This Tuesday the first WFCQ is starting. AOFC-group B has already been introduced, but here’s group A!

The four countries in group A are Australia (12), New Zealand (23), Thailand (-) and China (-), with their World Ranking in between brackets (if they have one). Based on this ranking it’s Australia that’s the favorite of this group. Winner of the group will qualify for the WFC, which will be played in December 2017 in Slovakia.

Finishing at 2nd or 3rd place will still give you a chance to qualify though: after the group phase 2nd from group A will face 3rd from group B, while 3rd from group B plays against 2nd from group A. Winners of these games will qualify for the WFC too. Concluding: out of the eight AOFC teams that play in group A and B, four will make it to the WFC.

As said Australia should be able to win this group. The country has always qualified for each WFC and is aiming for that too now. Australia has trained hard, but even without this qualifying shouldn’t be too much of a problem. New Zealand is the other team in the group that already has a world ranking: 23rd. The team has played three official games and lost all of them (with 1 goal scored, 19 against). One of the opponent back then in 2015 was… Australia. The Aussies won that game easily: 8-0.

Outsiders in this group are Thailand and China. Two years ago Thailand faced Singapore (2 small losses: 4-3 (overtime) and 2-1) and Malaysia (6-2 victory). One can only guess how much they’ve improved during the last two years, but perhaps they can surprise. The same applies to China: we can only guess their strength. They’ve never played an official game before and can maybe only play this tournament as a trial. However, never underestimate an opponent. We’ll see all teams play in two days for the first time.

Schedule

31.01. 16:00 Thailand – Australia (4:00 CET)

31.01. 19:30 New Zealand – China (7:30 CET)

01.02. 13:00 Australia – China (1:00 CET)

01.02. 16:00 Thailand – New Zealand (4:00 CET)

02.02. 10:00 China – Thailand (01.02 22:00 CET)

02.02. 19:00 Australia – New Zealand (7:00 CET)

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