Oceania draw Concacaf but big guns could await
New Zealand Football got the result they wanted in yesterday’s World Cup intercontinental playoff draw — though there could yet be a sting in the tail.
At a ceremony at Fifa HQ in Zurich, the top Oceania qualifiers were paired with a team from Concacaf, while the Asian representatives were drawn against South America.
As exclusively revealed by the Herald last week, the playoffs will be single matches in Qatar on June 13 and 14.
Years of planning and preparation hinged on which ball was plucked out of the glass bowl, and unlike four years ago, this time, it fell the right way from an Oceania perspective.
Avoiding the South American confederation was crucial, with six teams ranked in the world’s top 25, plus Paraguay (43) and Ecuador (46).
Facing that World Cup route is generally a road to nowhere for Oceania teams. They have prevailed only once in five attempts (1990, 1994, 2002, 2006 and 2017), when Australia’s golden generation edged Uruguay on penalties in 2006.
Facing the fourth-placed nation from North or Central America is a more palatable prospect, as that confederation doesn’t have the same depth, though there could be a twist.
The final stage of Concacaf qualifying is the most competitive in years, thanks partly to the emergence of Canada, who are led by former Football Ferns coach John Herdman and top the standings unbeaten on 16 points after eight of 14 rounds.
Next in the eight-team group are the United States (15 points), Mexico (14), Panama (14), then a gap back to Costa Rica (9), Jamaica (7), El Salvador (6) and Honduras (3).
Mexico haven’t started well, held by Canada at home in October, then losing to Les Rouges for the first time in 45 years this month.
Oceania’s representatives will be underdogs whoever the opposition, but facing Panama (world No 63) or
Costa Rica (49) is a vastly different proposition to heavyweights such as the US (12) or Mexico (14).
A similar scenario unfolded in 2013. New Zealand had expected to face Costa Rica, Honduras or Panama but instead ended up with a trip to the Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium.
The draw and format for the eight-nation Oceania tournament in Qatar next March will be unveiled on Tuesday.
The qualifying was initially planned across a series of windows, before Covid struck, and compressing that into one block has been a major challenge.
OFC’s original plan was for two pools of four teams, followed by semifinals and a final.
That would necessitate five match days across two-and-a-half weeks, which doesn’t fit inside the current window (March 21-30).
OFC have tried to extend the window but the Herald understands that has been problematic, given the importance of that stage of the club season.
A proposed alternative format is three knockout games (quarter-final, semifinal and final), which would be logistically much easier, but that isn’t believed to be favoured by the majority of Oceania nations.
NZF are concerned about the prospect of an elongated tournament, which would make it almost impossible to have their full squad for the duration, as clubs would be reluctant to release players for so long.
“OFC are liaising with Fifa about a window extension but whether or not that will be granted remains to be seen,” NZF chief executive Andrew Pragnell told the Herald on Sunday.
“If not, and you see a format that lands outside the window, that’ll throw a bunch of challenges at us. With a side fully made up of professionals, accessing those players becomes a bit of a challenge.”
New Zealand would be disproportionately affected, with only a handful of overseas-based players among the other Oceania nations.
Pragnell feels the sporting integrity of the competition is important, given what is at stake.
“Ensuring all teams can get their players, that’s pretty important; it’s a World Cup qualifier,” said Pragnell. “For World Cup qualifiers to be played outside the window is a challenge.”