FIRST ROUND
Oceania qualification got under way much later than the other five continental tournaments, mostly because they didn't need all this bother of going round to everyone's homes to make sure everyone got a fair chance. For the second straight time, ten OFC nations participated - every full OFC member except Papua New Guinea. Nonetheless, there was little doubt in anyone's mind that Australia would dominate their island partners and head straight for South America for the playoff.

The first round was contested in two groups. Newcomers American Samoa joined Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga to take on the Socceroos in Group 1, whilst New Zealand would be challenged by the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, Tahiti, and Vanuatu in Group 2. The group winners would square off in a two leg playoff in the next round.

A day before the Group 1 tournament opened in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, the squad from American Samoa finally arrived. The team flew into Sydney and made their way to the tourist town by bus, buying their shoes as soon as they got in. The American Samoa Football Association had received a surprise a month before the tournament began when most of their squad, lacking US passports, turned out to be ineligible. In a mad dash across the territory, organisers collected enough eligible youth players to make up a team. When they started playing, it wasn't pretty. Their first two matches were 13-0 and 8-0 losses to Fiji and Samoa respectively, with a meeting against the home side next.

The Socceroos had an off day when Group 1 action kicked off on SAT 07 APR 2001, and when they took the pitch against Tonga two days later, there was the distinct feeling of David v Goliath, only without the bit about David winning. Australia crushed their challengers 22-0, the most lopsided international match ever, and turned around to blast 31 goals past American Samoa. So often were the strikes that the initial match reports placed the number at 32. To their credit, the visitors were able to hold the Socceroos scoreless for the first seven minutes. After that, though, they were never able to string more than five scoreless minutes together. Archie THOMPSON, who had scored only once for Australia coming into the match, set his own record of thirteen goals, eclipsing the mark of ten held by Denmark's Sofus NIELSEN and Germany's Gottfried FUCHS. Australia then dispatched their only real competition, Fiji, by a 2-0 margin. When the carnage ended, Australia had scored 66 goals and conceded none.

Group 2, played in Auckland in JUN 2001, was nowhere near as incident packed, but it did have its share of equity - New Zealand actually gave up a goal - even though the All Whites emerged unscathed.

SECOND ROUND
New Zealand were due to face Australia, a matchup we'd seen before. The same teams had met in the last seven qualification tournaments. Each had successfully reached one World Cup previously - Australia in 1974, New Zealand in 1982. As New Zealand were beating up on their first round opponents, Australia were away in South Korea, stunning the planet by defeating world champions France 1-0 at the Confederations Cup, following that with a 1-0 win over Brazil in the third place match.

In the opening leg in Wellington, New Zealand were fighting back and had a good chance of equalising until Brett EMERSON, who had put Australia up in the fifth minute, stormed into the area to capitalise on a mistake by All White goalkeeper Jason BATTY. Batty could not clear an easy ball, and Emerson pounced on it to score his second in the 82nd minute. Australia, playing without their Leeds United pair of forwards Harry KEWELL and Mark VIDUKA, were the dominant attacking team in the return leg in Sydney as David ZDRILIC scored twice in a 4-1 win.

New Zealand's coach, Ken DUGDALE, offered the highest praise imaginable: He said the Socceroos should be in. "If a team can go to the Confederations Cup like Australia did and beat the likes of Brazil, France, and Mexico in the space of ten days and without their top players, then it just doesn't seem right that FIFA can ignore their claims for direct entry." Alas, Oceania did not have a direct ticket into Korea/Japan 2002, and so Australia would have to leap one final hurdle to get in.

CONMEBOL/OFC PLAYOFF
Soccer Australia knew that they were tempting the fates when they scheduled the first leg of their playoff at Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 1997, Australia faced a two leg playoff against Iran with a Men's World Cup berth on the line, this four years after falling 2-1 over two legs to Argentina in a late playoff. Earning a 1-1 draw in Tehran, the Socceroos looked like they would be heading back to the international stage as they travelled to Melbourne. Indeed, they held a 2-0 lead with fifteen minutes left, and the 85,000 fans in attendance were ready to party. But goals by Karim BAGHERI and Khodadad AZIZI turned the series upside down and put Iran through on away goals.

Australia's coach, Frank FARINA, knew that reaching East Asia would be an even tougher task this time round. For some time the possibility of a playoff against Brazil, a rematch of their Confederations Cup battle, loomed, but in the end Uruguay finished fifth in CONMEBOL and flew into Melbourne for the Aussie challenge. In the opener at the MCG on TUE 20 NOV 2001, honours were even until the 78th minute, when Paolo MONTERO pulled Australia's Paul AGOSTINO down in the Uruguayan area. Kevin MUSCAT drove the penalty right down the middle, and Australia took the first leg 1-0.

When they headed to Montevideo, the teams were both expressing confidence that they would be waiting for their nation's ball to be picked at the World Cup draw a week hence. Darío SILVA, who had suffered a dislocated shoulder in the Argentina match, scored after fourteen minutes to put the home side ahead. The Socceroos appeared to have come down with jangled nerves in the first half, but after halftime, they were coming away with numerous opportunities - just not converting them. It was Richard MORALES of Uruguay who scored on a header with twenty minutes remaining and iced it with a second goal late, securing Uruguay's ticket to East Asia on a 3-1 aggregate victory. Australia were denied in a third straight intercontinental playoff, and the OFC is still negotiating with FIFA in hopes of receiving an automatic berth.