After a determined effort against a classy Al Wahda side in Abu Dhabi was not enough to prevent a 3-0 defeat at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium last Wednesday night (local time).
A touch of Brazilian class was the difference between the sides as first-half goals from South American pair Hugo and Fernando Baiano took the wind out of Hekari’s sails before substitute Abdulraheem Jumaa finished the job with 19 minutes to go.
Hekari coach Tommy Mana was disappointed his side could not find the back of the net but had nothing but praise for his players’ performance.
“I’m proud of my boys,” he said.
“We kept on looking for the goal and we conceded twice in five minutes because we were on the attack. We lost our concentration but we don’t have any regrets. We just lacked a little experience and I hope we’ve managed to pick some up tonight so we can come back one day.”
Rangy striker Osea Vakatalesau, who threatened the Al Wahda defence all night with his powerful running, felt that fortune did not favour the Papua New Guinea outfit.
“We’ve been beaten by a good side but I’m convinced that if we’d scored the first goal it would’ve changed the complexion of the game,” he said. “The luck just wasn’t on our side though.”
Hekari were heavy underdogs going in to the tie, which served as a qualifier for the quarter-finals, but Mana’s men had clearly not read the script and came out the stronger of the two sides in the opening stages.
The tournament newcomers, the first side from outside New Zealand or Australia to qualify for the event, were seeing plenty of the ball and could even have taken a shock lead within the first six minutes. Hekari right-back Pita Bolatoga directed a powerful downward header towards goal from a Henry Fa’arodo corner and it took a timely goal-line clearance from Fahed Masoud to save Al Wahda’s blushes.
Hekari, who entered this match on the back of a six-game winning streak, continued to play as if they belonged on the international stage and had another chance in the 12th minute when Fa’arodo was denied by goalkeeper Adel Al Hosani.
But the slick hosts finally came to life on the quarter-hour mark, when Hekari goalkeeper Simione Tamanisau was forced to make two saves within a minute, both from Brazilian Baiano. Tamanisau first had to deal with a low shot Baiano hit on the turn and then needed to fling his big frame across goal to tip an angled right-foot drive around the post.
The UAE side’s class was now beginning to tell and Hekari were finding it much harder to create any clear-cut opportunities of their own. Fa’arodo got into a good position on the left-hand side of the penalty box in the 22nd minute but drove his shot across the face of goal and well wide, while Hekari’s only other chances of the half were a blocked Osea Vakatalesau strike and wayward efforts from Kema Jack and Malakai Tiwa.
They were punished for not making the most of these efforts when Al Wahda struck twice in the final five minutes. Again it was a piece of Brazilian magic that undid Hekari, although this time it was provided by Baiano’s countryman Hugo, who lashed a pinpoint shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
It was 2-0 just moments later, and only seconds before half-time, when Baiano got on the scoresheet himself, latching onto a defence-splitting Masoud pass and firing home at Tamanisau’s near post.
Conceding a second goal so close to the break was bad timing for Hekari and left them with a tough task on their hands to get anything from the game. The last thing they needed was to gift a goal to Al Wahda but that’s exactly what happened in the 71st minute.
Goalkeeper Tamanisau, who had performed solidly throughout and justified his late pre-tournament signing from Fijian club Rewa, and Koriak Upaiga failed to communicate properly as the latter flung himself in front of a cross that Tamanisau looked to have covered. The ball met Upaiga’s head and fell straight to Jumaa, who was left was a simple close-range finish.
The game was now all but over as a contest, yet Hekari refused to lie down and managed to create a few more half chances for Bolatoga, Jack, Vakatalesau and substitute Niel Hans. But none of those attempts did much to worry Al Hosani in the Al Wahda goal and the home side was able to enjoy a drama-free end to the game, thus sending the majority of the 23,000-strong crowd home happy.
The result means the curtain has now come down on Hekari’s historic Club World Cup campaign while Al Wahda will go on to meet Asian champions Seongnam in the quarter-finals on Saturday.