2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup qualification

2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup qualification
Tournament details
Host country	Fiji
City	Lautoka
Dates	24–30 August 2018
Teams	4
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Fiji
Runners-up	Vanuatu
Third place	Solomon Islands
Fourth place	American Samoa
Tournament statistics
Matches played	6
Goals scored	12 (2 per match)
Attendance	2,100 (350 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Trina Davis (4 goals)

The 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup qualification tournament was a football competition that took place from 24 to 30 August 2018 in Lautoka, Fiji to determine the final women's national team which joined the seven automatically qualified teams in the 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup final tournament in New Caledonia.

Teams

On 31 October 2017, the OFC announced its executive's decision on the teams to compete in the tournament. For the first time, the OFC Women's Nations Cup is a compulsory tournament, so all 11 OFC member national teams entered the tournament.^[1] The four lowest-ranked teams, based on previous regional performances of all women's national teams, entered the qualification tournament while the remaining teams were given a bye to the final tournament.

Automatic qualification to the final tournament		Teams entered in qualification
Cook Islands New Caledonia New Zealand Papua New Guinea	Samoa Tahiti Tonga	American Samoa Fiji Solomon Islands Vanuatu

Format

The four lowest-ranked teams based on previous regional performances of all women’s national teams (American Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji) entered the qualification tournament, which was played in a single round-robin format in Fiji.^[1]^[2]

The winner advanced to the 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup, held from 18 November to 1 December 2018 in New Caledonia, joining the other seven teams which received a bye into the group stage. The Nations Cup serves as the Oceanian qualifiers to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the champions qualifying for the final tournament in France,^[3] as well as the 2020 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Japan, as long as they are a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).^[2]^[4]

Each team can name a maximum of 20 players.^[5]^[6]

Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams is determined as follows:^[7]

Points obtained in all qualifying matches;
Goal difference in all qualifying matches;
Number of goals scored in all qualifying matches;
Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
Fair play points in all qualifying matches (only one deduction can be applied to a player in a single match):
- Yellow card: –1 points;
- Indirect red card (second yellow card): –3 points;
- Direct red card: –4 points;
- Yellow card and direct red card: –5 points;
Coin toss or drawing of lots.

Draw

The draw for the qualification tournament was held on 21 March 2018 at the OFC Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand.^[8] The hosts Fiji were assigned to position 1 and were exempted from the draw, while the remaining teams were drawn into the other positions without any seeding in order to determine the match schedule.^[9]

Pot A^[a]
Team
American Samoa
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu

^ Hosts Fiji were automatically assigned to position 1.

The draw for the match schedule resulted in the following positions:

Note: Bolded team qualified for the 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup.

Pos	Team
1	Fiji
2	American Samoa
3	Solomon Islands
4	Vanuatu

Venue

The qualification tournament was held at Churchill Park in Lautoka, Fiji.^[10] The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Pago Pago, American Samoa from 27 August to 4 September 2018, but in March 2018 the venue was changed to Fiji.^[1]^[2] The qualification tournament in Fiji was originally scheduled to take place from 25–31 August 2018,^[2] but was later adjusted to 24–30 August.^[11]

Lautoka	Lautoka
Churchill Park
Capacity: 18,000

Schedule

The match schedule was revealed on 6 July 2018. The schedule of qualification is as follows:^[11]

Matchday	Date	Matches
Matchday 1	24 August 2018	4 v 1, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	27 August 2018	1 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 3	30 August 2018	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Fiji (H)	3	2	1	0	7	1	+6	7	Qualified for the final tournament
2	Vanuatu	3	2	0	1	3	5	−2	6
3	Solomon Islands	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	4
4	American Samoa	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

Source: OFC
(H) Hosts

Matches

All times are local, FJT (UTC+12).

24 August 2018

12:00

American Samoa	0–2	Solomon Islands
	Report	Samani 39', 90+4'

Churchill Park, Lautoka

Attendance: 100

Referee: Beth Rattray (New Zealand)

24 August 2018