Shaping up to be quite a hard and tricky inter continental play off. If NZ draws CONMEBOL it will most likely be either Colombia, Ecuador or Uruguay. Either 30+ Temperatures in Barranquilla against Cuardado, Borja and James Rodriguez, against Ecuador in 3400m altitude in Quito where Argentina and Brazil struggle at or Cavani or Suarez in a hostile atmosphere in Montevideo. In Asia, either Japan or Australia will finish 3rd in group B and you would think they will win the play off against Group A third place (Currently Lebanon). CONCAF is probably our easiest route, but Canada who currently hold play off spot shouldn’t be taken lightly, whose players play in similar or even higher leagues than all whites. It will be a challenge, no doubt about it. So next few windows of internationals will be key, and i would suggest to play strongest possible squad as well..
Any CONMEBOL team would be a fridge too far for the AWs, even Bolivia/Venezuela, so I’d write off them straight away if we get CONMEBOL again. Even Australia’s golden generation with lineup full of top level European players only managed to get through on penalties in 2006 against Uruguay, after losing to them in 2002.
Canada I reckon would be tougher than Australia, they have starters at the current champions of the Bundesliga (Davies) and Ligue 1 (David), and would be at lowest MLS players, but they’re a good chance at automatic qualification, as only Mexico and USA are probably better across the board, so CONCACAF could Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica which would be a decent draw.
Australia had won 11 in a row but that was against Chinese Taipei, Nepal etc, they lost to Japan in their first tough game. If they lose in Saudi they could bottle things, but the other group isn’t as great so they’d back themselves at least the playoff. Either way, a playoff against Australia would be a great spectacle, if not the easiest possible game.
Hopefully the draw gets done soon so we can know what we’re up against.