Oceania members finds themselves in an odd position. No draw was needed for their first round because the bottom four seeds (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga) are automatically playing in a four team group. Each of the teams participating in the first round group will play each of the other three teams in the group once at a central location. The winner of the group advances to the OFC Second Round.The OFC Second Round doubles as the group stage for the 2012 OFC Nations Cup in June 2012. The eight remaining teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. Each team will play each of the other three teams in their group once at a central location, in this case Fiji. The top two teams in each group will advance to the OFC Third Round, as well as to the semifinals of the 2012 OFC Nations Cup.
Group A
Vanuatu
New Caledonia
Round One Winner
Tahiti
Group B
Fiji
New Zealand
Solomon Islands
Papua New Guinea
I foresee Samoa winning the OFC First Round group.
My bold predictions for Oceania are that the following teams will advance to the OFC Third Round:
New Caledonia, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Fiji
The draw gods gave Oceania an imbalanced draw. Group A includes only one of the four powers of Oceania: New Caledonia. The other three (New Zealand, Fiji, and Solomon Islands) were all grouped together in Group B. Vanuatu were given a reprieve by this draw as they were in the 2007 South Pacific Games when in the third-place match they played a Solomon Islands team depleted by two red cards from their semifinal. Vanuatu then finished fourth place in the final round of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying. However, Tahiti will provide a challenge for Vanuatu's second place.
Group B involves heavy favorites New Zealand. The big matchup is between Fiji and Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands made it to the final playoff with Australia in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and won its first round group over Vanuatu in the 2007 South Pacific Games, but they wound up missing the final round of 2010 qualifying. Fiji, however, boasts a finals appearance in those same South Pacific Games, and a victory over New Zealand in the final round of 2010 qualifying. Fiji has the home field advantage in the OFC Second Round, so they should sneak by the Solomon Islands and into second place in Group B. However, teams should be wary of wildcards Papua New Guinea. PNG's top club team Hekari United made it to the 2010 FIFA Club World Cup and featured PNG's star forward Kema Jack.
Links
OFC qualifying overview:
Group A breakdown:
Group B breakdown:
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