NEW ZEALAND WORLD CUP-SOCCER?

The New Zealand Soccer team has participated in 13 FIFA World Cup competitions, their campaigns, so far, between 1970 and 2018. They qualified for the 1982 competition in Spain and the South African hosted 2010 tournament.

The 1982 New Zealand FIFA World Cup 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).

Their achievement helped galvanise the country following the political strains of the previous controversial All Blacks 1981 Rugby tour to South Africa to play the Springboks, a political and social divider!

The 1982 Soccer 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. I was on a teaching exchange to Christchurch, Canterbury in the South Island in 1984 and several players from the Kiwi squad were playing in their National League for Christchurch United, a club I joined for that season. Several of the squad had British origins.

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.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
New Zealand	8	6	2	0	31	3	+28	14
Australia	8	4	2	2	22	9	+13	10
Indonesia	8	2	2	4	5	14	–9	6
Chinese Taipei	8	1	3	4	5	8	–3	5
Fiji	8	1	3	4	6	35	–29	5

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.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Kuwait	6	4	1	1	8	6	+2	9
New Zealand	6	2	3	1	11	6	+5	7
China PR	6	3	1	2	9	4	+5	7
Saudi Arabia	6	0	1	5	4	16	–12	1

After defeating China PR in the play-off for the second AFC/OFC spot, New Zealand qualified for their first ever FIFA World Cup. The ALL WHITES lost their three Group matches; to Scotland (5-2), The Soviet Union (3-0) and Brazil (4-0). But a good time was had by all.

The 2022 World Cup will not take place this summer but rather at the end of the year. It was rescheduled due to the hot weather in the host country of Qatar in the summer months. NZ waiting to qualify! but appear to be top seed in the Oceania Football Confederation. Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands and Vanuatu are three lower ranked TEN nations in the group. NZ are top seeds!