The Samoa Under-17 women’s team is determined to be one of the best prepared teams from Oceania to ever travel to a FIFA World Cup.
Coach Juan Chang Urrea and his charges last year wrote themselves in the history books by becoming the first team from Samoa to qualify for a FIFA World Cup, but they are not planning to just make up the numbers in Morocco in October this year.
The coach and his players have just completed a six-day training camp in California to start an unparalleled build-up programme for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup that will include camps in the United States, New Zealand, Samoa and a trip to the Dallas Cup.
“This level of preparation is unheard of in the Pacific Islands,” says coach Urrea.
“We are trying to set the bar, we are trying to do things differently and we are working to make Samoa and the Oceania region proud at the World Cup.”
The FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup has been expanded to 24 teams and Samoa has benefited from Oceania being allocated two slots, after finishing runners-up to OFC champions New Zealand.
Fiji last year also benefited from the expanded finals format in the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, but struggled against high-profile countries in their group matches, prompting Football Federation Samoa (FFS) to forge plans to give their young talents the best chance to succeed in Morocco.
“Everyone in the federation agreed that these camps are important for our girls. It was a great idea to put all our efforts behind the team, and everyone worked extremely hard to make this work,” says Urrea.
FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer Dame Sarai Bareman, a former Samoan international, has been particularly interested in the team’s progress.
“The significance of having two teams from Oceania at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup cannot be overstated. This tournament provides a global stage for young talent from the region, and Samoa’s historic qualification is a moment of immense pride,” says the former FFS Chief Executive.
“I want to congratulate the players, coaching staff, and federation — not just for qualifying, but for their commitment to investing in the women’s programme, ensuring these players, the future stars of Samoan football, have every opportunity to reach their full potential.
“Representing Samoa and Oceania on the world stage is an incredible achievement, and I can’t wait to see them in action, in Morocco,” says Bareman.
With the support of FIFA Forward Operational funding and OFC, the federation created a detailed plan to prepare the players, scattered across Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Urrea explains how the camp in California was the perfect platform for the 18 potential squad members who play for high schools across the United States.
“At this young age, it is important to get in front of the players, and connect with parents as well, so you have to step into their own neighbourhood,” says the New Zealand-based, former Guatemala international, who used his old college and USL networks to secure a base camp at the University at Santa Ana and a training venue in Irvine.
“We also got huge support from the local Samoan population. Some of them drove all the way from Utah and Texas and we had hundreds of fans at our two matches.”
In between six training sessions, the Samoan women showed their mettle against two top teams from the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL).
Samoa defeated Slammers FC, 2-0, but lost 0-2 in the final stages of their match against Legends FC, a team including some top US and Mexican international age-group players.
“They had some really good players, but our girls went toe-to-toe with them and held their own,” says the proud coach.
The camp also included extensive strength and conditioning testing and one-on-one meetings to create individualised plans for each player to track their progress.
Urrea’s squad received a huge boost from a successful recruitment campaign among the global Samoan community, but the coach stresses that the team is not a US team in Samoan colours.
“We will have similar camps for players in Australia, New Zealand and Samoa, but it was more efficient to split the groups at the start of the campaign, because one week was too short to fly everyone over and to avoid jet-lag and injuries,” says Urrea, who will gather this best squad from all nations in April for the Dallas Cup, an invite-only event for the best 32 youth teams in each age-group.
“It is a huge tournament and it’s the first time a national team from the Pacific islands will compete, so it will be a huge challenge. But we need those challenges, because it will not be easy at the FIFA World Cup.”