New Zealand qualified for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup with an emphatic 11-0 win Friday over Papua New Guinea in the Oceania Women’s Nations Cup final.
FC Gold Pride defender Ali Riley scored her first international goal to open the scoring for New Zealand in just the seventh minute. From there, the flood gates opened just as they did in every other game of the tournament. New Zealand outscored its opponents 50-0 in just five tournament games. Check out the Oceania match report here.
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s 0-0 draw Thursday with Denmark puts the Swiss in the European playoff final with Italy. That will take place over two legs Oct. 23/24 and Oct. 27/28. The winner of the two-leg series will take on the third-place team from CONCACAF in a two-leg playoff Nov. 20 and 27 for the right to go through to the 2011 Women’s World Cup.
New Zealand joins Germany, England, Sweden, Norway, France, Australia, Japan and Korea DPR as teams that have already qualified for the Women’s World Cup.