2004 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

2004 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Tournament details
Host countriesNew Zealand
Australia
Dates14–22 January 2004
Teams10 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Australia (3rd title)
Runners-up New Zealand
Third place Vanuatu
Fourth place Fiji
Tournament statistics
Matches played22
Goals scored116 (5.27 per match)
Top scorer(s)Vanuatu Jean Maleb
New Zealand Shane Smeltz
(7 goals)
← 1999
2008 →

The 2004 OFC Men's Olympic Football Tournament, the fourth edition of the OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, offered the winning Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) national under-23 side a place to compete at the quadrennial Summer Olympic Games. This was the second time that Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the qualifying tournament with them previously hosting the second round of the 1988 edition.

Ten teams competed in the 2004 edition with the teams being separated into two groups of five with the winner of each group to face off in the final. Australia and New Zealand would be the teams that qualified for the final with Australia winning the tie in two-legs to book a spot at the 2004 Olympics Games which was being held in Greece.

Summary

The original dates of the 2004 edition was originally going to be held in June 2003 but after a meeting in March 2003, it was moved to January 2004 due to the fact that New Zealand was competing at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup while the other South Pacific nations were competing at the 2003 South Pacific Games which was being held in Fiji.[1]

The matches for the group stage was playing at two venues. That being at Marconi Stadium which played out Group A which featured Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Group B was played at the North Harbour Stadium which featured New Zealand, Vanuatu, Tonga, Cook Islands and American Samoa.[1]

Group A saw Australia not concede a single goal during the group stage as they finished with twenty-six goals from four games and not conceding any in return as they finished top of the group, finishing ahead of Fiji.[2] Coming in third was Samoa who defeated the Solomon Islands to overtake them especially after drawing with Papua New Guinea in the final match-day to record their best result in an OFC tournament.[3] Group B saw New Zealand have a tougher time with a scrappy match against Tonga before falling behind early in the final group game against Vanuatu as they came back from two goals after nineteen minutes to secure a 3-2 win with Brent Fisher getting the winning goal to book their spot in the final.[2][3]

The final round was played over two legs with the first leg being played at Parramatta Stadium. Two second-half goals from Jonathan McKain and Ahmad Elrich gave Australia a two goal advantage heading into the second leg which was played at North Harbour Stadium.[4] The second leg was a different story with New Zealand having the chances before scoring in the 51st minute from Shane Smeltz. Though Australia would score in the 71st minute when Ryan Griffiths outpaced the New Zealand defender Rupesh Puna to give Australia an away goal in which New Zealand wouldn't be able to respond securing Australia's spot at the 2004 Olympics.[5]

First round

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Australia Fiji Samoa Solomon Islands Papua New Guinea
1  Australia (H) 4 4 0 0 26 0 +26 12 Advance to Final — 6–0 6–0 5–0 9–0
2  Fiji 4 3 0 1 12 8 +4 9 — — — — 4–1
3  Samoa 4 1 1 2 5 14 −9 4 — 0–4 — 1–0 4–4
4  Solomon Islands 4 1 0 3 5 12 −7 3 — 1–4 — — 4–2
5  Papua New Guinea 4 0 1 3 7 21 −14 1 — — — — —
Source:
(H) Hosts
Solomon Islands 4–2 Papua New Guinea
Maemae 32'
Sam 63', 83'
Fa'arodo 65'		 Report Sigamata 64'
Guti 80'
Attendance: 2,095
Referee: Charles Ariiotima (Tahiti)
Australia 6–0 Samoa
Wilkshire 27'
Elrich 49', 78'
Brosque 54'
Thwaite 68'
Holman 72'		 Report
Attendance: 2,095
Referee: Peter O'Leary (New Zealand)
Australia 9–0 Papua New Guinea
MacAllister 8', 63'
Elrich 30'
McKain 38'
Dilevski 42'
North 55'
Carle 66', 73'
Pelikan 74'		 Report
Attendance: 1,290
Referee: Lencie Fred (Vanuatu)
Fiji 4–1 Solomon Islands
Vulivuli 3'
Vidovi 12'
Toma 64', 66'		 Report Maemae 75'
Attendance: 1,290
Referee: Ron Wilbur (Vanuatu)
Fiji 4–1 Papua New Guinea
Ali 32'
Vulivuli 22', 70'
Vakatalesau 54'		 Report Lapani 47'
Attendance: 200
Referee: Peter O'Leary (New Zealand)
Samoa 1–0 Solomon Islands
Fa'aiuaso 11' Report
Attendance: 200
Referee: Neil Fox (New Zealand)
Fiji 4–0 Samoa
Kumar 51'
Sabutu 57'
Lui 86' (o.g.)
Vulivuli 90+1'		 Report
Attendance: 1,500
Referee: Charles Ariiotima (Tahiti)
Australia 5–0 Solomon Islands
Macallister 14'
Holman 34'
Wilkshire 60' (pen.)
Griffiths 71'
Cansdell-Sherriff 90+2'		 Report
Attendance: 2,000
Referee: Derek Rugg (New Zealand)
Samoa 4–4 Papua New Guinea
Toleafoa 26'
Fa'aiuaso 55'
Timo 57'
Bureta 67'		 Report Davani 38' (pen.), 90+1'
Lapani 40', 65'
Attendance: 800
Referee: Ron Wilbur (Vanuatu)
Australia 6–0 Fiji
Valeri 5'
Holman 6', 54'
Macallister 78', 87', 89'		 Report
Attendance: 2,000
Referee: Neil Fox (New Zealand)

