Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has released the draw for the OFC Women’s Olympic football tournament and it pits Oceania heavyweights New Zealand against Papua New Guinea in a two legged home and away qualifier.
The tournament will run over two match days with New Zealand travelling to Port Moresby on March 8, and then hosting Papua New Guinea in the return leg on March 12 in Auckland.
The format for selecting Oceania’s women’s representative at the Olympic games women’s football tournament, has changed each year since Oceania first gained entry in 2000.
In 2000, Australia, as host nation of the 2000 Olympic Games, qualified. In 2004, a tournament was held in Fiji, featuring the host nation, Australia and Papua New Guinea.
This year marks the first Olympic qualifiers since Australia switched confederations from OFC to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Jan 1, 2006. The winner of the tournament will be awarded direct entry to Beijing 2008.
New Zealand will head into the fixtures as hot favourites but will face a Papua New Guinea team who achieved its highest ever placing at an OFC/FIFA World Cup qualifying event last year when it finished runners-up to New Zealand.
PNG qualified for an Olympic Games showdown with the Football Ferns after winning gold medal at the XIII South Pacific Games women’s football tournament in Samoa last year.
Papua New Guinea defeated Tonga 3-1 after extra-time to secure the South Pacific Games gold medal and clinch the Olympic Games qualifying berth against New Zealand.
New Zealand were seeded to the playoff stage and did not compete at the XIII South Pacific Games – Samoa 2007.
PNG women coach Francis Moyap said it’s not hard to defeat New Zealand.
“Our girls have played against New Zealand several times and the New Zealand team is not new to them. All I want is the girls to perform well inside the field and follow our game plan.”