Since National Football began in Oceania, two countries have dominated, the "Australasian" couple, New Zealand and Australia have won every trophy in Oceania and have both represented Oceania on the world stage, At the World Cup and Confederations Cup.

But in 2005, Australia left Oceania to join Asia, but have found it harder to break into Asia compared to there domination in Oceania. Leaving only New Zealand to hold the fort.

In the final year where New Zealand and Australia could meet in the final, one nation stopped them meeting for the last time in the OFC Nations Cup.

From Wiki

Quote:

At the second stage of the qualification tournament, Vanuatu came 6th place at the bottom of the table, but manage an important solitary win against regional powerhouses New Zealand which denied them an important group point needed to reach the third and final stages of OFC Nation Cup and an expected chance for a place in both the 2005 Confederation Cup and Continental & Intercontinental playoffs for the 2006 World Cup Finals. This allowed Solomon Islands to play Australia in the 2004 OFC Nations Cup Finals and the World Cup Continental Playoffs in 2005 when Solomon Islands manage a 2-2 draw with Australia in the last round of the second stage. Vanuatu's win created the first time opportunity for one of the Island Nations to contest at the Third Stage. This was previously contested only by Australia and New Zealand up to this point.

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Today...

Despite Vanuatu's win over New Zealand, Australia destroyed the Solomon Islands over two legs, The final finishing 11-1 after both matches and Australia lifted the trophy for what appears to be the last time.

Weather Vanuatu's win over New Zealand was a fluke or not, it did prove one thing, with Australia gone, all it needed was another "fluke" win against New Zealand, and Oceania could have a completely new champion.

I've taken over the team that proved that New Zealand were beatable by the Island Nations, Vanuatu.

Can I lead them to Glory in Oceania... or even the WORLD

This is for you James, hope you like it

Sport is not a major part of life in Vanuatu, and football is no different. Yes they play it, but there are no Proffessional sides. There nation doesn't even have a National league, instead, the national league is made up of "Pub" teams from around the capital Port Villa.

Out of the 8 teams in the Vanuatu Premia Divisen, only onme team has stood out. Tafea FC, who have won the league everytime since it began in 1994.

Compared to the rest of the country, Tafea FC's quality of football is very good and they represent Vanuatu in the Oceania Champions League.

In the 00/01 season, they came second in the Champions league, losing to Wolves... not the english club, Wollongong Wolves FC of Australia.

Last year they reached the First Round Group Stage after winning the OFC O-League Preliminary Tournament.

This is for you James, hope you like it

Thanks to Apthered for the awesome sig :)

The "Create a Club" Challenge - Updates Here (on hold)

With no competetive matches until at least December, I needed to make some friendlies, One because I need matchs to stop me being bored, another to test out some players aswell as my tactics.

But the main reason I made some friendlies is so I can climb the FIFA World Rankings much faster. I'm currently 179th in the Fifa World Rankings and without playig football, I could drop even further down. Plus a few wins or even draws could go along way in the climb up the rankings and becoming the highest ranked team in Oceania.

All the Friendlies are against "Island Teams" in Oceania, these will provide both hard tests, but will also be a good chance to pull myself away from the Island nations.

Sat 8th September 2007 - Home - Tahiti (183rd) - 3:00pm

Wed 12th September 2007 - Home - Samoa (192nd) - 19:45pm

Sat 13th October 2007 - Home - Wallis and Futuna (N/A) - 3:00pm

Sat 17th November 07 - Home - American Samoa(199th) - 3:00pm

Wed 21st November 07 - Home -Papua New Guinea(182nd) -19:45pm
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These matches are very important, I have to try and win them if I want to prove myself in Oceania, I must win these.

The main star in my team is Richard Iwai from Tafea FC, the 18 year old is my Captain and all time Goalscorer. He has a great goalscoring record, 14 games and 11 goals. As long as he satys fit and on top form, I have no worries.

My really young squad has only 1 player over 25, and thats my speedy Center Mid, Seimata Chilia, who is 29 years old. It will be up to this young squad to win the Nations Cup and one day, play in the World Cup :P

This is for you James, hope you like it

This is for you James, hope you like it

Not bad for a first match in charge, thought I was in some deep trouble when I went 2-0 down after 10 minutes. But 4 minutes later, My gamble on striker WaiWai payed off, A free-kick on the left was crossed in and He rose high to head it home. Then Antonio Malapa, who had 1 cap to his name before this game, scored a flukey goal, There keeper came out of his box to clear, but it fell to him at the halfway line, he ran, hit it hard and is flew in.

After the break, My super striker, 18 Year old captain and all time top goal scorer, Richard Iwai, turned the defender before hammering it into the top corner. A sign of things to come from the youngster.

Then Malapa got another, WaiWai got the ball at the edge of the area, layed off Malapa who placed it into the top corner past the keeper to make it 4-2.

Tahiti got one back in the 70th minute to give me a rocky end to the game but we ran out confortable winners in a great match for the neutrals.

This is for you James, hope you like it

Much, Much better start by us, Samoa didn't know what had hit them and before they knew it, the match was over and done with.

WaiWai played a nice ball at the near post which Seimata Chilia put home after 3 minutes. Then WaiWai stroke lucky, the keepers Goal Kick just fell to him and he was one on one, not taking anything away from him though as he finished beautifully.

Straight after the break, a very similar goal to our second was put away by Iwai who made it 12 goals for his country. There keeper really needs to work on Goal Kicks.

Samoa pulled one back late on before sub Warren Roger Massing slotted home in the 92nd minute to make the scoreline look even better.