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts New Zealand Vanuatu Tonga Cook Islands American Samoa
1  New Zealand 4 4 0 0 25 2 +23 12 Advance to Final — 3–2 2–0 9–0 11–0
2  Vanuatu 4 3 0 1 27 3 +24 9 — — — — —
3  Tonga 4 2 0 2 4 8 −4 6 — 0–6 — 1–0 —
4  Cook Islands 4 1 0 3 3 23 −20 3 — 0–11 — — —
5  American Samoa 4 0 0 4 2 25 −23 0 — 0–8 0–3 2–3 —
Source:
Tonga 3–0 American Samoa
Uhutai 54'
Papani 69'
Feao 90+2'		 Report
Attendance: 260
Referee: Gidas Bayung (Papua New Guinea)
New Zealand 9–0 Cook Islands
 Report
Attendance: 260
Referee: Andrew Moli (Solomon Islands)
New Zealand 11–0 American Samoa
 Report
Attendance: 250
Referee: Intaz Shah (Fiji)
Tonga 0–6 Vanuatu
Report Maleb 5', 42', 74'
Qorig 7'
Mahe 65' (pen.)
Manumua 90+2' (o.g.)
Attendance: 250
Referee: Simon Micallef (Australia)
Cook Islands 0–11 Vanuatu
Report Maleb 5', 30', 42'
Yakeula 23', 86'
Thompsen 54', 79'
Kapi 68'
Joe 84'
Vava 89'
Angene 90' (o.g.)
Attendance: 250
Referee: Leone Rakaroi (Fiji)
New Zealand 2–0 Tonga
 Report
Attendance: 250
Referee: Constantinos Diomis (Australia)
Tonga 1–0 Cook Islands
Moala 25' Report
Attendance: 100
Referee: Intaz Shah (Fiji)
American Samoa 0–8 Vanuatu
Report Waiwai 9'
Thompsen 11', 12', 30'
Qorig 22'
Tabe 64'
Kapi 81', 88'
Attendance: 100
Referee: Constantinos Diomis (Australia)
Cook Islands 3–2 American Samoa
T. Tisam 17', 46'
Best 24'		 Report Atuelevao 67', 69'
Attendance: 200
Referee: Andrew Moli (Solomon Islands)
New Zealand 3–2 Vanuatu
 Report
Attendance: 1,000
Referee: Simon Micallef (Australia)

Final

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Australia  3–1  New Zealand 2–0 1–1
First Leg
Australia 2–0 New Zealand
McKain 76'
Elrich 83'		 report
Attendance: 7,120
Second Leg
New Zealand 1–1 Australia
Smeltz 51' report Griffiths 71'
Attendance: 3,000

Australia won 3–1 on aggregate.

 2004 OFC Olympic Qualification Championship 

Australia
Third title

Goalscorers

7 goals
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
  • Papua New Guinea Nathaniel Lepani
  • Vanuatu Isaac Kapi
2 goals

References

  1. ^ a b "OFC Men's Olympic Qualifiers moved to January 2004". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Thrilling finale to OFC Olympic group qualifiers". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "A night of upsets". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  4. ^ "Australia dominates NZ in first Olympic play off". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  5. ^ "Olyroos book ticket to Athens". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.