2016 OFC U-20 Championship

2016 OFC U-20 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Tonga (preliminary stage); Vanuatu (final stage)
Dates	21–27 June 2016 (preliminary stage); 3–17 September 2016 (final stage)
Teams	8 (final stage); 11 (total) (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (6th title)
Runners-up	Vanuatu
Tournament statistics
Matches played	21
Goals scored	67 (3.19 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Dwayne Tiputoa; Myer Bevan; (5 goals each)
Best player(s)	Myer Bevan
Best goalkeeper	Michael Woud
Fair play award	Solomon Islands

The 2016 OFC U-20 Championship was the 21st edition of the OFC U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for players aged 19 and below (despite the name remaining as U-20 Championship). This year, the tournament was held in Vanuatu for the first time by itself (second time overall).

Despite the name remaining as U-20 Championship, the age limit was reduced by a year to 19 years of age. So players who wanted to participate in the tournament needed to be born on or after 1 January 1997. At an OFC Executive Committee meeting held at its Auckland headquarters in November 2013 the competition format was modified. The competition was brought forward a year and the age limit was lowered to 19 years of age. The changes were made in order to allow the winner of the competition plenty of time for preparation and player development for upcoming World Cups at Under 20 level.[1]

In March 2015, FIFA decided that the OFC gets two slots at every FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cup.[2] So the top two teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.

Format

The qualification structure is as follows:[2]

First round: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga played a round-robin tournament in Tonga. The winner qualified for the tournament.
Tournament (2016 OFC U-20 Championship): A total of eight teams (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu, and the first round winner) played the tournament in Vanuatu. For the group stage, they were divided into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final) to decide the winner of the 2016 OFC U-20 Championship and the two teams that qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Teams

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered qualification.

Seeding	Teams	No. of teams
First round entrants	American Samoa Cook Islands Samoa Tonga	4
Second round entrants	Fiji New Caledonia New Zealand Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Tahiti Vanuatu	7

Squads

Venues

Port Vila	Luganville
Port Vila Municipal Stadium	Luganville Soccer City Stadium
17.7308985°S 168.315498°E / -17.7308985; 168.315498 (Port Vila Municipal Stadium)	15.5081004°S 167.1912408°E / -15.5081004; 167.1912408 (Luganville Soccer City Stadium)
Capacity:10,000	Capacity:7,000
Port Vila Luganville 2016 OFC U-20 Championship (Vanuatu)

First round

The preliminary tournament was hosted by Tonga between 21 and 27 June 2016. The winner qualified for the final tournament.

Four referees and four assistant referees were named for the preliminary round of the tournament.

Referees

Salesh Chand
Joel Hoppken
Nelson Sogo
Campbell-Kirk Waugh

Assistant referees

Ujwaal Mudliar
Phul Singh
Jeffery Solodia
Isaac Trevis

All times are local, TOT (UTC+13).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cook Islands	3	2	1	0	7	1	+6	7	Second round
2	Samoa	3	1	1	1	8	4	+4	4
3	Tonga (H)	3	0	3	0	5	5	0	3
4	American Samoa	3	0	1	2	1	11	−10	1

Source: OFC
(H) Host.

21 June 2016

12:00

Tonga	1–1	Cook Islands
Po'oi 51'	Report	C. Tiputoa 77'

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 250[3]

Referee: Joel Hopkken (Vanuatu)

21 June 2016