OFC U-17 Championship 2001

The ninth edition of the OFC U-17 Championship took place in 2001 and doubled as qualification for the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Trinidad and Tobago™. The tournament was hosted across Samoa and New Zealand with the final played over two legs in a home-and-away format between the two finalists.

Australia and New Zealand emerged as the finalists after coming through the group stages unbeaten. In the final, Australia won the first-leg 3-0 in Canberra, before finishing off the job with a convincing 6-0 win away from home in the second leg. Australia claimed their second consecutive and eighth OFC U-17 Championship title overall with a 9-0 win on aggregate.

Looking to repeat their heroics from 1999 at the FIFA U-17 World Championships, Australia started their campaign with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Brazil, they followed it up with a 1-0 victory against hosts Trinidad and Tobago before an Anthony Danze hat-trick lifted Australia to a 4-1 victory against Croatia. In the round of 16, they faced Nigeria but weren’t able to match with it their youth team, losing 5-1.