Wow. I think I went all the way with The Cook Islands on this. Being a 10 year old I remember seeing the Macedonian flag and having been on the news with the conflict I was very bewildered about such a team being playable.
When the ads for the WC 98 game came out and the Australian market ad clearly showed 'incudes Australia' I was great. I often played as England. Remember the player edit? You had a finite amount of attributes so I'd drain positioning and make all my players fast and perfect shooters. I often used to want to go the whole tournament without conceding and pre memory card days you'd have me conceding those curved free kicks in the third group game and ripping the cartridge out.
Golden goal was brutal and often from nothing I'd like with the opponent pinging it in and getting bicycle kick away. Group sim was always fun. I think I saw it 5 times out of 300 playthroughs that Australia either won a group game or even advanced.
WC 1998 is still one of my most replayed games as a kid. My brother and I used to play full 90 minute games against each other (usually he’d be Australia, I’d be Italy), and end up with scores like 90-70.
2002 World Cup was a bit of a let down after that - we bought on PS1 - but, and I’ll get to this with 2006 in the next paragraph, you could unlock an “All Star” team for each continent by winning the World Cup with a team from that continent (Australia, being the only Oceanian team, was part of Asia for this, a sign of things to come - and had Viduka and Kewell in the team, I believe?). I’ve bought all the games again (because I had misplaced some of them), and when it comes to 2002, I’ve gotten the PS2 version, so I’m keen to go right through with that. Have only done a couple friendlies at the moment to test out.
What I was referring to with 2006 before though - which I first bought on PSP (didn’t have anything else at the time) - was playing right through with countries like yourself with Cook Islands. I would go through and play with either a country I had a connection to in each confederation, or the lowest ranked country in the confederation. I can’t remember who I used for Asia in 2006, but would be Italy for Europe, American Samoa for Oceania (for a challenge, once I finished my Australia run through), Bolivia for South America, and Zimbabwe for Africa (had two friends in our school group that migrated from there). North America can’t remember who I used, US Virgin Islands I think? Might do these again at the end, but as I said using countries I have a connection with, will use Fiji for Oceania.
2010 and 2014 both had qualifying campaigns - shame we can never get an Australian stadium in there, with Accor Stadium/Stadium Australia being the only one featured in any game, both in World Cup modes - FIFA 1998 has all Oceania qualifiers in the stadium, and FIFA 23 with it in the Women’s World Cup mode.
I have to find where I put the list of games/matches I have planned for this series. I’m sort of using the real schedules for 1998-2002 (especially for 2002, due to the lack of a qualifying round being available) so I can use the games to get back up to speed.
FIFA 1998 - Road to World Cup (PS1)
- Full qualifying (4x group games, 2x final OFC round playoff, 2x OFC-AFC playoff)
World Cup 1998 (PS1)
- Confederations Cup (Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia; semi final (Uruguay, South Africa, UAE, Czech) and final if successful.
- World Cup, should qualifying be successful (Yugoslavia, USA, Germany), then so on and so forth.
World Cup 2002 (PS2)
- 2001 Confederations Cup (Mexico, France, Korea Republic); semi final (Japan, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada) and final if successful.
- 2002 World Cup Qualifier intercontinental playoff v Uruguay
- World Cup, should qualifying be successful (Denmark, France, Senegal), then so on and so forth.
World Cup 2006 (XBOX 360)
- Full Oceanian qualifying round (doubles as Oceania Nations Cup), Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, Vanuatu single round robin group, then final home and away Oceania round, and OFC-CONMEBOL playoff
- 2005 Confederations Cup, should qualifying be successful, (Germany, Argentina, Tunisia); semi final (Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Greece) and final if successful.
- 2006 World Cup, should qualifying be successful
- 2007 Asian Cup (Oman, Iraq, Thailand) then so on and so forth if successful.
World Cup 2010 (XBOX 360 or PS3)
- Full Asian qualifying round
- 2009 Confederations Cup, if successful in 2007 Asian Cup (South Africa, Spain, New Zealand); semi final (Brazil, USA, Egypt, Italy) and final if successful
- 2010 World Cup, should qualifying be successful
- 2011 Asian Cup (India, Korea Republic, Bahrain) and so and so forth if successful.
World Cup 2014 (XBOX 360 or PS3)
- Full Asian qualifying round
- 2013 Confederations Cup, if successful in 2011 Asian Cup (Brazil, Italy, Mexico); semi final (Spain, Uruguay, Nigeria, Tahiti) and final if successful
- 2014 World Cup, should qualifying be successful
- 2015 Asian Cup (Kuwait, Oman, Korea Republic) and so and so forth if successful.
FIFA 18 (XBOX One)
- Some sort of qualifying round; India, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Korea Republic
- 2017 Confederations Cup, if successful in 2015 Asian Cup (Germany, Cameroon, Chile); semi final (Portugal, Russia, Mexico, NZ) and final if successful
- 2018 World Cup, if qualifying successful
FIFA 19 (XBOX One)
- 2019 Women’s World Cup
FIFA 23 (XBOX Series X or PC)
- Some sort of qualifying round; China, Qatar, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Korea Republic
- 2022 World Cup, if qualifying is successful
- 2023 Women’s World Cup
EDIT
If I do this, will be 191 matches total (assuming I take the longest qualifying path, and also reach the final of all tournaments)
FIFA 98 (1997), 8 matches
World Cup 98 (1998) 12 matches
World Cup 2002 (2002) 14 matches
World Cup 2006 (2006) 27 matches
World Cup 2010 (2010) 36 matches
World Cup 2014 (2014) 36 matches
FIFA 18 (2017) 26 matches
FIFA 19 (2018) 7 matches
FIFA 23 (2022) 25 matches
