OFC: The 2004 OFC Men’s Olympic Men’s Qualifying Tournament kicked off with four exciting matches being played in Sydney and Auckland in first round fixture last Wednesday.
Ground and weather conditions at North Harbour Stadium were near perfect as Group B opened with Tonga making hard work of its 3-0 win over American Samoa while New Zealand overcame early nerves to cruise past the Cook Islands 9-0.
Warm and overcast with light showers were the order of the day over in Sydney for the opening match of Group A which saw Solomon Islands proving too good for plucky Papua New Guinea. In the other match, Australia found out Samoa was not the walkover many in the local media had predicted winning by a flattering 6-0 margin.
The Samoans could well have gone into the half on level terms at 1-1 had Michael Toleafoa’s shot kept a little lower. But a questionable penalty awarded to the Aussies and a man sent off for Samoa gave the hosts the edge at the break. The second half was elementary with Australia’s superior experience proving too much for a gutsy ten man Samoa team.
Both groups enter round two tonight with Fiji and Vanuatu playing their first games in Group A and Group B respectively. The game of the round promises to be Fiji playing Melanesian rivals, the Solomon Islands.