At 11:00 am Beijing time on March 26th, a friendly international soccer match between the Chinese men's soccer team and the New Zealand national team took place at the Sky Sports Stadium in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Despite the absence of New Zealand's star striker Chris Wood, who has not scored a goal in a year, the New Zealand team is eager to see the light of the day in the national team's matches.
Going back to the match on the 23rd, the match between the national football team and New Zealand was a 0-0 handshake. New Zealand, ranked 105th in the world, faced the 80th-ranked Chinese soccer team in a seemingly even match. While Chinese soccer fans have grown accustomed to this, New Zealand fans expressed their dissatisfaction: "Even the Chinese men's soccer team was hard to beat, nearly losing 3-4."
The clash between New Zealand and the national soccer team attracted a lot of attention and ticket prices were announced for Wellington's Sky Sports Stadium, a 34,500 capacity stadium:
Stadium ticket zoning
Tickets for the stands closest to the stadium are the most expensive, with adult tickets costing up to NZD 89.3, or about Rs. 380, and children's tickets (ages 2-14) costing NZD 46.45, or about Rs. 198.
Tickets located in the far end of the goal stands are relatively low, with children's tickets costing NZ$15.4, or about Rs. 66, and adult tickets costing NZ$27.45, or about Rs. 117.
Although there are less than 20 hours left in the match, ticket sales are not optimistic. Even with affordable ticket prices, New Zealand fans don't seem to be keen on watching their national team play.
Wood's absence
It is worth noting that New Zealand's ace striker Chris Wood has still not been able to appear on the field. The 31-year-old is New Zealand's leading footballer and is the team's all-time leading scorer with 33 goals in 70 appearances for the national team so far. Wood has been equally impressive in the English league, making 196 Premier League appearances, scoring 55 goals, as well as 223 Championship matches, contributing 78 goals. Wood's absence deprives New Zealand of their biggest draw.
