D’Arcy Waldegrave: Sports Contributor on FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifying games

Oceania Qualifiers Semi-Finals are on tomorrow night for the FIFA 2026 World Cup. 

But is it too easy to qualify? Does the simplicity take away the emphasis? 

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave and Tim Beveridge discuss the qualifying games. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Darcy Watergras with me today.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Darcy Heir Horiverage is in for Ryan Bridge, who is
in for hitherto plus Allen.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Yes, it sounds like a Gilbert and Sullivan song, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
You would bring it back to a music or you
can't help yourself. Well, you know old habits die hard agent.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Indeed, now, look the all Whites path to the World
Cup qualification? Look, do we care that it's going to
be that? It might be argued it's too easy because
it has been in the past.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
But what we're going to talk about tonight on the program.
Thank you for setting this up. Recky Herbert's going to
join us on the show. We're going to talk about
the ease of qualifying and does that diminish the import
of what's going on? Will it take away the emphasis
or not? And there are theories around this Worthrecki Herbert.

(00:46):
I've got a few theories around it myself. What I
basically think it does is it steps it up. So yeah,
the qualification for all intents and purposes is simple enough.
And if they stumble on Friday or Monday, they'll be
hell to pay.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
And that's probably the big story. It won't happen. What
happens now is once you qualify through to the World Cup.
Because they're now forty eight teams qualifying, that's quite as
opposed to from thirty two.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And then in the celebration of one hundred years of
fee for World Cup, they're going up to sixty four.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
I think that's just a one off party. Quite frankly.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
What it means is the first round of the World
Cup per se becomes like qualifying if you will, You're
going to have some sterner tests and some sterner games.
So if you can get through to the round of
thirty two, suddenly that becomes a success. Just get into
the World Cup up against the various countries in Oceania.

(01:37):
I don't think represents success what happens at the next level,
But I'll put that out to the football fans out there.
Is this relevant to get through to You said, you go,
whoa through to the World Cup? I go, yeah, OK, fine,
I could have got through with no respect whatsoever to Oceania.
We're basically what I'm saying, and everyone else will say
my respect, which basically means no respect at all, doesn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
So what do we have to do? What's the hurdle,
even though it's a bit low that we have to
do well there.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
We will win IOC because there's one qualifying point now
coming out of Asia. They didn't used to be used
to have to go through and find the one of
the seeds in Conkercath South America and beat them and
then you went through, which we didn't do last time
around when it went to cutter. So because Oceania has
got a direct qualifying route, we just have to win Oceania.
So we've got a semi final coming up tomorrow and

(02:25):
the a final on Monday against whom we don't know,
but it should be reasonably easy beans with what we've
seen so far through qualification. So then it goes on.
It's changed a lot. Back in twenty twenty two there
were thirteen European teams, thirteen European spots to go through.
Now it's gone to sixteen and so on and so forth,

(02:47):
so it all lefts So the grand scale of things,
there are sixteen more teams that are going to be
involved in the World Cup. Maybe the quality will diminished somewhat,
can drop somewhat, but.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
I don't care how we get there. By the way,
Ricky Herbert. What was his era? Was he in the
team that went to the World Cup all these years ago?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
No? No, he wasn't. He's a bit old than that.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
No, he was the guy that coached them back when
they were unbeaten back in South Africa when they qualified
and went through there. And he's also a post played
for the national side as well. It's Phoenix coach. The
list goes on. He knows football slightly more than I do.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Fun fact, I've got a strip from the World Cup
for eighty two. My brother's mate was on the team,
Glenn Dodds. There you go. Had to drop that on
that just quickly. We've got about a minute. Ian Foster
is going to be part of the coaching setup of
the combined Australian New Zealand fifteen that will play the Lions.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
What the hell, Well, there's a team where they're going
to drag out of and you'd expect this is halfway
through the lines too. They'll take some of the off
cuts from Australia and because Foster's coaching over in Japan,
he'll probably bring some New Zealand players over, maybe Aaron Smith,
maybe you Kerry Youani, maybe Sam Cain, Richie Muwanga. All
of these players might be involved, but that comes up

(03:57):
in it.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Just before the first tist Okay good fore feist.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Hey, thanks Darcy. Good to talk to you for more
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