This is for you James, hope you like it

I'm not going to post my Under 21 or 19 matches that often, but this one was special. 3-0 down at half time and I thought this match was dead and buried, I thought I might aswell go out and try and score so at halftime I made some changes.

But before the 70th minute we made it 3-3, the comeback was truely on, it was end to end stuff in the last 10 minutes, but in the 95th minute, a free-kick in our own half was played to Iau Tuan Naukoot, you turns and shoots from 30 yards into the back of the net.

I was stunned, a world class comeback and it just showed me the one thing you need to succeed in football in "poor" nations. Belief, Determination and that ability to jut pull off the unexpected.

It is matches like this which is why I love managing the Underdogs, because even if you lose, even when there is no hope of achieving anything, your team pulls off something way above there ability and you just watch in delight.

This is for you James, hope you like it

My first defeat as manager of Vanuatu, and it was against a team I thought we would beat, but good old Football Manager have made Wallis and Futuna's fake players alot better than they should be. Excusses aside, We played well and were very unlucky.

We went 1-0 down after 10 minutes but we came back 10 minutes later when Chilia ran past two players and hit it home to make it 1-1.

But in the 87th minute, even though it was a very even game, Wallis and Futuna took the lead through Flavio Delamontagne, who headed home making it 2-1.

But it shouldn't have counted, it was offside and I was so angry that I had a go at the referee for his poor refereeing and shockingly, The FA agreed.

This is for you James, hope you like it

We went back to winning ways and it looked like we would be winning it confortably.

In the first half, Richard Iwai showed me why he is my star striker which two goals. The first he got on a brilliant through-ball to slot home and put us infront. The second was something a little special, after getting the ball on the halfway line, he ran past 2 players into the box and just hit it as hard as he could into the top corner.

In the 66th minute, Pita Kalotong scored from a free-kick and the match was over, 3-0 and another game where we showed our dominance.

But that nearly was our downfall, as my team took the foot of the peddle and Darrel Ioane took advantage and got his first goals for American Samoa in the space of 3 minutes.

The scoreline was fair though, as Samoa had the same amount of shots as us and 3-0 would have been unfair in what was a quite close match.

This is for you James, hope you like it

A great win for us in our final friendly of the year, For the rest of the year we will be playing Oceania Nations Cup qualifing matches, Which are yet to be drawn.

As for the match, I thought we might not score, we had lots of shots but got nothing, but then in the last 15 minutes, they all came at once. Left Back Samsom Lini got his first goal for Vanuatu after scoring from the edge of the box.

Then King got his first goal for Vanuatu, Iwai played a great through-ball to him and he just slotted it past the keeper.

Then Richard Iwai got Goal Number 16 in his 19th appearance. He made a dashing run ino the box and Chilia played a lovely ball which completly undid Papua New Guinea.

This is for you James, hope you like it

My Guides
Miralem Pjanic
Pepe
Jonas Gutierrez

Manager Joshua Darling will experience his first competitive matches next month when Vanuatu kick off there OCE Nations Cup campaign in the Preliminary Round of the competition in Papua New Guinea.

Vanuatu were drawn in a group with Hosts Papua New Guinea, Samoa, The Cook Islands and rivals Fiji, who are favourites to go through Group A.

But Vanuatu are a strong side and under Darling's leadership have won 4 out of 5 of there friendlies. Two coming against fellow group members Papua New Guinea and Samoa, who they beat 3-0 and 4-1 respectively.

If they can repeat history in this group, then they will have a very good chance of qualifying to the next stage.

Fiji - 2-1 (Fav)
Samoa - 8-1
Vanuatu - 10/1
Papua New Guinea - 25/1
Cook Islands - 100/1

Fiji are clear favourites while Vanuatu are predicted as just falling short of qualification at 10/1. Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea are predicted as the whipping boys, but Papua pulled off a 1-0 win over Tahiti earlier in the year so could be a good bet if you want to risk it.

Both Group Draws in Preliminary Round

Brief Reports on Each Team in the group to follow.

This is for you James, hope you like it

Papua New Guinea lineup just before the OCE Nations.

Papua New Guinea are the said to be one of the whipping boys of the group but I'm not so sure they will be. But for them to succeed, they need a bit of luck and for these three players to stay fit and be on top form.

Willie Tumissime (DC)

The 19 year old "Classic" Central Defender is 1 of 2 players in the squad who plays outside of Papua New Guinea. He plays for Rochedale Rovers in Australia. This man is Strong, a good tackler and is very good in the air. If he plays well, I can't see anyone getting past him.

Alex Davani (ST)

At 22, he has just broke through into the senior squad at Papua New Guinea. Scoring all the goals in this years matches so far, even if it is just one goal. He is anoher player playing in Australia, with Semi-Pro's Brisbane Strikers.

Reginald Davani (ST)

He is Alex Davani's older brother and is Papua New Guinea's all time top goalscorer with 6 goals. I can see the Striking partnership of these brothers being very good in this next month of football. If they pull it off, Papua New Guinea could be playing New Zealand in the next round.

This is for you James, hope you like it

At 100/1, they are expected to be even more of a "whipping boy" for the other teams. In there three friendlies leading up to this competition, they lost 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively.

With only 24,000 people who live on the Islands, Cook Islands are one of the smallest contries in the FIFA World Rankings, but unfortunatly for them, not many of them can play Football. Only one player really stands out of the rest and thats Tapapa's star striker Junior Puroku

Puroku is there top goalscorer with 2 goals, the last one was against Vanuatu in 2001 which just shows how bad this side is.

This is for you James, hope you like it