October/November qualification fixtures

Here is the final schedule for October and November 2007, according to FIFA.com. All times are local to the host country or site.

October
8th
Tajikistan at Bangladesh 3 PM Dhaka
United Arab Emirates at Vietnam 7 PM Hanoi
Macau at Thailand 7 PM Bangkok
Nepal at Oman 9:30 PM Muscat
Singapore at Palestine 9 PM Doha, Qatar
Afghanistan at Syria 9 PM Aleppo
India at Lebanon 9 PM Saida
Maldives at Yemen 10 PM Şan‘ā’

11th
Turkmenistan at Cambodia Phnom Penh

13th
Fiji at New Zealand 4 PM Auckland Postponed
Taiwan at Uzbekistan 4 PM Tashkent
Bolivia at Uruguay 4:30 PM Montevideo
Chile at Argentina 5:40 PM Buenos Aires
Venezuela at Ecuador 5:50 PM Quito
Paraguay at Perú 8 PM Lima

14th
Comoros at Madagascar 2:30 PM Antananarivo
Brazil at Colombia 4 PM Bogotá

15th
Thailand at Macau 7 PM Macau

16th
Argentina at Venezuela 8:40 PM Maracaibo

17th
New Zealand at Fiji 4 PM Lautoka
Guinea-Bissau at Sierra Leone 4:30 PM Freetown
Colombia at Bolivia 4 PM La Paz
Uruguay at Paraguay 6:10 PM Asunción
Perú at Chile 7:10 PM Santiago
Ecuador at Brazil 9:55 PM Rio de Janeiro

18th
Jordan at Kyrgyzstan 3:30 PM Bishkek

21st
North Korea at Mongolia 1 PM Ulaan-Baatar
Myanmar at China 4 PM Foshan
Hong Kong at East Timor 3:30 PM Gianyar, Indonesia
Qatar at Sri Lanka 4 PM Colombo
Malaysia at Bahrain 6 PM Riffa

22nd
Iraq at Pakistan 7:30 PM Lahore

26th
Syria at Afghanistan 1 PM Dushanbe, Tajikistan

28th
East Timor at Hong Kong 3 PM Hong Kong
Mongolia at North Korea 4 PM Pyongyang
Palestine at Singapore 5 PM Singapore
Bangladesh at Tajikistan 2 PM Dushanbe
Oman at Nepal 3 PM Kathmandu
China at Myanmar 4 PM Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Uzbekistan at Taiwan 6 PM Taipei
Yemen at Maldives 4 PM Male
Pakistan at Iraq 2 PM Damascus, Syria
Lebanon at India 6:30 PM Chennai
Cambodia at Turkmenistan 6 PM Ashgabat
Bahrain at Malaysia 10:45 PM Kuala Lumpur
Vietnam at United Arab Emirates 7 PM Abu Dhabi
Sri Lanka at Qatar 7:15 PM Doha
Kyrgyzstan at Jordan 7 PM Ammān

November
16th
Somalia at Djibouti 4 PM Djibouti

17th
New Caledonia at Fiji Ba
New Zealand at Vanuatu Port Vila
Madagascar at Comoros 3 PM Moroni
Sierra Leone at Guinea-Bissau 4:30 PM Bissau
Bolivia at Argentina 4 PM Buenos Aires
Venezuela at Colombia 4:10 PM Bogotá
Ecuador at Paraguay 8:10 PM Asunción

18th
Chile at Uruguay 5 PM Montevideo
Brazil at Perú 4:10 PM Lima

20th
Bolivia at Venezuela 6:40 PM San Cristóbal
Argentina at Colombia 7:50 PM Bogotá

21st
New Caledonia at Fiji Noumea
Vanuatu at New Zealand 5 PM Wellington
Perú at Ecuador 4:30 PM Quito
Uruguay at Brazil 9:45 São Paulo
Paraguay at Chile 10:30 PM Santiago

Bhutan withdraw, send Kuwait to Round Three

Bhutan withdrew from AFC qualifying, making Kuwait the second team to receive a walkover in the first round, along with Indonesia.

Unlike Indonesia, due to their seeding Kuwait will advance directly into round three and join Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Iran.

Also, new site locations have been confirmed. Iraq announced that their home game against Pakistan will take place in Aleppo, Syria. Palestine announced that they will play host to Singapore in Doha, Qatar. Afghanistan will take on Syria in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. East Timor have moved their home game versus Hong Kong to Bali, Indonesia.

Schedule for OFC Phase Two

New Zealand will begin its World Cup qualifying campaign in October. In an interesting setup, the OFC Nations Cup is made up of three home-and-away ties, the first in October 2007, the next in November 2007, and the last in September 2008. All four teams remaining in Oceania will play each other twice within a period of a week. The numbers are the squads' current ELO rankings.

October 13, 2007
104 Fiji at 75 New Zealand Postponed

October 17, 2007
New Zealand at Fiji

November 17, 2007
New Zealand at 131 Vanuatu
Fiji at 119 New Caledonia

November 21, 2007
Vanuatu at New Zealand
New Caledonia at Fiji

June 14, 2008
New Caledonia at Vanuatu

June 21, 2008
Vanuatu at New Caledonia

September 6, 2008
New Zealand at New Caledonia
Vanuatu at Fiji

September 10, 2008
New Caledonia at New Zealand
Fiji at Vanuatu

I'm predicting that New Zealand will advance to the AFC-OFC playoff since their two closest rivals in 2006 qualifying are both gone (Australia and the Solomon Islands).

