Photo Credit: OFC Media via Phototek
Samoa will host the 24th edition of the OFC U-19 Men’s Championship – a tournament that doubles as qualification for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup™ to be held in Chile next year.
New Zealand arrive as the defending champions having beaten Fiji in the final of the 2022 OFC U-19 Men’s Championship.
However the finalists have had a contrasting build up to the tournament, with New Zealand having had minimal preparation time, whilst Fiji has enjoyed over a month together in the build-up to kick off and they’ll be hoping that cohesion on the field can help steer them back to the finals and possibly lift the trophy.
“We’ve been together for four weeks; this will be our fifth week. We as a team have the pressure to perform as our previous U-19 team went to the World Cup. So, it’s a challenge for us to see that we have some level of consistency,” said Fiji Coach Marika Rodu.
“For us it is important to lead the group from our side, so we start with business tomorrow,” added Rodu.
Fiji kick off the tournament taking on Tahiti, who despite their preparation woes, have assembled a strong team with most of their players playing their club football in France.
The other opening day fixture sees previous OFC U-19 Men’s Championship finalists Solomon Islands square off against qualifying tournament winners Vanuatu.
Tournament favourites New Zealand haven’t had the luck of a extensive preparation time, having had no warm-up matches, and only coming together days before leaving for Samoa.
Circumstances New Caledonia can understand, having been disrupted by the civil unrest continuing back home.
“The situation of the country is very difficult, so it was very hard to unite all the players. We only had three weeks of preparation for the matches,” said New Caledonia Coach Pierre Wajoka.
“We had a minimal camp before we came here, two or three days, and then we hit the ground running,” added New Zealand Coach Chris Greenacre.
It’s fitting then, that the two sides will open their campaign against one another in Group B on Saturday.
Despite the limited time to gel the squad, Greenacre says his side are well prepared for the high-performance nature of the matches ahead.
“We’ve had a number of players who’ve been playing competitively for quite a while, so our fitness levels we are in a pretty good shape. It just trying to fine tune the final details on how we want to play and how we want to play our brand of football,” he said.
Hosts Samoa might be the beneficiaries, having assembled what Coach Valerio Raccuglia is calling, the strongest team they’ve had at U-19 level in his time working for the nation.
“It’s fantastic to be back here, the group feels that it being a home tournament, we definitely want to perform for everyone,” he said.
“I think this is one of the best groups we have had here. They’re gelling together, seems like everyone is getting along together,” added Raccuglia.
The host nation will certainly have a tough time of it in Group B, facing defending champions New Zealand, New Caledonia, and their opponents on Saturday, 2022 quarter-finalists Papua New Guinea.
Whilst the last few editions haven’t had a happy ending for Papua New Guinea, Coach Steven Mune is excited at what his team can achieve – especially having had the chance to pick players from the youth semi-professional competition, which has been running for the last two years.
“The selection has been a bit tough but quite a number of players are involved, so I believe we are prepared for the tournament,” said Mune.
Getting off to a good start will be important for both the hosts and Papua New Guinea, who’ll both be targeting a spot in the semi-finals.
Helping Samoa will be their home crowd, which for most, if not all players in the Samoan team, will be their first time experiencing that local support.
“Being able to play in front of your home crowd and in your homeland is an awesome experience and I can’t wait for our first game against Papua New Guinea, and then having quality teams here, it’s just so amazing to be a part of,” said Samoa Captain Pharrell Trainor.