Paston, Nelsen, Fallon, Sigmund - their names can now rank alongside those of Sumner, Rufer, Almond and Wooddin. But there is a major difference between the 1982 and 2010 All Whites, as sports editor Hayden Meikle discovers.
Steve Wooddin is best remembered for his lethal left foot but the former Dunedin City and New Zealand striker also has an astute football brain.
It was a myth that New Zealand football did not see any benefit out of the unforgettable 1982 World Cup campaign, he maintained recently.
Wooddin suggested people were overlooking the fact that the All Whites' dramatic run to Spain had helped birth a whole new generation of homegrown players.
He was right.
Of the 14 players in white who took the field in the 1-0 win against Bahrain in Wellington on Saturday night, just two were born overseas.
Frontman Shane Smeltz was born in Germany and spent much of his childhood in Australia, while midfielder Tim Brown was born in England but has lived most of his life in New Zealand.
Players such as Rory Fallon, Chris Wood and Chris Killen have spent years in the United Kingdom but all are New Zealand-born.
Compare the 1982 squad.
Of the 16 players who saw game time at the World Cup in Spain, just six (Kenny Cresswell, Glenn Dods, Ricki Herbert, Keith Mackay, Wynton Rufer and Frank van Hattum) were born in New Zealand.
Most of the stars - Wooddin, Bobby Almond, Steve Sumner included - hailed from England or Scotland.
Some of the players had barely been in New Zealand 4-5 years.
This is not to devalue the efforts of the 1982 team: its place in the pantheon of New Zealand sport is secure, and its players will forever be the conquering heroes who made it to the big show first.
But maybe this current side will have more luck building on the success of World Cup qualification because young New Zealanders can identify with their backgrounds and their accents.
Someone like Ryan Nelsen, for instance, might have been in England for four years earning upwards of 10,000 a week, but he's still just a bloke who learned the game as a skinny kid running around on frosty fields in Christchurch.
Leo Bertos has a Greek name and an exotic heritage but he learned his trade on the parks of Miramar.
Mark Paston spent years trying to earn a crust in England but you would not find a more self-effacing Kiwi hero.
And Andrew Boyens plays in New York but his school photo hangs in Dunedin's Kavanagh College, far from the Big Apple.
Virtually every member of the All Whites has appeared in the old national club league or the New Zealand Football Championship.
One, veteran defender Ivan Vicelich, played for Auckland City against Otago United at Carisbrook barely two weeks ago.
Plenty of others have flourished in an American college system that was not really considered an option for New Zealand players two decades ago.
Nelsen went to Greensboro College and Stanford University before joining Major League Football side DC United, Boyens went to the University of New Mexico, Brown was at the University of Cincinnati before joining the Richmond Kickers, Tony Lochhead went to the University of California at Santa Barbara and then played for the New England Revolution, and Andy Barron played for William Carey University and then the Minnesota Thunder.
Bertos (Barnsley, Rochdale, Chester City, York City, Worksop), Fallon (Barnsley, Swindon, Plymouth) and Killen (Manchester City, Oldham, Hibernian, Celtic) tried the British route.
Killen has been the star performer, scoring for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League as recently as September.
It's a far-flung All Whites squad, something which will prove a logistical nightmare for New Zealand Football as it attempts to schedule a meaningful preparation for the World Cup.
But it is also a team full of men who could be your neighbours.
Men who, if they had to, could hum a few notes from Ten Guitars, crutch a sheep or point out Tuatapere on a map.
That, perhaps, is why the excitement surrounding this extraordinary achievement will not soon fade away.
