New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Tonga will compete for the OFC U-20 Women’s Championship title that will propel the winners into competition with the world’s greatest up-and-coming female footballers.
The 16 teams will be divided into four groups at the Official Draw in Montreal on March 1, with hosts Canada already seeded as A1, but what fate awaits our Oceania champion?
CONCACAF have seen four sides through to the finals with USA, Mexico and Costa Rica joining hosts Canada.
Current title-holders USA are the most successful team in U-20 Women’s World Cup history and the side showed their class as they cruised through the confederation’s qualifiers in the Cayman Islands. Their goal-scoring prowess saw them knock in in 25 unanswered goals in during the group and semi-final stages before downing Mexico 4-0 in the final to finish top of the CONCACAF standings. Mexico also recorded some bumper scores on the way to the final, the most notable being a 10-1 drubbing of Guatemala. The final berth was secured by Costa Rica who triumphed 7-3 over Trinidad and Tobago in the thrilling third-place final.
In the Asian Football Confederation it was China PR, Korea DPR and Korea Republic who won their way through to Canada 2014.
The final stage of qualifying came down to a six-team competition in Nanjing with Korea Republic securing their second Asian title. The team, which finished third at Germany 2010, twice came from behind in their opening match with China to earn a hard-fought point before finding their feet to knock seven unanswered goals past Myanmar. Jang Selgi’s five in that match plus goals against Japan, Korea DPR and Australia saw the number 10 named tournament top scorer.
Korea DPR finished runner-up after three opening victories laid the foundations and despite a loss to the eventual champions they held Japan to a goalless draw to seal second place. This allowed China PR clinch the final spot ahead of the Japanese thanks to their earlier 8-0 routing of Myanmar.
Ghana and Nigeria emerged as the giants of African women’s youth football with some incredibly high-scoring affairs along the way.
The Super Falconets won all six of their matches scoring a record-breaking 31 goals in the process, without conceding one, while Ghana had to come from behind to oust Equatorial Guinea. Ghana played just two matches after their round one and two opponents, Guinea-Bissau and Uganda, withdrew. After losing 1-0 in round one to Equatorial Guinea they were on the back foot for the return leg where an early goal saw them win 1-0 and send the match into a penalty shoot-out. The Black Princesses won 4-3 to ensure their third consecutive appearance at the finals.
Nigeria meanwhile were forced to play in all three rounds of the campaign but the experienced side showed no signs of fatigue. They beat Sierra Leone 16-0 on aggregate with ten of those goals coming in the first leg before doing away with Tunisia to secure their spot. Their line-up revealed another star striker in the making through Uchechi Sunday. Having appeared at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 and in the Nigerian U-20 squad which finished second at the World Cup in 2010, she didn’t disappoint during the qualifiers – netting ten to be named qualifiers top scorer.
Brazil made sure they wouldn’t be missing their first World Cup as five-time defending champions added a sixth regional title to the cabinet. The only bump in the road was the Colombians who managed to hold them to a goalless draw.
Paraguay finished top of Group B and set out to unseat the reigning champions on the way to their first continental title. They were undone by the experienced Brazil 2-0 in the final, but are set to make their global debut in Canada.
Four sides have qualified in Europe with France taking the top spot in the hotly contested UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship after beating England 2-0 in the final. Joining them will be Germany and the surprise qualifiers Finland round out the European foursome.
England qualified top of their group, interestingly ahead of eventual champions France, and cruised into the final with a 4-0 victory over Finland. Germany looked to be a strong contender for the title after winning their group with a game to spare, but were undone 2-1 in the semi-final by the clinical French. The loss proved difficult for a number of the German players who will now be looking to compensate with their performance on the world stage. Their consolation prize for finishing outside of the top two UEFA sides is 17-year-old striker Pauline Bremer scoring six goals to claim the top scorer’s prize.
The OFC Women’s U-20 Championship will be held at Mangere Centre Park in Auckland, New Zealand from 18-22 February 2014. Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Tonga and Vanuatu will all be competing for the final berth at the FIFA Women’s U-20 World Cup Canada 2014.

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