Vanuatu's Brian Kaltak has arrivedin Port Vila along with his international teammates Jared Clark and Mitch Cooper ahead of Saturday's FIFA World Cup Oceania Qualifier against Samoa at VFF Freshwater Stadium. Photo: OFC
Oceania's football teams are taking steps on the path to the 2026 FIFA World Cup this week.
OFC qualifier matches will be played in Fiji and Vanuatu starting on Thursday.
Eight nations are split into two groups of four, who will all face each other once.
This week, New Caledonia will face Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands will play Fiji on Thursday.
On Friday, New Zealand plays Tahiti, and on Saturday, Vanuatu takes on Samoa.
The round then continues in mid-November.
The top two in each pool go up to the third round, to be played in March 2025.
Christian Karembeu and Dame Sarai Bareman OFC Preliminary Draw for the FIFA World Cup 26 FIFA Zurich headquarters on July 18, 2024. Photo: FIFA
The winner of that third round goes straight to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the runner-up getting another shot via an Intercontinental playoff.
Fiji coach Rob Sherman said they had a couple of friendlies in the September window.
"In terms of building up to the qualifiers, things have gone pretty well, so I'm reasonably happy with the progress we've made," he said.
Two of their group opponents having recently changed coaches, which Sherman said has an element of the unknown.
"Josh [Smith - Solomon Islands coach] and Felipe [Vega-Arango - PNG coach] are new there. So ultimately you know, how they've played in the past might not be the case moving forward.
"We'll prepare for that. We'll prepare for the what-ifs.
"Obviously we do our analysis, but the game's passed when those coaches might not have been in place, so it's a little bit of the unknown, but it is what it is."
Vega-Arango - who formerly coached Solomon Islands - said PNG's three group opponents had been playing well.
"The three teams, Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Caledonia, lately they've been doing much better than us, so I've been trying to pass that message to the boys - that we have to be humble and we are going to have to compete extremely hard."
All Whites prove they deserve their World Cup spot
The Kiwis are the only side of this group to have played at a men's FIFA World Cup - in 1982 and in 2010, when they went unbeaten through pool play including a shock draw with then-defending champions Italy.
All Whites coach Darren Bazeley said they've been building all year for this.
"This is a strong squad with real competition for places from the 50-plus players we are monitoring; we are having to make hard decisions which is what you want as a coach."