New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tonga will participate in the round-robin football tournament from 12-16 April with the winner advancing to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Trinidad and Tobago in September this year.
As a brand new competition, participating coaches admit they are largely in the dark about their opposition.
“I don’t know too much to be honest,” said Michael Robinson, coach of the Papua New Guinea team.
“Obviously New Zealand we know a little bit about, they’ve been together a while. But with the other teams I’ve just seen them at training today and have had to quickly assess if they’re athletic and how good they are technically.”
New Zealand will go into the tournament as favourites having shown their dominance at the U-20 level three months ago during the OFC qualifiers when the Junior Football Ferns comfortably beat American Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga to book a ticket to the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany this July.
But Young Football Ferns coach Dave Edmondson also admits to knowing little about the other teams, particularly the Solomon Islands who they will meet on Match Day 1.
“The Solomons are the only ones we haven’t actually seen at training yet,” said Edmondson.
“Having watched the other two they look to play a short passing game but don’t seem to having any big threat in behind. It will be a different way of playing for our girls so it will be how we adapt to that. If we score early, I think it could be quite comfortable.”
The OFC U-17 Women’s Championship represents an important step in the development of women’s football in Oceania. OFC has aligned its competitions with FIFA events – in this case the U-17 Women’s World Cup which was successfully staged in New Zealand for the first time in 2008. As hosts, New Zealand qualified automatically on that occasion but 2010 represents the first time a qualifying competition has been held.
Match Day 1 gets underway at North Harbour Stadium on Monday with Tonga playing Papua New Guinea in the opening match at midday before hosts New Zealand take on the Solomon Islands at 3:00pm.
For the full schedule and results table click here