Whites last hosted the Socceroos

They will also know Reid hasn’t always had the most cooperative body. He only made more than 30 league appearances once in his first seven seasons at West Ham, before suffering a devastating knee injury in March 2018 in what turned out to be his last competitive outing for the East during the final of the 2002 Oceania Nations Cup and that was also the last time they won a trans-Tasman clash, courtesy of a goal from former captain Ryan Nelsen.

‘‘Winston Reid in particular has been saved and rested [on Thursday]. It’s going to be a big moment for him and a big moment for his friends and family, and for us because he’s been such an integral part of the national team over such a long period. He’s one of those iconic players so we wanted to make sure he was at his best, and hopefully that will be the case’’.

‘‘I wanted to pretty much reward the boys that helped us and gave a lot of sacrifices and got us through the campaign and obviously that’s the older group, and they’re all staying here [in Australia] or going straight back home [to their clubs], the starting XI – maybe one will stay. Now it’s for the kids’’.

London club. He will retire from the All Whites having missed more national team matches (47) than he played (33) and today’s will be just his 35th for club and country since he returned from that knee injury against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin in November 2019, almost three