The 1991 OFC Women's Championship was the fourth

OFC Women's Championship The OFC Women's Nations Cup (previously known as the OFC Women's Championship) is a women's association football tournament for national teams who belong to the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). It was held every three years from 1983 to 1989 ...

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national te ...

(also known as the OFC Women's Nations Cup). It took place in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

from 19 to 25 May 1991. Only three teams participated in the tournament, and a total of six matches were played. This edition served as the OFC's qualifying tournament for the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup.

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

won the tournament for the second time after finishing first in the round robin (by goal difference) and qualified to the World Cup.

Background

After the 1989 edition of the tournament, the Oceania Women's Football Confederation (OWFC) decided to increase the length of matches from 70 to 80 minutes. The next tournament was provisionally awarded to Papua New Guinea and scheduled for 1992. In February 1990 FIFA had announced the Women's World Cup for November 1991 but still not confirmed the arrangements for qualification in the Oceania region. At an OWFC meeting in September 1990, the Australian delegation

persuaded Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours. Persuasion is studied in many disciplines. Rhetoric studies modes of persuasio ...

Papua New Guinea of "its financial interests" in allowing the Oceania tournament to be played in Australia in May 1991.

Review

Although Australia enjoyed home advantage with all six games played at

Marconi Stadium Marconi Stadium is a soccer stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is the home ground for Marconi Stallions, as well as regularly hosting matches for the Western Sydney Wanderers FC National Youth League and W-League teams. Marconi Stallions Althou ...

, New Zealand were regarded as favourites since they had outperformed Australia at the previous edition of the tournament two years earlier. They also regarded their American-born

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Leslie King as the best in the world. Australia's coach

Steve Darby Stephen David Darby (born 15 January 1955) is an English football coach and former player. He is well known throughout Asia as a pundit for ESPN Star Sports. Playing career Darby started out as a goalkeeper for Liverpool Schools and FA Youth ...

named key midfielder

Julie Murray Julie Elizabeth Murray (born 28 April 1970) is an Australian soccer player who appeared in 68 international matches for the Australia women's national association football team during a 13-year international career. She played professional c ...

in the squad despite her suffering from the effects of

glandular fever In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

. While New Zealand arrived without injured duo Amanda Crawford and

Vivienne Robertson Vivienne Robertson (born 18 June 1955) is a former association football player who represented New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the ...

. Owing to financial constraints, Darby was only able to bring his squad together four days before the competition started. A last-minute "financial gift" of A$5,000 from the Australian Soccer Federation (ASF) saved the players from having to pay A$350 each to cover costs, leading Darby to report a much happier camp: "It means morale has immediately been lifted, especially if the players know they don't have to go into debt to represent their country." New Zealand seized the initiative when they thrashed

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

16–0 in the tournament's opening fixture on Sunday 19 May 1991, then beat Australia 1–0 the following day.

Wendy Sharpe Wendy Sharpe (born 1960 in Sydney) is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She is the only child of British parents and has a Russian Jewish heritage. Her father is the writer and historian Alan Sharpe. She counts ...

headed the winning goal on 66 minutes from

Deborah Pullen Deborah Anne Pullen (née Kok) (12 June 1963 – 8 May 2010) was an association football player who represented New Zealand at international level. She made her Football Ferns debut in a 2–2 draw with Australia on 6 October 1979. She represen ...

's cross. On Tuesday 21 May Australia built an 8–0 half-time lead against Papua New Guinea, but tired in the second half and had to settle for a final score of 12–0. Following a rest day on Wednesday 22 May, New Zealand beat Papua New Guinea 11–0 on Thursday. On Friday 24 May Australia came back into contention by beating New Zealand 1–0. This time

Moya Dodd Moya Dodd (born 30 April 1965) is an Australian soccer official, a lawyer and former national team player. She is a former executive committee member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and a former member of the FIFA Council. Football ad ...

headed the only goal, after eight minutes. The result meant Australia needed to beat Papua New Guinea by 16 goals in the final fixture, to edge above New Zealand on

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. Despite six goals from

Carol Vinson Carol Vinson is an Australian soccer player and former captain of the Australia women's national soccer team. Vinson played 13 times for Australia from 1988 to 1991 and scored 12 goals. In 1990 she played club football in Denmark for Fortuna Hjør ...

, Australia could only win 8–0. They finished in second place to New Zealand, who took the single Oceania qualifying place for the

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

. After the match Steve Darby resigned and acknowledged the disappointment of his players: "They know that two years of their life has been thrown away. There is nothing I can say to make them feel any better about it." Julie Murray contemplated a return to semi-professional club soccer in Europe with

Fortuna Hjørring Fortuna Hjørring is a women's association football team from Hjørring, Denmark. The club was formed in 1966 and play in green and white. Their biggest achievement in European football was reaching the 2002–03 UEFA Women's Cup final where they ...

. She had rejected an offer to remain with Fortuna in 1991, to ensure her availability for Australia's World Cup qualifying campaign. Murray was dejected and felt that lack of preparation let the Australian team down: "One of the things that counted against us in Sydney was the lack of time we were able to spend together as a team. We were fit but we lacked match practice."

Teams

The following three teams participated in the tournament: * * *

Results

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Awards

Statistics

Goalscorers

; 8 goals *

; 6 goals *

Sunni Hughes Linda "Sunni" Hughes (born 9 June 1968) is an Australian former women's association football player. She participated in 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup and 2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad an ...

; 5 goals * Monique van de Elzen ; 3 goals *

Wendi Henderson Wendi Judith Henderson (born 16 July 1971) is an association football player who represented New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the No ...

; 2 goals *

Julia Campbell Julia Campbell (born March 12, 1962) is an American film and television actress. Her most noted role to date was "mean girl" Christie Masters in ''Romy and Michele's High School Reunion''. Career Campbell had a starring role in the feature fil ...

* Angela Iannotta *

Maureen Jacobson Maureen Dale Jacobson (born 7 December 1961) is a former association football player who represented New Zealand. Club career Jacobsen played in England with Millwall Lionesses and was part of their FA Women's Cup winning team in 1991. She als ...

* Sharon Wass ; 1 goal *

Donna Baker Donna Marie Baker (born 27 February 1966) is a former association football player who represented New Zealand at international level. Baker made her Football Ferns debut in a 0–0 draw with Australia on 28 November 1983 and ended her internati ...

* Traci Bartlett * Cinnamon Chaney * Michele Cox *

* Jo Fisher * Sonia Gegenhuber * Kim Nye *

Anissa Tann Anissa Tann (born 10 October 1967) is an Australian soccer coach and former player. As a powerful defender, she represented Australia in the 1995 and 1999 FIFA Women's World Cups as well as at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Tann married Steve Darby ...

* Lynne Warring ; Unknown goalscorers *: 1 additional goal

References

External links

OFC Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ofc

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification OFC

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

1991 in New Zealand association football 1991 in Australian soccer May 1991 sports events in Australia Sport in Sydney