9th edition of OFC Champions League and 14th edition of Oceanic club competition kicked off today in Apia, Samoa. Four teams play in round-robin group of Preliminary round to determine one and final entrant to Group stage (along with 11 other teams, lineup not competed yet). Qualified teams Group stage (to be held in Fiji again, in April 2015) NZL Auckland City (title holder) and Team Wellington VAN Tafea and Amicale FIJ Suva and Ba TAH Pirae and TBD NCL Gaitcha PNG Hekari SOL TBD Preliminary round ASA SKBC COK Puaikura SAM Lupe ole Soaga TGA Lotoha'apai
Preliminary round 1st matchday SKBC - Puaikura 1-1 Lotoha'apai - Lupe ole Soaga 0-1 Lupe ole Soaga plays Puaikura next matchday and if they win and SKBC fail to defeat Lotoha'apai, Samoan team will qualify to Group stage. Also, OFC unveiled the draw of the 2014 OFC President's Cup. Six teams will take part: Auckland City and Amicale representing OFC along with Fiji U20 team, Bodden Town representing Cayman Islands and CONCACAF and Singapore U23 from AFC along with Busaiteen from Bahrein. group A Auckland City - Singapore U23, 17 November Singapore U21 - Bodden Town, 19 November Bodden Town - Auckland City, 21 November group B Fiji U20 - Amicale, 17 November Amicale - Busaiteen, 19 November Busaiteen - Fiji U20, 21 November 5th place match, 3rd place match and final will be played on November 23. All games will be played at Trusts Arena in Auckland City.
Preliminary round 2nd matchday SKBC - Lotoha'apai 1-4 Lupe ole Soaga - Puaikura 3-2 Preliminary round 3rd matchday Puaikura - Lotoha'apai 1-0 Lupe ole Soaga - SKBC 6-0 Final standings Lupe ole Soaga 9 Puaikura 4 Lotoha'apai 3 SKBC 1 For the second year in a row Samoan champion (Kiwi last season) won Preliminary round and qualified to Group stage. Two berths to play for left: Tahiti 2 and Solomon Islands 1.
Group Stage Draw: Group A TAH1 - AS Pirae FIJ1 - Suva FC NCL - Gaitcha FCN SAM - Lupe ole Soaga Group B NZL1 - Auckland City SOL - TBD VAN2 - Amicale FC FIJ2 - Ba FC Group C VAN1 - Tafea FC NZL1 - Team Wellington TAH2 - AS Tefana PNG - Hekari United Last editions finalists in the same group!!! Highlights of the draw here
I hope this time ACFC won't win it, their domination is just annoying. Wish them all the best in Morocco, though.
Has the Oceania Champions League disappeared from the Oce web site? http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/Competitions/tabid/914/language/en-US/Default.aspx Text listing: OFC U-17 Men's OFC President's Cup Women's Nations Cup OFC U-20 Women's OCL Preliminary (prelim's from late last year) Beach Soccer OFC U-20 Men's Stage 3 Qualifiers Futsal Invitational Men's Nations Cup Men's Olympics OFC U-17 Men's Prel Women's Olympics Stage 1 Qualifiers OFC U-17 Women's Pacific Games Men Pacific Games Women Note: also gone from the "Competitions" listing at the bottom of the home page. Still listed on the "Calendar" page: "11-25 April - OFC Champions League - Fiji" http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/...tentType/CALENDAR/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Panic over!!!! OFC Champions League has now reappeared under the competitions tab and at the bottom of the home page!! OFC have also released the schedule. Unlike last year, the entire competition will take place in Fiji. Final is on April 26th.
well, allll-rightyyyy-then you had me going there for a minute, because I opened the same link four times in my browser before I realized I was in an infinite-loop. good one.... well-played.... we're not worthy.... we're not worthy....
Hope this season, Ba FC, Amicale or Pirae will win the final. I see only them, clubs which can beat Auckland City ... in 2013/14, Auckland was lucky to qualify from second place and won the final.... this yearI hope Amicale will beat them again in roups, and maybe Suva... with some local support from their fans will make a draw or victory against current champions
Amicale brought three Serbian players (like they did last season, but those were different guys) and ex-Bari goalkeeper. Will be fun, especially as whole tournament is held in Pacific.
