Both tournaments take place at Auckland’s Centre Park in Mangere next week – the first time the events have been run in conjunction with each other – and the winners of each will qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012 and FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Japan 2012 respectively.
The U-17 qualifiers will run from April 9-13 while the U-20s will be held from April 10-14.
As hosts and defending champions of both tournaments, New Zealand are the favourites for each title and have named strong squads to justify that reputation. There is plenty of top-class talent in the U-20 line-up in particular with no less than six of the Junior Football Ferns having been involved in the set-up of the senior national team.
Indeed, several of these players – namely Katie Bowen, Hannah Wilkinson and Rosie White – are prominent figures for the Football Ferns and were all involved in the recent Olympic-qualifying success over Papua New Guinea, as was midfielder Holly Patterson.
Aaron McFarland’s charges are aiming to qualify for their fourth consecutive World Cup but will face challenges from New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Samoa. Of that trio, Papua New Guinea are likely to mount a bid as they are regarded as the next strongest women’s football nation in the Pacific, while New Caledonia are hoping for a flow-on effect from the success of the senior side, who came runners-up as hosts of the XIV Pacific Games last September.
Coach Matthieu Delcroix has the services of five players from that talented squad and is likely to use them to form the basis of his title challenge.
Samoa have not appeared in this tournament since hosting the 2006 edition but have a history of success after making the semi-finals in both of their previous outings. Their inactivity was due to FIFA setting up a normalisation committee at Football Federation Samoa in 2008 but the country has since bounced back to become fully involved in OFC competitions once more.
Competing on this stage again is a significant step as it is but, given those past results, a high placing is not out of the question.
There will be just as much intrigue in the U-17 event with New Zealand looking to ward off the challenges of Cook Islands, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. Englishman Paul Temple, who led the Young Football Ferns at the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2008, is back at the helm and has presided over an impressive build-up that included friendly wins over Australia and Argentina.
The major threat could well come from Papua New Guinea and the tournament-closing clash between the pair on Friday may therefore act as a final of sorts. The Cook Islands and New Caledonia are both making their debut in this event but are shaping as dark horses with the latter able to name two players from the Pacific Games squad.
The U-17 tournament has been held only once before, in New Zealand in 2010, and saw Solomon Islands finish runners-up to the hosts with Papua New Guinea in third.
The U-20 event was previously restricted to the U-19 age-group but two U-20 tournaments have been held since the change, in Samoa in 2006 and New Zealand in 2010. No event was held in 2008 due to late withdrawals and the Junior Football Ferns were therefore nominated to represent Oceania at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile on the back of strong performances in Russia in 2006.
The 2006 qualifiers saw Tonga and Papua New Guinea finish runners-up and third to New Zealand, while second and third in 2010 were Cook Islands and Tonga.
For the U-17 squad lists click here
For the U-17 schedule click here
For the U-20 squad lists click here
For the U-20 schedule click here

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