WC qualifying rounds

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Hey!!! What about New Zealand?? We are home to the official FIFA Oceania Player of the 20th Century after all.

 

Wynton Rufer?

When was the last time New Zeeland came out on top of the oceanic qualification round?

 

NZ have been at the World Cup finals more recently than Australia have (until they appear at the next World Cup, that is). We were at Madrid in 1982. Australia's last World Cup was in 1974, if I remember correctly.

 

Sure, but I didn't meant the actual participation at the World Cup.

How often they made it to the qualification matches against asian or south american teams?

 

Well, the both of you stink then. Competing once every other 50 years or something isn't going to be remembered by a lot of people.

 

Yeah, not like some other teams which happened to win a big tourney only once (due to a bad referee in the semi finals) and came out as a runner-up at best the other times.

 

It's makes winning all the more exciting when it doesn't happen every day.

 

Awww Fabius...are you still holding a grudge for losing against holland in the semis in 1988 ? You're not going to claim to you were clearly the better side, are you ? Because the image i remember from that game is pretty much a one way street type of game, one that could only result in one way, a deserved victory for us. The game prior to Germany against Ireland....now THAT was a bad referee, the goal from Kieft was made in an obvious offside position, everyone could see it, except the referee. If he had been paying better attention, you would have played against Ireland, and would have probably won your own tournament. That didn't happen, and you lost against a superior opponent, which became clear in the finals against Russia.

Just think of it as payback, for the worldcup you stole from us in 1974. That was also a one way street type of match, but you had Lady Luck on your side that day. We had to wait 14 friggin years for our revenge, and that it finally came on German soil was all the more satisfying.

But we'll see how it ends next year in the finals, Holland-Germany is a matchup i can live with.

 

Actually, it's the opposite. If you compete once in a blue moon, you appreciate and remember it a heck of a lot better. Like when Australia whipped the US in the men's 4x100m Relay at the Olympics - an event the US had never lost before, and when one of their swimmers said they'd "smash [us] like guitars!" The fact that all four Aussie swimmers got out of the pool and started playing air guitar after the win just cemented the image further.

Absolutely. Given that soccer rates a distant fifth (at best) in the hierarchy of sports in Australia, this is a fairly big deal. Plus, after what happened four years ago and comments in recent days, it's nice to stick it to Uruguay.

 

Granted. Although visual superiority is not all.

But the penalty for holland was nevertheless a wrong decision. Koehler played the ball.

 

I'll give you that, but don't tell me that Klinnsman was fouled, because that one looked like a 100% schwalbe as well. Personally i think the referee gave us a penalty in return, to make up for his earlier mistake.