OFC U-16 Women’s Championship Prepares To Kick-off In Solomon Islands

The next generation of women’s football talent in
Oceania will take centre stage in Honiara this week, with
eight nations set to compete for the OFC U-16 Women’s
Championship 2026 and a coveted pathway towards the FIFA
U-17 Women’s World Cup 2027 in Morocco.

The
tournament kicks off on Sunday 6 September in Solomon
Islands, with Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and
New Caledonia all eyeing continental success.

Hosts
Solomon Islands enter the tournament with the advantage of
home conditions and renewed confidence following a victory
over the senior women’s national team in a friendly
earlier this week.

Head coach Kanto Yamashita believes
playing at home can provide a significant
advantage.

“I’m not originally from this country,
but I can say from my experience that Solomon Islands is a
beautiful country and blessed with amazing nature and very
friendly people”

“We train in this environment
every day, so we know the pitches, the climate and
conditions very well,” he said.

“At the same time,
playing at home also means carrying greater experience and
pressure.”

Following
the win over the senior side, Yamashita said his team will
approach the tournament with belief, but remain
grounded.

“At the same time, well, we have gained a
lot of confidence from this result. We will never forget
that we are still the challengers. We will approach this
tournament with confidence, but also with humility and
hunger,” he said.

Tonga head coach Mark Uhatahi said
the tournament provides an important opportunity to develop
the next generation of players.

“We have a
tournament team for the development for all the players,”
he said, with a particular focus on the many homegrown
players in his squad.

“We work hard for the team and
the development of our players” Uhatahi added.

For
Cook Islands, reaching the Championship after coming through
the qualifiers has provided valuable
preparation.

“We did really well at the qualifiers
and proud of the girls,” said head coach Tuka Tisam.
“Just looking forward for this competition.”

Tisam
believes his side’s defensive organisation will be a key
strength, but knows they face a difficult opening match
against Fiji.

“I think it will be our defence, to be
honest,” he said. “They’re pretty tough for us, but
we’ll do our best to compete.”

Fiji head
coach Nicola Demaine sees the tournament as an important
step for players aspiring to reach the senior national
team.

“This tournament is a good opportunity for us
to get some experience for the players in international
football,” she said.

“It’s about embedding some
processes that they’ll need to use if they make it in the
senior team one day,” Demaine added.

While Fiji will
be aiming to challenge for a World Cup place, Demaine is
keeping the focus on performance.

“Our plan is just
to come here and do what we can,” she said. “We’ll
give it our best shot to perform well for Fiji.”

For
Samoa, last year’s runners-up finish will not define this
campaign. Head coach Juan Chang Urrea is focused firmly on
the present.

“We’re just here to make the country
proud and just take it one day at a time,” he
said.

Samoa’s squad features players from across the
world spanning from Samoa, United States and Belgium. Urrea
is determined to give every eligible player an opportunity
to represent their country.

“We just want to give
anyone an opportunity to represent themselves, represent the
country,” he said.

“Obviously with two World Cup
qualifiers, that has opened the window a lot for a lot of
girls that want to represent Samoa”

“If they’re
available and they have Samoan blood, they’re entitled to
play as well. So we just want to give anyone an opportunity
to represent themselves, represent the country and Tau Tua,
which is serve as the jersey at the best of their
abilities.”

Papua New Guinea also arrive after
progressing through the qualifiers, with head coach Susan
Steven emphasising the importance of developing the next
generation of national-team players.

“The key areas
for the girls, we are working on the development part,”
she said.

“It’s very important that we look for
the future of the Billum players,” Steven added,
highlighting discipline and trust as important elements of
that development.

New Zealand enter the tournament as
defending champions, with head coach Alana Gunn insisting
this year’s focus is on their new cycle with a new group
of players.

“We have a new team and a new cycle. So
while the history says that, you know, we are unbeaten,
that’s kind of not how we would frame it to this new
cycle,” Gunn said.

“I think the players need to
understand that they are on their own individual journey and
hopefully they all want to become football ferns one
day.”

For Gunn, every international experience is an
opportunity to take another step towards the senior national
team.

“Every opportunity to play or train in an
international environment is an opportunity to get them
closer to that goal.” she said.

With eight nations
now preparing for battle, the OFC U-16 Women’s
Championship promises to showcase the depth of emerging
talent across the region, while providing the players with a
crucial stage to take their next steps in the international
game.

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