Vanuatu started the game by putting heavy pressure on American Samoa. Sylvain Worworbu found the back of the net after eight minutes to give his team an early advantage. Solid in defence, American Samoa resisted well, but Nicky Obed scored the second goal following a shamble in the box in the 22nd minute. Vanuatu scored a last goal by Simeon Joshua in the 38th minute to end the first half with a 3-0 advantage.
The second half was different to the first for American Samoa. The co-hosts had difficulty to absorb Vanuatu’s attack and Abednigo Sau scored early. Sau scored two more goals in the 53rd and 67th minute.
Worworbu was the player to watch for Vanuatu. The young striker scored three more goals in the 62nd, 71st and 83rd minutes, putting himself in a strong place for the Golden Boot’s race. Frederick Massing, Max Uguna and Jeffrey Tasso finalised the scoreboard for Vanuatu.
Vanuatu coach Etienne Mermer is satisfied witht today’s result.
‘’I think the most important at the end I am happy for the first win. I congratulate the players for their performance today. The first half was a bit hard but after it was much better,” he says
Uinifaleti Aliva highlights the perrfmance of his opponent and the lack of fitness his teams went through.
‘’It was a tough game against a good team. Vanuatu has prepared this tournament for a long time and they were ready today.
‘During the second half the players were getting and we have to work on our fitness for the next game,” he says.
In the beginning of the Solomon Islands and Tonga match. Tonga seized their chance at the first attempt to open scoring by Soakai Vea in the 14th minute. This goal rattled the Solomon Islands side, led by their captain Junior Hou. Hou went on to score the equaliser, five minutes after Tonga’s opening and scored his double in the 58th minute. Solomon Islands ended the first half 3-1 after Larry Zama and Richard Raramo scored respectively in the 20th and 31st minutes. A superb penalty save by Malafu kept the Tongan hopes alive for the second half.
Much like Vanuatu, Solomon Islands kept the pressure on the Tongan’s defence during the second half. The Solomon Islands side scored seven more goals. Larry Zama was responsible for three of those, putting him in the running with Vanuatu’s striker, Sylvain Worworbu, in the top scorer’s race.
Despite the result, Jacob Moli remains unsatisfied about the first minutes of the game. but the half-time speech has been well responded by the players.
‘’I am very happy about the performance but not the way we started the game. The players were a bit shaky the first five minutes and Tonga scored early.
‘’I told the players our game is about speed so I want to ball to move quicker. It is what we did in the second half and it pays off.
Timote Moleni is happy about the performance of his team despite the result.
’I am happy with performance of the team even if Solomon Islands scored 10 goals against us. I believe the players did their best,” he says.
Match Day 3 sees the action travel to Apia, Samoa for Group A.
Match Day 4 takes place on Thursday 15th January 2015, with Vanuatu opening proceedings against Tonga at 1pm. American Samoa take on Tahiti at 3.30pm.