 | ||
The New Zealand national football team has participated in 12 FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns between 1970 and 2014, qualifying for two; the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Contents
1970 FIFA World Cup
Seven teams were involved in the AFC/OFC qualification process; Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea and Rhodesia, however, North Korea withdrew before any matches were played as they refused to play Israel.
Due to North Korea's withdrawal, New Zealand, along with Israel and Rhodesia, received byes and advanced directly to the second round. The remaining three teams played against each other twice in South Korea, with the group winner advancing to the Second Round.
In round 2, the remaining four teams were divided into two groups of two teams, each playing the other twice.
New Zealand was grouped with Israel, and lost 4-0 and 2-0 respectively. Israel progressed to the final round and qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup after defeating Australia in the final round.
Matches
1974 FIFA World Cup
The AFC and OFC regions were divided into two zones; Zone A, consisting of seven teams from East Asia, and Zone B, consisting of eight teams from West Asia and Oceania.
The eight teams of Zone B were divided into two groups of four, with each team playing the other twice. New Zealand were grouped with Australia, Indonesia, and Iraq and managed three draws and three losses, thus failing to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
After topping the group and winning the Zone B final, Australia defeated South Korea 1-0 to qualify for their first ever World Cup appearance.
Group 2 (Zone B)
Matches
1978 FIFA World Cup
Qualification for the Asian and Oceanian zones consisted of 21 teams competing in two rounds.
Round 1 saw the teams divided into five groups, each with its own format. New Zealand was drawn into Group 5 and played Chinese Taipei and Australia on a home-and-away basis, eventually finishing second, thus failing to qualify for round 2, and consequently, the 1978 FIFA World Cup
Group 5
Matches
1982 FIFA World Cup
The 1982 FIFA World Cup campaign is considered to be one of the most memorable sporting achievements in New Zealand's history, and helped to galvanise the country after the controversial 1981 Springbok Tour had divided the nation and left the popularity of Rugby Union at an all-time low.
The New Zealand squad, made up mostly of amateurs, set several World Cup records on their road to Spain by playing the most matches to qualify (15 in total), travelling further than any other team in a single qualifying campaign (88,000 km), recording the largest margin of victory in a qualifying match (13-0 against Fiji (since surpassed by Australia's 22-0 rout of Tonga in 2002, and then their 31-0 demolition of American Samoa two days later)) and the longest period without conceding a goal set by goalkeeper Richard Wilson (921 minutes; a record which still stands today).
The 1982 campaign was also the first time that New Zealand wore an all white strip which gave rise to their nickname "All Whites". New Zealand's previous strip featured a white shirt with black shorts, based on the English strip, and it wasn't until their third match against Taiwan that the all white strip was introduced.
Round 1
The 1982 World Cup was the first edition to have 24 spots available (up from 16) and two spots were allocated to the Asian and Oceanian regions. A total of 21 AFC and OFC teams entered the competition, however, Iran withdrew before playing any matches.
The remaining 20 teams were divided into four groups, each with their own formats. New Zealand were drawn into Group 1 along with Australia, Chinese Taipei, Fiji, and Indonesia, where each team would play the other on a home-and-away basis. The winners of each of the four groups – New Zealand, China PR, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia – progressed to Round 2.
Matches
Round 2
Round 2 consisted of the top team from each group in Round 1. Each team played each other on a home and away basis in Round 2, with the top two teams qualifying for the World Cup in Spain.
After five matches, New Zealand found themselves in third place, three points and five goals behind China PR. For New Zealand to qualify, they had to beat Saudi Arabia by six goals to finish ahead of China PR on goal difference. Despite scoring five in the first half, New Zealand were unable to add to their tally and the match finished 5-0, thus putting New Zealand level on points and goal difference with China PR, and forcing a play-off.
Matches
Round 2 play-off
After defeating China PR in the play-off for the second AFC/OFC spot, New Zealand qualified for their first ever FIFA World Cup, losing all three matches to Scotland (5-2), The Soviet Union (3-0) and Brazil (4-0).
2010 FIFA World Cup
After beating Bahrain in the playouts, New Zealand went on to the finals. They draw three matches in their group against Slovenia (1-1), Italy (1-1) and Paraguay (0-0) but failed to progress. They were the only undefeated side at the 2010 World Cup finals.
2014 FIFA World Cup
As in previous editions, the Oceania region was delegated half a spot at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. After the qualification rounds within the Oceania Football Confederation, the winner – New Zealand – progresses to an inter-confederation play-off with one of three other confederations that has also been delegated a half spot. On 30 July 2011, it was determined that the OFC team would play the fourth placed CONCACAF team, and the fifth placed Asian team would play the 5th placed CONMEBOL team.
Round 1
The first round consisted of just four Oceania nations in one group with the winner progressing to round 2, where they would join the seven seeded OFC teams.
Round 2
The second stage of Oceania qualifying also doubled as the group stage of the 2012 OFC Nations Cup. The top two teams from each group at the Nations Cup progressed to the third round of World Cup qualifying.
Group matches
Round 3
The third round saw the four remaining teams play each other on a home-and-away basis to decide who would progress to the inter-confederation play-off. New Zealand won all six of their matches to progress to the home-and-away play-offs to be held in November, 2013.
Group matches
OFC/CONCACAF play-off
New Zealand played Mexico in the inter-confederation play-off in an attempt to qualify for Brazil. Despite Mexico's poor form throughout their qualifying campaign, the Mexicans won both matches to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup with an aggregate of nine goals to New Zealand's three.