21 Apr 2011

Sport: Vanuatu and American Samoa kick off Oceania U20 Football Championship

1:06 pm on 21 April 2011

The road to Columbia starts today for the seven side's fighting to represent Oceania at the FIFA Under 20 World Cup later this year.

In order to book their place in South America they must first negotiate the Oceania Championships, with Vanuatu and American Samoa kicking off proceedings in South Auckland.

Vanuatu coach, Moise Poida, says they view Fiji as their main rivals in Group A and are hoping to use today's match to find some form and get their campaign off to a winning start.

He says a number of the Vanuatu players have come through the country's academy system and they have high expectations for the week ahead.

"In here our objective is to go through to the semi-final then we'll see. But first we want to finish first of the group so we can play the second or runner-up of their other group, so my objective is to finish first and then go to the semi-final."

That match starts at 10:30am local time, with the match between New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands to follow at one o'clock.