Women's World Cup Qualification 2019

[Kevin S]

Tahiti v Samoa just started:
https://mycujoo.tv/video/ofc-football?id=27036

[Kevin S]

Finished 5-5!

New Caledonia v PNG is here, currently 0-1.
https://mycujoo.tv/video/ofc-football?id=27037

[Kevin S]

PNG should be ok from here - three up now.

[Kevin S]

Finished 6-2.

[Kevin S]

https://twitter.com/nicolademaine/status/1065149264035074049?s=19

[Kevin S]

Back in Africa, the first match of the day finishes Nigeria 4-0 Zambia.

[Kevin S]

Cook Islands holding NZ, ten played.
https://mycujoo.tv/video/ofc-football?id=27044

Earlier it was Tonga 0-12 Fiji.

[Kevin S]

Couple of goals for NZ, which will probably open the flood gates.

[Kevin S]

Finishes 6-0, NZ are through to the semis.

[Kevin S]

Banyana Banyana beat Equatorial Guinea 7-1 yesterday as well.

So that's two of the three group stage matches played in both continents. Here's how things stand in the two confederations' championships. Remember that the champions, runners-up and bronze medallists from Africa will go to the World Cup, as well as the champions of Oceania.


Africa

Group A
Cameroon 6pts (5-1)
Mali 3pts (3-3)
Ghana 3pts (2-2)
Algeria 0pts (0-4)

Final matches are simultaneous, 4pm tomorrow: Algeria v Mali and Cameroon v Ghana

Group B
South Africa 6pts (8-1)
Nigeria 3pts (4-1)
Zambia 3pts (5-4)
Eq Guinea 0pts (1-12)

Final matches are simultaneous, 4pm Saturday: Equatoral Guinea v Nigeria and South Africa v Zambia

Semi finals are on Tuesday, bronze match next Friday and Final next Saturday.

Oceania

Group A
PNG 6pts (11-2)
New Caledonia 3pts (6-8)
Tahiti 1pt (7-9)
Samoa 1pt (5-10)

Final matches are not simultaneous. Early on Saturday: PNG v Tahiti and New Caledonia v Samoa

Group B
New Zealand 6pts (17-0)
Fiji 6pts (15-0)
Cook Islands 0pts (0-9)
Tonga 0pts (0-23)

The match for first place is at 6am on Sunday and the wooden spoon match is at 3am.

Worth noting here that Fiji were the only one of the eight teams who had to qualify (winning a round robin group including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and American Samoa in August).

Continuing the idiosyncratic scheduling, the semi finals are going to be simultaneous - something like 4am next Weds I think. Both the bronze match and the final are next Saturday, but one after the other.

[Kevin S]

Fiji's Trina Davis has scored three so far to add to the four she scored in the qualifying tournament.

She's a kid at the Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington. Here's how she ended up being a national hero in Fiji.

Cema Nasau has also been banging them in for the Fijians (six in the tournament, two in the qualifiers) and she must be very young too - she was playing for the U17s a couple of years ago.

[Kevin S]

Oceania group A completed this morning:

https://twitter.com/OFCfootball/status/1066314819689738240?s=19

[Kevin S]

Awcon semis are:

Cameroon v Nigeria
South Africa v Mali

[Kevin S]

So in the early hours tomorrow we have PNG v Fiji and New Caledonia v New Zealand.

Cameroon v Nigeria kicks off in an hour and a half.

[Kevin S]

No goals after 15 minutes. Given that there is a place at the World Cup for the winners of this semi final, you'd have hoped for a bigger crowd.

[Kevin S]

Cameroon 0-0 Nigeria
Nigeria win 2-4 on penalties
South Africa 2-0 Mali

Nigeria and South Africa have qualified for the World Cup.

New Zealand 8-0 New Caledonia
PNG 1-5 Fiji

[Kevin S]

Should also mention that in that final group B game New Zealand beat Fiji 10-0 so the final probably won't be a contest.

[N est à?]

Just sussing them out, kev. To win the war, sometimes you must lose the battle. Recall if you will your Sun Tzu

[Kevin S]

You might be right. Looking at the lineup from that game I see that Davis and Nasau were rested - clearly a second string Fiji side. Lulling the ferns into a false sense of superiority.

[Kevin S]

Updated list of 2019 Women's World Cup finalists

France
Spain
Italy
England
Scotland
Norway
Germany
Sweden
Netherlands

Canada
United States
Jamaica

Thailand
Australia
Japan
China
Korea Rep

Brazil
Chile
Argentina

Nigeria
South Africa
Cameroon or Mali

New Zealand or Fiji

[Kevin S]

The OFC final is going to be at the more convivial time of 0600 on Saturday if anyone wants to watch it, at this page:
https://mycujoo.tv/video/ofc-football?id=27050

[Kevin S]

Cameroon 4-2 Mali. Cameroon take the African bronze and the 23rd place at the World Cup.

[Kevin S]

New Zealand score in the first minute.

[Kevin S]

7-0 in the closing stages. New Zealand complete the World Cup lineup.

Edit - they added an eighth in stoppage time.

[Southport Zeb]

England and Scotland drawn together for the second straight tournament and will again meet in their opening game. Hopefully Scotland won't start with a 6-0 defeat this time.

England's games are a bit weird in terms of venue. The match with Scotland is in Nice, by the Mediterranean. They then take on Argentina in Le Havre, by the English Channel, before returning to Nice to take on Japan. Scotland have an even longer journey for their second match, going to Rennes, but then have a shorter journey to Paris for their third game.