First Round (played 21-26 Nov 2011): American Samoa Cook Islands Samoa Tonga Second Round (played 1-12 Jun 2011): Vanuatu New Caledonia Winner of First Round Tahiti Fiji New Zealand Solomon Islands Papua New Guinea ------------------------------------------------------- Any predictions? I'm guessing Samoa takes the First Round, Vanuatu and New Caledonia then take Group A, while New Zealand and the Solomon Islands take Group B. New Zealand to win it all.
Agree with almost everything but ... From Group B goes to the next round of New Zealand and Fiji, the Solomon Islands are eliminated. The first place for New Zealand, and who will be the second, is determined by the game between Fiji and the Solomon Islands but the chances are greater in Fiji.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tou...4/46/41/2014fwc_drawprocedures_oceania_en.pdf says there will be a Third Round that you neglected. The Second Round will determine OFC's representative in the Confederations Cup but not the World Cup. In 2012 and 2013 the four semifinalists from the Second Round will play a double round-robin group with 6 games per country.
Expecting NZ to be the OFC rep at the Confederation Cup. However the double round robin will strengthen NZ position because it means that more games will help NZ as more chances are given that NZ will prevail for the World Cup playoffs. (less chance that a one off lost will affect their position at top.) Must be close to the time of knowing the draws for the playoffs.
Just came in to say that I really like that the OFC Nations Cup now being its own standalone tournament (from the semifinal round on). When's the last time the OFC national-team championship was decided with a one-off Final?
Jun 3 All Whites v Fiji (WCQ) Jun 5 All Whites v PNG (WCQ) Jun 7 All Whites v Solomon Islands (WCQ) http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=761
Yep, that's the history I was talking about. This is what happens when you have a legit manager in Thomas Rongen calling the shots.
American Samoa - Tonga highlights [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-6lv1a6L4E"]2014 FWC QUALIFIER OFC ASA 2-1 TGA - YouTube[/ame]Cook Islands - Samoa highlights [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3z7y0ojKkQ&feature=channel_video_title"]2014 FWC QUALIFIER OFC COK 2-3 SAM.mp4 - YouTube[/ame]
Is it just me, but don't some of the challenges that the Goalkeepers has done should be red carded????? The refereeing standard is poorer than club footy.
Congratulations American Samoa... historic result for the nation and for world football. And yes that seemed like a pretty rough challenge by the Tongan keeper. I hope the goalscorer is ok.
HA, love that first goal. That was a pretty sweet assist on the second as well. Vamos American Samoa! Hmmm.... what's Samoan for "vamos"?
Wow, congratulations American Samoa!! From the few glimpses in that video, their play seemed pretty good (specifically on the second goal and the play before that where there was some nice through-passing). Also, if Wikipedia's profile about him is correct, the scorer of the second goal is only 17 years old and still attends high school in American Samoa. According to the match report, he was injured on the play but did return to the game.
The scorer of the second goal, Ramin Ott... it was his second international goal. That made him American Samoa's all time goals leader.
Is this format a good way to eliminate 3 countries or should the bottom 6 countries have been made into 3 pairs instead?
I think the American Samoa-Cook Islands game starts in an hour. ASA is of course still the huge underdog despite their win, but hopefully they can nab a point. Live updates here: http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/...a002-20a5364c1873/language/en-US/Default.aspx Sounds like American Samoa is starting off strong.
After listening to Rongen speak after the first match, it is amazing how much that 31-0 defeat all those years ago has actually been holding ASA back. Getting that out of their heads seems to be about 90% of what he has done. Of course, the Cooks are also in turmoil having sacked their coach about an hour before the game today - so that's probably helping as well. 1-0 to ASA at half time (Shalom Luani gets another) J
That site says Cook Islands got a yellow card, but FIFA and flashscore say the yellow card went to an American Samoa player with the same number. FIFA says American Samoa leads 1-0 in the 64th minute.
1-1 a couple of minutes ago. Use OFC, they are there. Both van Eijk and Mana are Number 18, so that's probably where the confusion lies. J