Supporters of the OTHER Oceanic Nat Teams

I support New Caledonia and I am from Spain.

 

American Samoa!!

And I'm from Texas

 

America Samoa has a new coach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/post/thomas-rongen-to-oversee-american-samoa-in-2014-world-cup-qualifying-tournament/2011/10/13/gIQA76QpgL_blog.html#pagebreak

 

Say Goodluck to him....

 

American Samoa...have made history.

 

Fiji here

 

I have a real sympathy for most of the OFC national teams, they are all so nice and refreshing ! Unfortunately, they are totally overlooked by the mainstream soccer medias because the local football is still considered at pointless amateur level and none of the teams has ever achieved any participation in a World cup or win a OFC nations cup sor far.
I hope one day one of these squads will manage to do so and prove Oceanian football deserves respect and is worth interest.


After all, OFC mighty champion New Zealand was the only team that remained unbeaten at the 2010 FIFA south african world cup and aren't notable payers like Christian Karembeu, Tim Cahill, Marama Vahirua and Pascal Vahirua coming from this region of the world ?


Now i just would like to introduce a bit the main contenders for the OFC 2014 FIFA world cup berth. The real deal of the qualification will start next year in june with the 2012 OFC Nations cup.The 4 semi-finalists of the tournament will advance to the final round of the OFC World CUp qualification campaign, where the winner will compete for the OFC spot in an inter-confederation play-off (against Concacaf's 4th best side).



I) Right after New Zealand and notwithstand their disappointing 4th place at this september's South Pacifc games, Fijis' Bula Boys are in my opinion the most serious contenders to get the spot for the 2014 World Cup. Reasons ?

Firstly, because they will welcome the 2012 OFC Nations cup at their Suva Stadium and will therefore benefit from a massive "home soil" advantage.

Secondly, With a population of almost 1 million inhabitants (and even if the local favorite sport clearly remains Rugby) the nation federation have a larger pool of talents than any of all of their counterparts in the confederation.

Furthermore, The Fiji national team is among the very few non NZ oceanian squad that can pride itself on counting several experienced players who play in NZ league at a quasi professionnal level (Peni Finau, Ronil Kumar, Salesh Kumar) in its ranks;

last but not least, they can rely on the efficiency of two of Oceania 's fiercest strikers : Waitakere United's Roy Krishna, whose victorious brace against NZ in 2008 provided the bula boys their first ever win against the regional giants, and Osea Vakataselau, who did score 10 goals at the 2007 South Pacific Games and more recently helped papuasia's Hekari United Club to win last years OFC champions league, thus taking part in the 2010 FIFA club world cup (as well as Fiji NT's skipper Pita Bolaitoga and GK Simione Tamanisau).

The only problem I see for them is that they have been drawn in a tough group together with New-Zeland, Solomon Islands and Papuasia New Guinea. But if they can survive such a group, then i think they will be able to go real far.



II) Then I see Solomon Islands's bonitos, who have regularly posed problems to Australia and NZ teams in the past and display Oceania's historically best results at beach soccer and futsal FIFA competitions (4 appearances at FIFA beach soccer world cups and 1 at the FIFA futsal world cup).

They have a tradition of elegant football and count numerous skillfull players in their team among which Commins Menapi, Benjamin Totori, Henry Fa'arodo Jr, James Naka, Batram Suri, Alick Maemae and Gideon Omokirio can be considered as the most prominent. Many of them have grown quite old now though and i have no idea what the youngsters look like.

They convincingly obtained a Silver medal at the Noumea 2011 South Pacic football games which took place in september, with a good balance of 5 victories (including before host team New Caledonia) and 21 goals scored.



III) As for Vanuatu, they are a decent side, and most of their players come from the local powerhouses Amicale FC and Tafea FC :

Richard Iwai, Saimata Chilia, Michel and Jean Kaltak , Etienne Mermer, Jean Naprapol, etc. But their latest OFC Nations Cup performance has been disappointing and their defense is clearly their Achill's heed. They do benefit from popular support though, as i have noticed that at most of their WCQ home matches the Port Vila stadium was really crowded. I think they at least have a great chance to take part in the OFC final round of qualifying, since their group at the 2012 OFC NATIONS CUP
is really accessible (New Caledonia, Tahiti, Samoa).



IV) New Caledonia can obviously be seen as a serious outsider. To me the "cagous" are a rather unpredictable side that is capable of the best and the worst;but they sure will be a threat to reckon.

They ended up 2nd at the 2008 OFC Nations cup which was quite an achievement given their small population and lackof professional players (in Europe or in A-league);

more recently they enjoyed very convincing results at the Noumea 2011 South Pacic football games, where they eventually lift the cup after defeating Solomon Islands in the final. Bertrand Kaï, Iamel Kabeu, Michel Hmaé and Pierre Wajoka are their most renowned players but this time their squad may include a robust defender named Wesley Lautoa, who trades his mark for Sedan in French ligue 2.


V) Tahiti is the other "french" side involved in this oceanian jousting. They have had great success at local contests in the past, having won the footballsection of the South Pacific Games 5 times and finished runners up on three occasions at the OFC Nations cup. Moreover they are also the only polynesian side to have ever make a FiFa tournament appearance (Fifa 2009 U-20).

But despite these results the 2000-2010 results of the A team have been mostly bad, so I honestly don't expect any miracle from them, unless they somehow manage to build up a team combining the best Fifa U-20 2009 world cup squad members under the guidance of French ligue 1 star Marama Vahirua ! Tahiti have however managed to get the Bronze Medal at the 2011 SPG where they noticeably defeated Fiji.

Best players i have heard of are Territea Tehau, Steevy Chong Hue, Hiroana Poroiae and Stanley Atani.



VI) As for Papuasia New Guinea's Kapuls, it remains a mystery to me that the most populous country of Oceania (6 millions inhabitants) has constantly been represented by such a mediocre national team who never achieved anything better than a lousy third place at the 1987 South Pacific football games !!

However, things have dramatically improved over the last two years as the federation has managed to develop football training and as the local best club Hekari United stunned the observers winning the 2010 OFC Champions League, defeating archfavorites New Zealand'sAuckland City club and taking part in last year's FIFA Club World cup, where they had the opportunity to play against the UAE team "Al Wahda" and gain experience.

Besides, australian former international player Frank Farina
has been appointed to coach the team and bring a little professionalism and ambition in the NT's spirit. Players to watch in the papuasian side would be (in my mind) Nathaniel Lepani who plays in Brisbane, Australia, Mauri Wasi, Reginald Davani and Hekari United's forward Kema Jack.


Now let the best one win !

 

The only reason they remained unbeaten was because they didn't make it out of the group stage.

And there were eight other teams that finished the group stage unbeaten.

I think you're talking up more than you should. I don't disagree that they deserve some attention, more attention than they currently receive. But I think you go too far the other way. And making claims like the one above seeming to imply that they were one of the best teams at the cup simply because they didn't lose is absurd.

 

I am just trying to underline the positive achievements of the NZ national team (there are not many, i must admitt eheh), maybe it can come across as too much positive thinking, but i don't think it is the most important part of my reply; just consider it as a little provocative eye wink nothing more.

And of course I know NZ is not as strong as most european and south american national teams !