American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga will compete in the round-robin tournament at Apia’s J.S. Blatter Stadium, with the winner going on to join OFC’s top seven teams (based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Ranking) for the Stage 2 Qualifiers in Fiji next June.
OFC is the fifth Confederation to kick off its qualifying campaign with Europe the only other zone yet to get underway. A total of 34 matches will be played across 14 match days, before the Stage 3 winner will advance to the inter-continental play-off against CONCACAF to see who will qualify for Brazil 2014.
But for the four teams competing next week, all eyes are on getting past the first hurdle.
American Samoa and Cook Islands have followed similar pathways in their preparations, both appointing high-profile coaches and electing to take part in the recent Pacific Games football tournament in New Caledonia.
Former United States U-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen will guide American Samoa, a team that enters the tournament as clear underdogs having never won a match at senior international level.
The Cook Islands Football Association scored a major coup recently securing the services of former All Whites midfielder Shane Rufer as head coach. The 51-year-old, who played 20 internationals between 1979 and 1991, takes over from another former New Zealand player Maurice Tillotson. Cook Islands go in as marginal favourites with the highest FIFA ranking of the four participating teams.
Tonga chose not to compete in the four-yearly Pacific Games, instead opting to take part in training tours to New Zealand and Fiji as part of their extended preparations. Despite a period of inactivity for the senior men’s team over recent years, Australian coach Chris Williams still believes his side can cause an upset.
Meanwhile Samoa will hope to utilise the home advantage with all but three players based locally. The hosts finished above their Stage 1 opponents in the previous FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and will be hoping for a similar run this time around under coach Tunoa Lui. Like Tonga, they elected not to take part in the ‘Jeux du Pacifique’ but gained valuable overseas experience during a tour of Fiji in August.
The qualifiers will consist of two matches per day on the 22nd, 24th and 26th of November, with kick-offs set for 3:00pm and 5:30pm (local time).
For the match schedule click here
For the team lists click here

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