Happy Trails #123-121: Islands in the Stream

The first confederation to finish their qualification round has passed the post.

Oceania has, unsurprisingly, crowned New Zealand as their best hope to qualify for the World Cup. The Kiwis will be looking to make their second consecutive Cup, and after shocking Italy and nearly making the round of 16 last time around, they have a great opportunity again here. But first they'll have to beat the 4th place team in CONCACAF (currently that's Honduras, but Mexico's just a point back).

But there will be time to analyze the All-Whites later. This is the time we set aside to bid farewell to the teams whose dreams of glory are now gone (assuming they had dreams of glory to begin with). So join me as we pour out a Mai Tai for those we lost this round.

#123: See ya, Solomon Islands
Why they lost: The confederations' top underdog, underperformed after an opening win against Tahiti. Giving up 6 goals to New Zealand, and then 11 goals to New Caledonia over two matches will do that to you.

What we'll miss: The opportunity to keep talking about the Bonitos (the team mascot and a particularly rough kind of tuna fish) and this...the coolest federation logo in this group of Happy Trails participants

#122: Parahi, Tahiti
Why they lost: Chalk it up to over confidence. After a stunning OFC Confederations title (besting New Caledonia and never having to face New Zealand) Tahiti was riding high coming into the last round of OFC qualifications. But once they started playing away from the magical pitch at Honoria (in the Solomon Islands), things got shaky and Team Fenua, as they are known, were toast.

What we'll miss: The stirring story of how part-time footballers are competing against heavy weights like Spain and Uruguay...wait a second...they're going to the Confederations Cup this summer? Well, then we'll miss telling those stirring stories twice.

#121: Adieu, New Caledonia
Why they lost: The land of speech, land of sharing fell just short of one of the biggest shocks in 2014 qualifying. They were still alive in the contest (just three point behind New Zealand entering the last two matches), but they needed to get another victory of New Zealand--after pulling a stunning 2-0 victory last June--and a big goal differential victory of Solomon Islands, while Tahiti held the Kiwis to a draw or loss.

But New Zealand won against the Kagus and the dream died there. Still, New Caledonia may be a dark horse to watch in future qualifications

What we'll miss: Trying to explain what in the heck that national emblem is...oh and promising new comers Georges Gope-Fenepej and Caesar Lolohea.

Waning Seconds: Oceania

As we enter the middle months of 2013, World Cup Qualifying is approaching its final throes. While we normally recount the results, honoring winners and losers after they matches have all gone final: we're happy to talk a little about the possibilities that are still afoot as individual confederations wrap up their qualifying campaigns.

Most will finish sometime in September or October, but already tiny little Oceania is approaching its' climactic weekend of matches. Where three teams will go home and the other...will also go home...until November when they have to go play someone in North/Central America.

There's really only one match up that will determine the victor of Oceania and that's the plucky New Zealand Kiwis (they who stymied the divas of Italy back in South Africa). However, in OFC qualifying New Zealand is practically a whale, but they're a whale being hunted by the Kagus of New Caledonia. (Okay, not really hunted...but the Kagu is almost flightless and the Kiwi is totally flightless so that's one feather in the New Caledonia cap...so to speak)

BEHOLD THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS! (Kiwi on the left; Kagu on the right)

It's an uphill battle for New Caledonia, they trail the Kiwis by 3 points and a goal. So their best hope is to beat the Kiwis on Friday (ideally by more than a single goal) and then hope they earn an equal or better result in the Monday matches [the Kagus play cellar dwellers Tahiti, while the Kiwis face the Solomon Islands].

Georges Gope-Fenepej

Truth be told, New Caledonia doesn't have a whole lot of experience at this level of competition. The whiff of international prominence must be a heady aroma, and they have only 3 World Cups of experience to go off of. Still there is hope, including rising Caledonian star: Georges Gope-Fenepej (whose last name is real and not the result of accidentally smashing my hand against the keyboard). Gope-Fenepej, recently acquired by Ligue 1 debutante Troyes, has 14 goals in 15 matches that set him apart as a special player on the pitch.

Smeltz like teen spirit

Meanwhile, New Zealand is still basking in the glory of being the big kid on the playground of the South Pacific. A stirring showing in South Africa is a big help, but as the roster of their golden generation ages (leaders Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen are each 31), the Kiwis time at the top might be running out. And yet, there's no one who has come close to touching them in qualifying to this point (they easily dispatched New Caledonia 2-0 in their last meeting back in September. And with hefty wins against Tahiti and the Solomon Islands already in the bag, regardless of Friday's outcome, the qualifiers from 2010 will likely feel confident heading into their final matches again.

We'll have to wait until the weekend to see who walks away from the Oceanic qualifying to fight on (several months and millions of miles away). But whoever it is there will be a grateful endangered bird out there somewhere...

OFC WIBD Solomon Islands

It's time for another edition of my occasionally recurring series, honoring the minnow to watch in the next round of qualifying...even if the qualifying has already started and I'm actually way behind in making these posts.

This time around, we're honoring the Solomon Islands the "Well I'll Be Darned" candidate from Oceania's OFC. That oft overlooked corner of the FIFA globe that consists of New Zealand and....everybody else.

And yet, everybody else has done alright of late. Heck, Tahiti managed to win the regional cup this summer to book their spot at the Confederations Cup next year in Brazil (where they will face Spain, Brazil and a host of other countries poised to beat them up and take their lunch money). So what does it take to come out of a pack of disrespected, underanalyzed nations as the most disrespected and the least analyzed?

Fear the Fish

Well consider that in all recent FIFA rankings the Bonitos have ranked fourth out of the four remaining OFC candidates, and that when the final round began they were 174th in the world, behind already eliminated Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga.


But there's hope afoot for the team named after predatory tuna*! (*Yes there's a predatory tuna, so remember that the next time you open a can of cheap fish-type substance, you may be eating a ravenous beast!) With three points in the bag, and three matches left (starting tomorrow at New Caldonia). The Solomon Islands can still make a come back. First they need to win against New Cali, a team in only its third world cup campaign. Then they take on bottom feeding Tahiti (still basking in the glow of their imminent destruction in Brazil next summer). Wins in both of those matches could set up an all important final fight against the Kiwis IN the Solomons.

The one and only
Henry Fa'arodo
(footballzz.com)

Sure, the local press has relegated the national team to the back pages of the sports section. (The futsal team gets all the coverage...stupid futsal.) But that doesn't mean that the Solomon's don't have a shot, it just means that it will be even more surprising when they triumph!

What's more, with the well-capped and beautifully coiffed Henry Fa'arodo in midfield, the island nation's attack has plenty of promise whenever it heads down the pitch. And while Fa'arodo may be in the twilight of his international career he has certainly paved the way for a new generation to continue the Solomon's slow rise to regional prominence. Fa'arodo may still be the only Solomonder to make it to Australia's A-League, but others like Benjamin Totori and Nelson Kilifa have joined him overseas, or rather, over a sea. And with 20-year-old striker Gagame Feni starting his career in New Zealand, the next level may well be just around the corner for all of the Solomons.

We'll have to wait and see if the next level comes to them even sooner in the World Cup.