Although New Zealand Football Chairman Frank Van Hattum' comments raised some eyebrows this week, qualifying for the World Cup through Asia has been the traditional route for Oceania teams.
Going way back to the first attempt for the 1966 World Cup, Oceania teams have usually had to battle with the Asian teams en route to FIFA's showpiece tournament.
New Zealand didn't attempt to qualify for the 1966 tournament in England while Australia lost a straight play-off with North Korea, with the Asian side going on to reach the quarter-finals in 1966.
Ahead of the 1970 World Cup New Zealand and Australia were both eliminated by Israel but four years later the Socceroos finally qualified, after winning play-offs against Iran and South Korea. New Zealand had earlier finished bottom of a four-team round robin group featuring Australia, Iraq and Indonesia.
New Zealand was eliminated by Australia ahead of the 1978 World Cup, before the Australians failed to progress from a five team Asian final round. In 1980 and 1981 the All Whites played 15 memorable games on the road to Spain, going through two separate Asian groups then a final playoff against China.
