New Caledonia got the 16th edition of the OFC U-17 Championship underway with a 3-0 victory over an impressive Samoan side. The Francophones easily had the better chances of the two teams as the match got underway but Samoa certainly held their own against a side renowned for its technical ability. Clear strides have been made in youth development and it showed on the field.
New Caledonia finally broke through the solid Samoan defence in the 24th minute, with Nelson Kai the finisher. Samoa keeper Taase Hunt was outstanding between the sticks as he denied the Caledonians time and again to keep them restricted to just a 1-0 lead going into the break. Despite some quality home crowd support, Samoa couldn’t keep a determined New Caledonia out as Henri Boucheron found the net 10 minutes after the restart. The score was sealed by Jean-Marc Kaudre in the 80th as Samoa struggled to reign in their speed and accuracy.
The score meant little to coach Kamali Fitealeata and his charges with the team preferring to focus on getting a win.
“The essential thing was to win this match, which was hard given the temperature and the physicality of our opponent,” he says.
“Within the game there were some interesting aspects in terms of the tactics we put in place to counteract Samoa, and there were some things that weren’t so great that we need to work on.
“And we have to congratulate Samoa for the work they did on the field.”
It’s early days for Samoa and coach Desmond Faai’uaso is proud of the way they laid their bodies on the line.
“I’m so proud of my boys, this is there first playing in an international game and some of them are just 15 years old, so I’m very proud of them,” he says.
“I always talk to my boys about the need to step up for their country and we will see in the next game if we can perform well. Our counter attack was good and we had chances to score but it’s all part of the game and maybe next time we will score those.”
Papua New Guinea had more chances than they took as they claimed a 3-0 victory over Cook Islands in the middle match.
Brendon Kambula needed just 13 minutes to open his account, though several near misses from Freddy Tupani could have seen the score doubled within the first ten minutes. With a game plan that focused on compact defending, Cook Islands proved they could do just that with the tight back line, combined with good goalkeeping and poor finishing, preventing another goal in the first half.
With the sun belting down it was only going to be a matter of time before the heat got too much and it proved to be the case as Papua New Guinea finally extended their lead in the 75’ minute through substitute Martin Tokwakwasi. The final strike came courtesy of Tupani who finally got the goal he sought, and it was an impressive one at that. The speedy youngster took on Chrismagne Elikana 1v1 – beating him and firing low and hard to earn the 3-0 win.
Harrison Kamake was happy with the win but sees some definite room for improvement.
“There’s a lot of improvements that we need to do at this stage. It’s the first game of the tournament and we expected that the boys would be nervous at the start and it showed in the first half, but the boys did the job in the end,” Kamake explains.
“They were definitely exciting at times, the footwork was there, the movement was there but the finishing was not there and we just have to work on that.”
For Delaney Yaqona things went to plan at times, but as expected Papua New Guinea had a slight edge over his side in the end.
“The system that we wanted to play was actually working, if you look at the first goal and the way it was scored – it was a really good goal but he was getting too much time on the ball and that’s the one thing we didn’t want to do because we know technically they’re very good,” he says.
“Plenty to work on for the next four games but it wasn’t too bad.”
The final encounter was the highly anticipated match-up between Fiji and defending champions New Zealand. With Fiji heading to the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup all eye are on the nation and despite some rare flashes of brilliance the side struggled to deliver.
Inside the first 20 minutes the Kiwis had already gone 2-0 up courtesy of goals from James McGarry and Logan Rogerson. McGarry’s third in the 33rd minute was an impressive display of athleticism dove head first into a cross from Sarpeet Singh sending it past the keeper Waisake Ravuiwasa.
The second half saw more of the same as Rogerson added his second with a low drive into the bottom corner. The 60th minute marked the turning point as the young Fijians lost their cool picking up consecutive cautions before a foolish decision to palm the ball off the goal line by Afraz Ali saw no hesitation from Tahitian referee Kader Zitouni as he brandished the red card.
Benjamin Mata stepped up to convert from the spot, with a second penalty awarded in the dying stages converted by Probert after Rogerson was taken down inside the area. The opportunity to make it seven fell to Rogerson in the final minute of additional time, but a slip as he kicked saw it fly up the face and over the goal.
It was a tough night in the office for Kamal Swamy as he watched New Zealand take his side apart, but the co-coach of Fjii remains optimistic.
“I think the first few goals were just poor defending and once we got numbers in the box they were not able to score. If the players were good I think we would have got at least a better result. Obviously New Zealand is a strong team but so do we.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board and try and rectify those mistakes and then come up against our next opponent.”
It was a much easier evening for Jose Figuiera as his side romped home and he’s pleased to get a good win under the belt.
“We’re very happy, it’s always good to get off on the right foot in the opening game and I just said to the boys they can enjoy that victory. A great start.
“I thought the most pleasing thing was the way we dominated the game, aside from the set pieces we looked to control it and be aggressive and look to attack what we could and I thought we did all of that well today.”
Match Day 2 sees the action travel to Pago Pago, American Samoa for the opening day of Group B before Apia welcomes its six teams back to J.S. Blatter Football Complex for Match Day 3.
Match Day 3 takes place on Thursday 15 January with Papua New Guinea opening proceedings against Fiji at 2pm. Defending champions New Zealand take on hosts Samoa at 4.30pm before the 7pm encounter between New Caledonia and Cook Islands closes the day’s events.

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