Think Senior International Footy Is Over in '11? Think Again. Minnow Lovers Rejoice: USSD's OFC Nations Cup Prelim Round Preview

Last week, the last FIFA match days of 2011 played out, with matches played across the globe. As the dust settled, international footy fans resigned themselves to a couple months of winter dormancy, with the next official match day not coming until the end of February.

But what some might not realize is that there is some senior international footy still to be played this year, starting tomorrow actually. It may not be the most high profile competition, but minnow lovers will surely want to follow along nonetheless.

The games will be taking place in the South Pacific- Apia, Samoa, to be exact- between four teams: Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. The teams will play a round robin, which serves as the preliminary round of the 2012 OFC Nations Cup.

Let's back track a second and take a look at OFC World Cup qualification, the newly-formatted OFC Nations Cup, where the two intersect, and how it relates to the upcoming matches.

The OFC Nations Cup will be an 8-team tournament held next June in Fiji. Two groups of four will be played, with the top two from each moving on to the single elimination knockout rounds. The winner will represent OFC at the 2013 Confederations Cup.

The significant change that occurred this year is that the OFC Nations Cup will no longer also double as the final phase of OFC World Cup qualifying. Instead, the semifinalists from the tournament will advance to a separate four-team double round robin group stage to be held from September '12 to March '13. The winner of that will then advance on to a playoff against the fourth place finisher in CONCACAF qualifying.

What this will mean is 1) the potential for different OFC representatives in the Confederations Cup and World Cup, 2) more matches for some OFC minnows, which we've seen to be quite a good thing thus far in CONCACAF's new qualifying format, and 3) a true confederation tournament that is (at least partially) distinct from World Cup qualification, all of which are good for the growth of the OFC in my opinion.

So how does this all relate to the matches coming this week? Glad you asked. The OFC Nations Cup is almost set, with seven teams already in the tournament: New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji. Where will that eighth team come from? The aforementioned preliminary round taking place this week. It's hard to say who emerge triumphant, but we do know that the final tournament's groups will be the following:

Group A:
New Caledonia
Vanuatu
Tahiti
(Preliminary Round Winner)

Group B:
Solomon Islands
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Fiji


The preliminary round matches will take place on Nov. 22, 24, and 26, with the following schedule:

Nov. 22: American Samoa v. Tonga; 8pm ET
Samoa v. Cook Islands; 10:30pm ET

Nov. 24: American Samoa v. Cook Islands; 8pm ET
Samoa v. Tonga; 10:30pm ET

Nov. 26: Samoa v. American Samoa; 8pm ET
Cook Islands v. Tonga; 10:30pm ET

All matches will be played in Samoa's national soccer stadium, which is named after- get this- none other than Sepp "just shake hands to racism" Blatter. Wonderful.

USMNT fans might be interested in monitoring the tournament to see how former US U-20 national team head coach Thomas Rongen fares in his first gig at the helm of a senior international team. In case you missed it, check out USSD's fun, informative profile of his new team, American Samoa, here. He'll have his work cut out for him, as American Samoa look for their first ever win or draw (currently 0-0-28 all-time) and their first goal since 2007. They'll also renew their (extremely lopsided) rivalry against neighbors Samoa, who sit just a little over 40 miles away in the Pacific Ocean.

Minnows fans will simply enjoying following four teams who are at the foot of the FIFA rankings, two of which are literally on the bottom rung. If American Samoa or Samoa are able to earn a positive result in any of their matches, they'll eke ahead of Andorra, Montserrat, and San Marino, lifting themselves out of dead last. It might not mean much in the long run, but for pride's sake I'm sure they'll both be hoping to achieve that.

So get your last fix of senior international soccer before we endure the long winter wait until the USMNT's January camp and friendlies and the first FIFA match day in late February.

I'll will be following along and, if by some stroke of luck, a stream becomes available at any point during the week, it will be passed along on the USSD Twitter feed.