In this article, guest writer Adam Beaumont, takes a look at Asia’s newest fully-fledged football family member, and compares them to Tuvalu and Kiribati. What have a nation located in Oceania gained from joining the Asian confederation?
3 * EAFF Championships Preliminary Qualifying Rounds (senior men’s squad, 2015, 2017, 2019)
AFC Challenge Cup qualification (senior men’s squad, 2014)
3 * EAFF Championships (senior women’s squad, 2015, 2017, 2019)
2 * AFC U19 Championship qualifications (2016, 2020)
AFC U19 Women’s Championship qualification (2017)
4 * AFC U16 Championship qualifications (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020)
AFC U16 Women’s Championship qualification (2017)
AFC U14 Boy’s Championships qualification (2014)
4 * AFC U14 Girl’s Championship qualifications (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
Additionally they entered but withdrew from the 2015 AFC U16 Women’s Championship qualifiers, the 2018 AFC U19 Championship qualifiers and the 2019 AFC U19 Women’s Championship qualifiers. Lastly, they like to host Marianas Cup games against neighbours Guam when possible, often consisting of a friendly match or two between the youth national sides (such as U16 men or U19 women).
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With respect to competitiveness against AFC members, seeding means that most qualifiers won’t pit them against similar opposition. Additionally, with a population of around 60,000, they aren’t likely to have strong youth teams which make up the majority of their results. However, there are clear signs of improvement, with scorelines narrowing and their best results appearing as time goes on. Despite a vast funding difference (due largely to FIFA) they’ve been competitive with some teams at a number of levels. They have wins and draws against Guam and Macau, with narrow losses also coming against the likes of Brunei and Chinese Taipei. Macau have proven to be the best opposition, the women have a win and 2 draws from 3 games, with the men having a win and a draw from 5 games (both in the most recent 3 matches).