Yep, I saw on Amicale FC official page. Probably they made transfers to win first continental trophy .... even play the final, which will qualify them for OFC President's Cup 2015
Group A : AS Pirae (Tahiti) [semifinalist] Ba FA (Fiji) - HOST [semifinalist] Gaitcha (New Caledonia) Lupe Ole Soaga (Samoa) Group B : Auckland City FC (New Zeeland) [champion] Amicale FC (Vanuatu) [finalist] Suva FA (Fiji) - HOST Western United (Solomon) Group C : Team Wellington FC (New Zeeland) Tafea FC (Vanuatu) [groups stage] AS Tefana (Tahiti) Hekari United (PNG) [groups stage] between [ ] you see the result in previous tournament (2013/14) Winner of the groups plus best runner up will advance for semifinals !! Both, semifinals and te final will be played as groups stages in Fiji !! The tournament seems like World Cup, where a team is host and all matches are played there, until the end... when the champions is crowned.
06:30 CET : Auckland City - Suva 3-0 AS Pirae - Lupe Ole Soaga 3-3 A big problem for Pirae now. They draw against the lower team of the group, and will have problems here. We wait to see the results between Ba FA and Gaitcha,
09:00 CET : Amicale - Western United 1-0 Ba FA - Gaitcha 3-0 Group A : Ba Fa 3pts 3-0 Pirae 1pts 3-3 Lupe 1pts 3-3 Gaitcha 0pts 0-3 Group B : Auckland 3pts 3-0 Amicale 3pts 1-0 Western 0pts 0-1 Suva 0pts 0-3 Group C : Team Wellington, Tafea, Tefana, Hekari United - no matches tomorrow : Team Wellington - Tefana Tafea - Hekari United
Amicale and Auckland both won their second games and enter third matchday tied at 6 pts - Amicale need to win to reach #1 as Auckland has better goal-differential. Home team Suva and Solo champion Warriors eliminated. Ba leads the group A with 6 pts as Lupe Ole and Pirae got eliminated - Gaitcha is still in but will hardly qualify to final stage. Group C will be played tomorrow to conclude matchday 2 - Hekari and Team Welly face eachother to decide #1 of that group.
Wellington qualified to semis as they defeated Hekari by 2-0 so they are better in h2h. Other game ended in a draw thus both teams - Tafea and Tefana - are out. group A Ba 6 Gaitcha 3 group B Auckland City 6 Amicale 6 group C TeamWellington 6 Hekari 3 Remaining teams are eliminated, blue ones qualified. Auckland and Amicale both qualify if they draw, but Amicale is most probably out if they lose as both Gaitcha and Hekari should record wins and overcome Amicale's goal-differential. Bracket says group B winner plays best second-placed team so ACFC-Amicale could play two games in four days but that means that ACFC might go all out attack to get rid off one tough opponent.
Gaitcha dismantled Lupe Ole Soaga (8-1) while Auckland defeated Amicale 3-0. So, Amicale is out, Gaitcha qualified as best second-placed team and secured game against Oceania kings from Kiwitea Street. Other semi-final match-up is Ba (who recorded 3 wins) versus another 100% team - Team Wellington. Semis are to be played on April 21st.
Semifinal Gaitcha - Auckland City 0-1 Ba - Team Wellington 0-2 Final, 26 April Auckland City - Team Wellington
I found it interesting that both Oceania and the Caribbean both played what where basically the same level / quality of tournament, but Oceania gets a bid to the Fifa CWC out of it, and the Caribbean gets bids to a continental tournament. To make it more level, Oceania should get bid(s) to the Asia AFC Cup (not the AFC Champs League).
Well Oceania is a confederation and the Caribbean isn't. I think clubs from any country should have access to a Champions League and not just a lesser competition like the AFC Cup. Last year Auckland City defeated African champions ES Setif. I don't think the Caribbean champions would have done that.