Vanuatu eliminate Solomon Islands 2-0; New Caledonia are golden

Vanuatu won the bronze medal in the South Pacific Games and eliminated gold-medal favorite Solomon Islands from World Cup contention before the second round of OFC qualifying. In an ugly match that saw seven yellow cards and a missed penalty by the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu repaid their rivals with a 2-0 victory, matching the Solomons' score in their group stage match. The Solomon Islands go down as the biggest disappointment of the Games, ahead of Tahiti.

In the final match, New Caledonia defied all of the predictions and not only advanced to the second phase of qualifying, but won the South Pacific Games gold medal with a 1-0 win over Fiji. New Caledonia really sparkled defensively throughout the tournament, surrendering only three goals while going undefeated. They also were the only team to put any goals into the Fijian net, striking twice in two games. Certainly, they are now the second favorites to win the OFC Nations Cup, behind New Zealand.

Didier Chambaron, the coach of New Caledonia, said after the match that the win was "a great feeling. We were very strong in defense and played the game in the right way. I am very pleased."

Goal scorers:

Vanuatu: Soromon 45+3; Sakama 50

.

New Caledonia: Hmae 61

São Tomé e Príncipe, Central African Republic withdraw

The withdrawal of two of the ten African teams in the preliminary rounds has caused chaos in the AFC qualification system. São Tomé e Príncipe and the Central African Republic exit the tournament, giving two teams a newfound pass into the second phase. These teams are not the teams that were drawn against São Tomé e Príncipe and the Central African Republic, but rather the two highest seeded African teams in the first phase. Swaziland and Seychelles advance. The new match dates and ties are below.

October 14, 2007
Comoros at Madagascar

October 17, 2007
Guinea-Bissau at Sierra Leone

November 16, 2007
Somalia at Djibouti

November 17, 2007
Madagascar at Comoros
Sierra Leone at Guinea-Bissau

Note that in place of a two-legged playoff, Somalia and Djibouti will play only one match, an elimination game in Djibouti. This was due to unsafe conditions in Somalia.

Fiji and New Caledonia on to stage two, avoid Melanesian elimanation

In the all-Melanesian semifinals, New Caledonia pulled off an enormous upset of the Solomon Islands to progress to round two of Oceania qualifying. Down 2-1 in the second half, the Solomon Islands gave up the advantage and then suffered two red cards by their men, Maemae and Omikorio. A stoppage-time goal by the Caledonians sent them through to the finals, 3-2.

In the other semifinal, Fiji passed by Vanuatu 3-0 on their way to progressing to the second round of Oceania qualifying. After being outplayed for one half, the Fijians still broke through first with a 40-yard strike from Baleitoga.

The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu now have a rematch of their group showdown, this time with World Cup elimination at stake.

Goal scorers:
New Caledonia: Kabeu 37; Toto 54; Mercier 90+4

Solomon Islands: Fa'arodo 40; Menapi 47

Fiji: Baleitoga 44; Vakatalesau 66 PK; Krishna 69

Fiji 1 - New Caledonia 1; Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tahiti win

In Group B action, the Solomon Islands clinched the group with a solid 3-0 win over Samoa, putting the hosts down a goal immediately after stealing the opening kickoff.

Vanuatu advanced over Tonga 4-1 thanks to a first-half hat trick by Soromon.

In Group A, Fiji tied New Caledonia despite being down a goal at the half. Both sides conceded their first goals of the tournament, but Fiji's greater overall goal differential places them at the top of the group.

In a chippy final match for both squads, Tahiti defeated the Cook Islands 1-0. Bennett was shown a red in the second half for Tahiti, who then proceeded to score the games only goal a man down. The Cook Islands responded with two yellow cards of their own afterwards, from Joseph and Le Mouton.

In the semifinals, the Solomon Islands meet New Caledonia and Fiji meet Vanuatu. I expect the Solomon Islands and Fiji to win, with Vanuatu advancing to the next phase over New Caledonia.

Goal scorers:
Solomon Islands: Totori 1, 37; Maemae 67

Vanuatu: Soromon 23, 33, 40; Maleb 75

Tonga: Savieti 49

New Caledonia: 44

Fiji: Kainihewe 56

Tahiti: Tinorua 64

Solomon Islands 2 - Vanuatu 0; Fiji advances

The Solomon Islands took the lead in Group B with a hard-fought victory over Vanuatu, putting themselves in a position to likely face New Caledonia in the next round. Vanuatu will most likely have to meet Group A giants Fiji in the other semifinal. Still, with Samoa and Tonga yet to be eliminated, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are not yet in the clear.

Fiji advanced to the semifinals out of Group A, eliminating both the Cook Islands and their Tahitian opponents with a 4-0 win. Fiji was already up a goal when Gerimi was sent off for Tahiti, allowing Fiji even more goal-scoring opportunities.

Day five will see Fiji and New Caledonia face off for semifinal positioning and Vanuatu going for a win over Tonga to eliminate Samoa.

Goal scorers:
Solomon Islands: Bebeu 61; Fa'arodo 65

Fiji: Waqa 17; Baletoga 38; Vakatalesau 49, 73

Tonga, Cook Islands record first wins

In the two early games on day four of the South Pacific Games, Tonga and the Cook Islands avoided mathematical elimination with wins over last-place teams.

In Group A, the Cook Islands did not take their opponents from Tuvalu lightly as their counterparts Tahiti and New Caledonia did. The Cook Islands went on to achieve a 4-1 result for their efforts, the only blemish being an own goal.

In Group B, Tonga came out with a victory over American Samoa, 4-0, despite a disappointing lack of finishing touch in front of the American goal.

Goal scorers:
Cook Islands: Mateariki 28, 70; Le Mouton 88; Tom 90+3

Tuvalu: Willis 83 OG (Cook Islands)

Tonga: Moala 37 PK; Palu 54, 61; Uhatahi 86